Need motor advice...

[LXracerGuy]

O.k so my stock 5.0 under the hood right now is approaching about 120k and I am seriously thinking it's time to do something new. Being new to the Pac NW and to Mustangs all together I am wondering what's more cost efficient or the best route to go.

I have about $3-3,500 saved up and I need to keep my car as a daily driver but want to up the hp a bit and bring the motor back to as low of miles as I can as I plan on driving the car for quite a long time. The car has a new Tremec 5 speed so the trans is set I just need some advice on which way to go motor wise now.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[281pony]

you could go for a stroker shortblock with a nice h/c/i combo for 3500 bucks.

that is if you can do all the assembly yourself from a shortblock stage.

 

[LXracerGuy]

Really? Do you know where the hell I would start looking for the part to do something like this? Assembly would nto be that hard as my father owned his own shop for 35 years and still has all the tools.

 

[281pony]

you can get a shortblock from chp/dss assembled/shipped to you for around 2000.

then you'll have to decide what heads/cam/intake/ect package you want.

another option is to just have your stock block machined and buy a stroker (331/347) kit and have it assembled and put in the block. there are lots of options.

depends on how much power you want to make as well.

 

[LXracerGuy]

Thanks for the awesome info, now I am very new to all of this right now so I am a bit unaware of where I would purchase the kit, or who chp/dss is....please forgive the ignorance as my primary mode of transportation was motorcycle before I moved up here from cali.

The car is my daily driver so I really don't want to go anything over 450-500 as the car the way it is now gets 20mpg and for the amout of money I want to spend I don't think I would be in that area either.

 

[281pony]

no problem, we all start somewhere.

how much power do you want to make? you could just go with a basic rebuild on your 302, and buy a pre-assembled kit. trickflow has one, its a heads/intake/cam/roller rocker/gasket/pushrods/ect kit. everything you need.

makes about 300ish rwhp depending on some bolt-on variables.

 

[stock50LX]

I don't think you need a 347 or even a stroker kit. I would recommend a stock rebuild with higher compression pistons. If your father helps you, and you don't need a new crank or rods, the rebuild would cost less than 1k. I would recommend Edelbrock heads for $1k -price matched from Summit. Get a used Explorer or Cobra intake for a couple hundred and run a stock cam or Crower 1511 with 1.7 roller rockers. You will have a well mannered stock driving car that will easily run deep into the 12's and still get over 20 mpg on the highway. Mine does, and I am only using GT40 heads with a stock bottom end (including low compression pistons). Judging from your inquiry, that will be more than enough power.

 

[LXracerGuy]

Well I would like to make in the 350-400 range as like I said above I would really like to keep it daily friendly but be able to take it to the dragstrip and track and tear it up.

 

[LXracerGuy]

So what is a pump gas friendly amount of compression to run on this motor as right now I run it on 89 octane and have no issues with pinging or anything. What is stock compression?

 

[Rootus]

I think I basically agree with stock50LX... if I were in your exact situation, I'd probably freshen up the shortblock using good quality pieces, and then grab the TFS head/cam/intake package. That should be a comfortable 300 rwhp with stock driveability. There are people who've taken that kind of setup and run into the 11's (nice, light LX ). Then I'd put on a 150 shot of juice for the strip.

Dave

 

[Rootus]

So what is a pump gas friendly amount of compression to run on this motor as right now I run it on 89 octane and have no issues with pinging or anything. What is stock compression?

I believe stock is around 9:1 (though production tolerances are variable enough that it's not exact ). I'd expect a properly tuned setup could do 10.5:1 without much hassle on pump gas (albeit something better than 89).

 

[LXracerGuy]

This is great information guys I really appreciate it. I am very curious if there is a cam that I can install that would give me a nice lopy sound but still get me through emissions and such. Once I am a bit more settled I will buy myself a flat out drag car with monster cam in it, but I just love the sound of a good cam when you pull to into a parking lot and see people looking and smiling.

So freshen up the bottom end...I could do that. Any suggestions as to what pistons to buy and who sells them?

 

[LXracerGuy]

So what about something like this? I saw this on another board and thought something like this might be a lot of fun.

This is his add:

B&M 144 Roots Supercharger with pulleys for 5 and 7 pounds of boost (you will need to purchase $12.00 blower to manifold gasket from Jegs)
Keith Black Hypereutectic Pistons 8.6:1 with 62cc heads (4.060)
H Beam Connecting Rods
Prepped cylinder heads (58cc) 1.84/1.60 valves, ARP Screw In Studs, Comp Cams Guide Plates, port matched on both intake and exhaust, 3 angle valve job, hardened seats
Mallory Dual Point Mechanical Adv Distributor (small cap design needed to work with blower)
Crane Chromemoly Pushrods
Crane blower Cam (HOT!) and lifters 325/329 and .520/.526 (this cam thumps)
Crankshaft
double roller timing chain
Melling Hi volume oil pump
ARP Head Bolts
Everything listed has only idle time and maybe 50 miles on it...Never ran at dragstrip...Combo easily spins 7k on the tach...response is insane...sold car and funding a 351W set up these items will not work on it...

 

[wicked93]

you will find that everybody has there own variant or opinion on what they believe is a good combo just as I do, just rember pick a plan and stick to it. I would if building a 302ci block would do a 347 or 331 stroker kit they have some very decent inexpensive kits just remember that you want to stay with a forged piston if you ever plan on doing forced induction do not go any higher than 9.5:1 comp. the trickflow stage 2 cam is a nice sounding cam and the price is right and with the increased cubic inch wont be to lumpy, the holley systemax intake with a 70mm accufab throttle body and some 24lb injectors and the C&L 76 maf combo on the heads trick flows high ports or twisted wedge or holley has a head/ intake / and cam combo that would be worth checking out this will make more than enough power for what you are wanting and drivabilty will not be an issue good luck in what ever you decide

 

[281pony]

the tfs cams in the kits i mentioned have a little lope to them. it sounds like your best bet it to just buy a pre-assembled package of stuff.

i'd recommend the tfs kit. its like 2100? and it includes everything. all gaskets, all pushrods, heads, intake, cam, timing chain, hardware, ect. then just throw it on and have fun.

 

[dohcfox]

Hey there,

Just an idea that has not been thrown out there yet. And you may not like it at all but I'll go ahead anyways

Pick up a Mach1 motor from KarKraft and a modular bellhoused tranny and you're set! This is a swap that I have performed before, if you needed help.

Have a great weekend all and root for the Seahawks!

JT

 

[LXracerGuy]

O.k so now thinking about it a bit more and reading the awesome info here this is what I am thinking and maybe you guys could recomend where I could find the parts.

So I am thinking that I might go with a stroker kit depending on the price and what's involved with getting it done. Any links or companies that you can recomend that sell these kits? Now is this a kit that you bore the block out, or does it come with different rods or different crank? If it's too spendy and would push me over budged then I might just rebuild the bottom end with good pistons.

Then go with a good set of heads/cam and look for a GT40 intake. So you were saying that the twisted wedge heads are a good setup to go with? Do you have any links as to where I could find them for sale, or a company name I could look up?

JT I am curious to your mod idea and curious if you know how much something like this might cost me and what kind of power gains I would get out of it and the work needed to make it happen?

 

[281pony]

rootus is selling a stout/matched combo for a 302 for 1600 bucks in the classifieds. if its all in good shape, i would get that stuff and build your bottom end.

afr heads, custom ed curtis cam, and an edelbrock intake. much better combo then gt-40 parts.

with a rebuild on your 302 block (around 1000ish) you would be way under the 3500 mark. his combo made 320/330 or something n/a. which is about as good as it gets for a daily driver, streetable 302. sure you can make more power, but it starts to come at an expense.

 

[LXracerGuy]

O.k that sounds like an awesome idea, so if I went with like 9.5:1 compression and a good forged piston could I get away with running a 100 shot of nitrous at the track running race gas?

 

[281pony]

yep.

im not real familiar with running nitrous, but i dont believe you even need race gas. premium should work just fine. anyone more knowledgable with it chime in.