I want to get a good ol american muscle car.

Im looking at 5.0 mustangs (86-93) mostly because i come from a ford family. been driving a POS escort 5 speed for 2 years (since ive been driving) and i finally got a steady job and some money to burn.

Ive heard that some years of mustang came with forged pistons stock. Anyone know what years they had them? I want to eventually put a big shot of nitrous (~100) but heard this could only be done on a stock motor if it came with forged pistons.

thanks a lot for any help.

I would suggest posting in the Ford>Mustang section. This is a question not a comparison.

Anyway, I don't know about the 5.0s but I know the little 2.3 turbo motors had forged pistons in them.

All this aside, forged or cast, the key to not blowing an engine to bits is proper tuning. If running X amount of nitrous will blast cast pistons apart then forged pistons aren't going to last much longer anyway, which of course would indicate a serious problem in the setup.

A lot of people seem to think forged whirly bits will make a motor "bullet proof". Stupid can destory anything. Granted forged pistons will be able to take more abuse but even then they will stand up to so much. Also you have to remember everything that is getting hammered, the crank, the rod bolts, the rod bearings, the valves, cylinder heads...etc and so on.

I believe it's only the 93' 5.0, the last fox body that doesn't have forged pistons. I myself got a 1988 5.0 with about 300 hp for $2,000 about a year ago. It's pretty damn fast. But, the 5.0's gas mileage is not the greatest. Stock expect 15-20 and if modded moderately expect 10-15. But they sure are fun to drive. :)

i personally prefer the 90s trans am. but the 5.0 is great for cheap speed.