I have a 92 5.0 and it has 8.8 rear end aluminum driveshaft upgraded
suspension
I would like to do some mods on the motor, bene looking at the trick flow stuff
I cannot afford the whole kit however, and want to do it piece by piece, which order should i install the components?
can the car be run between modifications? I know theres guides all over maybe for this I jsut want to know which order to purchase and install these parts and still be able to drive car between mods...
also, are these parts hard to put on? I have some skill with gettin the hands dirty but not alot
I have another car so its not my daily driver
We've all been where you are. In fact, im right there with ya. Simply not enough money to make everything happen the way you want it to.
My 2 cents is this. Youre wasting your time buying things piece by piece. Consider this: nearly
every component between the airfilter to the tailpipes is designed to flow about 150-200 cfm, which corrolates to the stock 230 hp. Sure theres some horsepower to be had by swappin out the exhaust (ive done it and love it) and underdrive pulleys, etc...
But once you get done with the small crap, youre looking at the majro problem. E7TE heads. 1.78 / 1.46 valves and small, long tubes, yielding big airflow at low lift (yields big torque down low. good for trucks. in fact, the TE stands for truck engine...theyre truck heads. this is why you can pull 5th gear at 900 rpm) but it maxes out at about .4" lift or whatever and then its done. Then you have the stock HO intake which is sized to match, and all of the ports will flow different numbers stock (this is a great thing about extrude honing because they can hog out some ports more than others to equalize the airflow).
My point is this. you need to mod 5.0s from the inside out, not from the outside in. Go ahead and put a wicked cam, track heat intake, 3" exhaust, and 500 degreees timing. Itll put out maybe 260 hp. Maybe. The heads simply will not allow huge power production. So the solution is to pitch em in a furnace, turn them into silverware, and start from a clean slate. The cheapest heads out there will be GT40 or GT40Ps from a junkyard. I myself just bought a 99 exploder motor (GT40Ps and a slightly crappier version of the 93 cobra intake baby!) for $350. It was in a rollover and the starter ripped the block up
real nice, but the heads and intake are good. These are the deals you need to be looking for if you want it done cheap. Naturally, you get what you pay for, and GT40Ps from a jy wont flow what any of the big name aluminum heads will flow (yielding a corresponding lower hp number), nor will it give you the weight savings. ONLY AFTER THE HEADS ARE SWAPPED OUT FOR SOMETHING BETTER WILL ALL THE SMALL MODS REALLY SHINE.
Also, as mentioned, youll be buying so much small crap along the way. These cars are old. Youll tear into it and find 15 unrelated problems that you "might as well fix / mod while youre in there" (hate that sentance). Or youll drop a screw down the intake. Or youll drop the MAF and break the electronics. stuff like that. Limit your chances of making a mistake and do the job right ONE TIME. You have a dd (that was the first thing i was going to recommend you do. i got my truck for $300. $1 per cubic inch baby! starts every freakin time, first crank) so you can even take your time. Thats really good.
hopefully that dd of yours can negotiate those pesky junkyard entrances, and has a big enough cargo area for motors from the jy! If its a car it better be a reeeeaaaal beater because the junkyards dont have much mercy for motors. they plopped my exploder motor in the back of my truck and i drove home with a trail of coolant and oil because it was just sitting on its side pissing its guts out all over the bed. and thus, the road. lol
Last thing. Assemble everything you need ahead of time, and enjoy the 5.0 right now because it works and its more fun than your dd (hope so, anyway). Once you have everything, get wrenchin!