advice on engine mods?

[wildstringer]

As far as engine performance goes i am pretty good , but i have just recently got my stang and i am not up to par on the mustang specific end of the mods . I have a list of things i want to do to the car , and i am looking for some advise on the combo of toys i wanna throw in this thing . Its a 87 LX 5 speed 5.0 HO . first I'm pulling the engine new bearings and have the crank checked. new rings , trick flow street intake , i am converting to mass air, 70 mm sensor ,and 24lb injectors, cold air intake , crane energizer 1.7 ratio full roller rockers . For now im just going to refresh the heads plus a valve or so if needed. Now i havent decided on the type or brand of clutch ,size of throttle body , i m also not sure about cam yet , because of the rockers i m not sure how much cam i can get away with. down the road i may go to trick flow heads . the car is going to be an everyday driver. but id still like to see 400 hp. any suggestions or advice would be great .oh yeah it also has an off road h pipe and i want to put some nicer looking headers on it but chrome will just turn blue anyway right?

[StangNut86]

coated headers will not blue and they provide some horsepower gains. C&L makes a great MAF sensor that requires nought but a small tube to calibrate it for different size injectors. their smallest measures 73mm. i'd go with a 70mm throttle body and EGR spacer. BBK is good for this. BBK also makes killer exhaust systems, including coated headers, long-tubes, and h- and x-pipes. just bolt on your choice of mufflers and tailpipes/turndowns. i'm not sure how much cam you can use. but, trick flow makes a kit that includes twisted wedge heads and the street intake, as well as a cam, rockers, and every bolt and gasket you need. it costs about 2 grand. the mildest kit made 360 horse on a mass air 5.0 HO and mild exhaust, and the next one up made 390. i'm sure you can make 400 with this kit and the other mods you're considering. look for the kit on summit racing. they also sell re-ring kits and such. good luck.

[wildstringer]

thanks . BBK was one of the t-bodies i was looking at. in fact alot of the stuff was BBK. I m also going to put a D+D tube k member a arms and coil overs just hope they can handle the damn pot holes

[351wStang]

Sounds like you have a pretty nice budget. If thats the case I would suggest AFR heads. There was a thread a while back where eillob posted a link where they where testing AFR heads. They made 405hp & 380 ft lbs on a '87 5.0. They had AFR 165's, RR's, exhaust, and a carb and intake. They used stock block, crank, rods, and pistons, as well as ignition ect I beleive. So they got 400+hp for around about 2 grand.

[wildstringer]

I 'll have to check them out too thanks. I 'll have to ask the boss man at the machine shop to see how much bump stick i can use with my rockers

[351wStang]

They used the stock cam as well on the '87 5.0.

[motor_head_429]

Originally Posted by wildstringer

i m also not sure about cam yet , because of the rockers i m not sure how much cam i can get away with. down the road i may go to trick flow heads

In my opinion, I would do heads before cam, the stock heads on the mustang are VERY restrictive. I think they flow a peak of 158 cfm (don't quote me on it). I also like AFR heads better than Twisted Wedge, they have smaller intake runner volumes than the twisted wedge heads (165 vs 170) and flow better, they also have smaller valves (1.9 vs 2.02), plus, they will provide better compression than the Trick Flow heads because they have 58cc combustion chambers vs 61cc for the Trick Flow. Just for the record, you can also order the Air Flow Research heads with 61cc combustion chambers.