best way to get power?

Buying a 5.0 block for $50 from my friend and its not put together yet. This gives me a chance to build it up somewhat. What are some of the best mods(minus FI, nitrous) to get some good power out of the motor.

My friends dad has a 5.0 thats got GT40(I think) heads, a mild cam, various suspension parts and its running a high 13 in the 1/4. I really like his car but I want a little more than that. So I'm thinking faily beefy cam,valvetrain, heads, maybe pistons, clutch and suspension.

Basically whats the best way to get power out of these motors? I had a V6 camaro for about a year and got sick of that real quick so now I'm moving to something a little faster hopefully lol.

Higher compression
Use Synthetic oils
Under drive pullies
Gears
Good Set of Heads
Bigger cam of course, but it depends on what you want to live with. Too big of a cam makes a car complete crap on the street.
Roller lifter and rockers
Bigger TB, injectors, and MAF

Just the typical stuff.

Supercharge it...!!!
Lots of power... but other things the above guy mentioned as well :)

Supercharge it...!!!
Lots of power... but other things the above guy mentioned as well

:headshake
Hmm... (minus FI, nitrous)
:nutkick:

Hey there 351wStang. I got a 92 4cyl stang, and I have the option of going with a carbed 302 or a 351 (cant remember if its cleav or winds). I know that the 302 and the 4cyl have the same motor mount locations, and it seems easier, but im kinda liking the 351. Did you have to do major modifications to the engine bay to fit your motor in? If you have done anything like a 4 cyl swap that would help out. I just want to know this before I dive in head first. It would be good to know what kind of mods you did, like say rad position and maybe if there was a change in rads and other accesories. Plus to know what you had to do to the wiring harness would help out. At least a little bit. My car has a/c and power steering and all that crap, and makes a whopping 90 hp. But it has an electric fan. Lemme know.

Well my machine shop should be done with my motor at the end of the week. So, I havent put the motor in the car yet. But the 351w and 302 ect use the same motor mounts. As far as the radiator I'm going to throw the stocker away and get a nice aluminum radiator. It should mount in the stock location with the blower but once I go turbo I'll probably have to make a custom rad mount for it. I'm still working on the wiring harness. I have the dash out of the car so while the interior is half way stripped I'll probably go ahead with the 6 point roll bar. But I'll have to wait until my guages get here to put the dash back in anyway. I'm building a custom in-dash guage cluster. Also I'll have to try to make sence of the CSI electric water pump and the Mark VIII electric fan. I hate wires. But as far as swapping a carb'd 351w into a EFI 4cyl car it should be straight forward. My car is an ex-4cyl car as well.

Would it maybe make it easy to clip the wire for the fan and remove it completely and run the fan off the motor, or might it be best to go with a slim fan? I forgot to mention the exhaust. I'm just going to do a straightforward motor swap, nothing fancy like a turbo, but I'm wondering if I might run into any problems with the dual exhaust. Shouldn't be a problem because its the same thing as a 5.0 litre without the motor. I do want headers though, but I dont want to go out and buy the expensive ones. Would the exhaust ports be the same on the 302 and 351? Or would the 351 be more spaced out?If they were the same it would be great, because then I could use the 302 shorty headers. The fuel line that goes to the throttle body might have to be changed and lengthened/shortened, but hopefully only minimal. I won't have a big fortune to spend on this, so I'm just kinda lookin for the basic swap. I got tired of getting beat by hondas, so I decided the car needs a little "enchancement". By the way, mine is a hatch.

dude your gonna need alot, your gonna need a cowl hood to clear the larger intake on the 351 your gonna need an oil pan either aftermarket or from a lincoln with a 351 most likly youll need a transmission to handl the power diffrence your also gonna need headers it a little more to put a 351 in there but is so much better oh yeah if its not a windsor forget it a cleavland is crap a widsor with good heads e303 cam and nitrous is capable of 11.0 ets in th quarter.

You can use a cowl hood as stated earlier. But it has nothing to do with the intake manifold. The 351w is about an inch taller than a 302, therefore hood clearance is an issue. You can but convertible motor mounts or buy drop mounts. Different mounts will lower/raise the motor different amounts. As for the exhaust you will have to but 351w swap headers. They make special headers that are required for this specific swap, you can get them in LT's or shorties. Also if you have a 5spd car then a stock T5 tranny out of a 302 car will work fine. Otherwise you will have to shop around for a good AOD, C4, C6, ect.

Well, I'm not really looking to race it, but its good that you put your two cents in, but I don't think I need to worry about a hood. I just saw tonight in the autotrader, a Mustang with a 351 swap and a stock hood. The person I'm gettin the motor from also has the 302 and he has both a standard and auto transmission for the 302 at least, and maybe a tranny for the 351. Would I be able to fit the 351 tranny in? Or would I have to change it out for the 302 tranny? As for hood clearance, I could probably get someone to fab up some extensions for the motor mount anyway. I know a man who can do that stuff. My tranny is an automatic, and of course, if we swap the standard in, then I'll have to make a spot for the clutch pedal. Would this mean I can pretty much customize where the pedal is going to be? By the way, for me, it would be great if it were a cleavland, because I heard the windsor is better for the strip, and the cleavland is better for the street. Im looking at stiffening the suspension and making it more corner worthy. I dont really want to lower it too much, maybe an inch, but im going to put in strut tower bars. it may be difficult with the engine in there though. When you get your motor in, take some pictures of the engine bay for me. Also if you could do some building pictures too that'd be great. Would you say 2.5inch exhaust pipes would do good? I don't exactly want to go 3 inch, thats too big. Essentially this thing has to be street legal. Such as emissions safe. Also is there a way to eliminate the speed governor? Or is it automatically eliminated with the motor? I beleive the motor is a hell of a lot older than the car itself. Anyway, thats my blurb. Thanks for the help. I hope to have some pictures and stuff next year. As for now, its winterizing the car as it is now, with the four banger. *sigh* Later dudes.

OK, as I stated previously you can swap a 351 into a fox body and still use the stock hood. All you have to do is but motor mounts that lower then engine farther into the engine bay. The same tranny that fits the 302 will bolt right up to a 351. The clev/windsor thing is all depending upon the motor. But, I will say that I do not agree with the statement you made about a 351c being a better street motor. Ask someone who has had a 351c 2v or 4v on the street. The clev heads flow huge numbers and are commonly dogs on the street due to the rpm's required to make power with them. If you lower the car any I would suggest going with shorty headers instead of LT's. The shorties will also be easier to install. Yes 2.5" pipe would be fine and I would suggest that you buy headers with the 1 5/8 primaries rather than the 1 3/4" headers. This will give you a little more back pressure and help the stock motor a little more than the larger pipes. I dont think you will have any gov. at all with the carb on there. I hope to be posting pictues soon.

Sweet thanks for the info. I totally agree with the smaller pipes, because im not going to need much power. I read that there are certain pipe sizes the are perfect for different size motors and different horsepowers. Like, you cant go 3 inch with a 4 cyl because it will lose more power than it would make with everything else. Thanks very much. Now would the motor mounts be on the motor, or on the frame? I want to know this because id rather fab up and weld in my own mounts to get the optimum position for the motor. Does the angle of the motor and tranny to the driveshaft make a difference in torque at all? Say if the tranny is dead level with the drive shaft, it would be at its maximum potential, but if it were slightly under, or above, would it lose torque? It looks like you headlights need some refreshing there. Would you like to be able to clean them up and not have to buy new ones? Lemme know if you want to, and I can let you in on a lil secret, unless you already know. Which you probably do. Anyway, thanks much!

Crap I forogot to ask about confirmation on the oil pan change. Would i need to or not?

Yes a new oil pan would be required. I payed a little over $200 for my Canton pan, got it new from a guy that decided to go with a different build.
As far as the level of motor/trans/driveshaft/rear ect goes...there are lots of variables. As far as the motor mounts go I personally think it would be easier to just buy some solid drop mounts. Do it once, do it right. You could bolt the tranny directly to the stock peice. Then everything should be fairly close. I cannot remember for sure but I think if you want to mess with the rearend -2* or -3* is a good average angle. Also just FYI there is noway you could make your complete driveline be on a center-line for lack of better words. Your oil pan, exhaust, and trans would be dragging the ground if that where the case, and I doubt you want to lift a mustang.

Are you changing the rear end in your car as well? Im just wondering if it is possible to keep the same rear end in it. If i were to go and get an oil pan from a lincoln, would that work? It would be nice to know which model and year range; so I could go to the junkyard an get one. Where would you reccomend I get the headers from? There arent too many performance shop in my area.and the only ones are for imports, but they are still half an hour away. Anyway thanks for the help.

www.summitracing.com
www.jegs.com

Not sure on the Lincoln oil pan. It would probably work. But I have never tryed it. Also yes I am changing the rear in my car. The stock 4cyl 7.5" rearend is absolute junk. I'm swapping in an 8.8" rear from a '89 GT with a rebuilt Trac-Loc that has 1 extra clutch per side and a set of 3.55 gears.

Looking at how much work, and how expensive this is going to be (for me at least) I've decided to try to get more ponies out of the 105 hp 2.3L. Im not too worried about the work part, but the money is a big deal for me. Im just lookni at this one website, and I have found a cam for my car, and a couple other miniscule things. The most I can find is stuff that doesn't add horsepower. If you maybe know of any places that I could get hooked up with maybe a header or an intake manifold or something, that would be great. I'm going to try with my step-brother to see if he might know of anything, but help from everyone else would be greatly appreciated. Im kinda considering a turbo, but that means I have to get dished pistons and stronger rods and all that expensive stuff. So I'm just going to see how much hp I can make with all motor. I'm looking at taking a welding course to get my certificate, and I might see if I can make myself a header. But if you could offer tips to increase horsepower universally, like oil cooling or placement of certain engine parts or configurations, that would be awesome. I know that there are tricks to get horsepower without bolting stuff on, but a helping hand on which stuff to modify would point me in the right direction. I'm only an 18 year old, so I have a lot to learn. I carry alot of knowledge from the import tuner world. I know alot about turboing and stuff like that. I'd like to know the secrets of getting horsepower without heavy modification. I also have a lot of ideas of how to build horsepower but, unfortuantely, not the resources or the money. Well, I'll keep you updated.

All engines are created equal, well to a point.

Meaning they all respond to better air flow. Headers, pullies, muffelers, head, intake, etc. will add power if properly matched. The 2.3 is a very good engine, I seen them in the 9s.

Thanks for the info. I already knew the power adder stuff, but didnt know the 2.3 has made it into the 9's. Im just looking for where I can find this stuff. Thanks anyway.

google is your friend

Google doesnt like me. It gives me all the wrong stuff.