Need 5.0 engine rebuild advice for CA

Re:1990 5.0 LX 5spd manual (t-5), 3:55 rear gears. 24lb inj, Ford 65mm throttle body, bbk 1” 5/8 shorty headers, borla mufflers with 2.5” cat back pipes.

After almost 200k miles on the bottom end of my motor and nearly 100k miles on the TFS 170 heads, I took my motor apart to chase a valve train noise and found a bad lifter as I suspected.

My friend will be coming over to help me check/measure the cylinder bores and we will then figure out a rebuild plan.

If I end up going .30 over and have to purchase new pistons, a 331 or 347 stroker kit might be on the table, BUT only if I can pass CA smog afterwards.

My current TFS heads are smog legal, but depending on the rebuild cost and whether I stroke the engine, a set of AFR 165 or 185 heads might replace them. I already have a new Holley systemax upper and lower intake sitting in the box.

I could really use some proven combos that have allowed any CA owners out there with a stroked 302 to pass smog without a hitch.

All smog equipment will be on the car including the stock 4 way cat h-pipe and visible aftermarket parts will have a CARB-EO #

I also hope to keep my current injector size, stock fuel rails and 155lph in tank fuel pump.

Any suggestions from the CA crowd would be appreciated. If you prefer to discuss your build offline let me know.

Thanks for the link to the article. I read it before and actually gave Coast High Performance a call last week and left them a message.

I spoke to a nice guy that called me back later that day and he was going to verify if they still had CARB-EO numbers for these motors ever since there was a change in ownership. He wasn’t sure if they still did and he was going to get back to me (it sounded like they don’t sell them very often).

I haven’t heard any news yet, so I may be on my own. Hence the reason for this post to see if any CA guys have a combo that worked on the sniffer.