89 top end kit?

Very long ago Mustang Monthly ran an article about bolting on 85hp. By the time they finished they had replaced just about everything you could and still leave the engine in the car and still gained only about 50 of their target 85hp. The remainder 35 or so was from machine work to the heads and intakes. This tells me that there is at least that much more power to be had from the stock engine parts if your just willing to expend the effort. Of the parts they did replace the two biggest gains were from changing the intake and exhaust.

That said all this hype about bolting on power by replacing so called poorly designed factory pieces with superduper aftermarket parts is just that, hype! For normal driving the factory parts work just fine, most all of what these performance parts do is move the power band higher into the RPM range away from what your transmission and rear end were configured for. Optimizing what the factory gave you, however, just gives you more power where the factory wanted it start with.

Honestly, my 88GT has 290,000 miles on a mostly stock un-rebuilt engine. At

75mph the engine is turning less than 2000rpm. What that tells me is with that big slow turning V8 you need to be thinking in terms of torque not horsepower, which brings up another article I read about a manifold shootout, bottom line the manifold that produced the most torque at the lowest RPM was (drum roll please) the stock manifold. Of the few things that I have replaced they were intended to help me optimize what I already had. An adjustable fuel pressure regulator so I could peak the fuel mixture, a Cobra fuel injector kit, (24lb injectors to replace the failing stock 19lb ones, 73mm MAF and a new CPU). Unfortunately for those of us who like to tinker, as far as the engine is concerned, the factory did a very good job of getting it right the first time.

Now if you want to talk about handling....

Actually, yeah, I do. I've got an '89 LX 5.0 with 180,000 miles on the stock, un-rebuilt engine. I did go to 3.73 gears but other than that it's bone stock. I think it's got plenty of oomph, but it handles like, well, a 20 year old car.

What would/did you do to make your Fox handle better?

Thomas

did the gears up the torque a lot ? doesn't that cause higher RPM at 80 MPH Highway driving?

I have a rebuilt with 8# blower, rest is stock, 150,000 miles, 5.0 93 old cop car.

to the OP I would save up and buy a blower. A lot of the top end kits loose torque at low end because they are made for winding it out on the strip. Need long runners for low end torque or KB blower

"Thomas Cameron (Red Hat)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@c4g2000hsg.googlegroups.com:

Weld some subframe connectors in, then get a strut tower brace up top and a g-load brace down below. That will improve any Fox car's handling

1000%. If you want to go further, lower the car and get decent struts/shocks all around.

and get good tires, not crappy ones.

And if you want smooth and quiet cruising,aluminum driveshaft (mine with

If I did, I would get the 0-4500 rpm kit. I know for sure that at least a nice set of heads and matching cam can do a lot.

Im curious though what the revs would be like on the highway with 3.73 gears? I have a 69 coupe with 3.5 gears and they are awsome on the street and tolerable on the highway though I dont take it on road trips. And they always make a wining noise. I also put in a cobra trac- loc. But Im focusing on my 89 now and its a summer daily driver and want to be able to take it on road trips so Im worried about putting gears in it.

Thanks,

scott and barb wrote:

IIRC, the engine's turning around 2k @ around 55 or 60mph. This is in overdrive of course. '93 5.0 AOD w/3.73s - perfect gear set for my car.

faust snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@s19g2000prg.googlegroups.com:

snipped-for-privacy@c4g2000hsg.googlegroups.

aluminum having better damping qualities than steel, that would make sense.

case in point, I have a very light, near race quality bicycle (modded, of course), and I switched to an aluminum front fork from a cro-moly one... instant increase in ride quality w/respect to harshness and vibration over rough pavement and bumps felt through the handlebars.

mkl

Full length Global West sub frame connectors, strut tower brace, lower K member brace, rear shock tower brace and polybushings on the front sway bar (removed later on, the noise was just too much). Also added the SSBC rear disk conversion kit along with larger 73mm front calipers. Still to come when I find the time and the money, will be the softer 93 Cobra rear springs along with replacement springs on the front (primarily because of age). I am also considering getting some of those oversized Mavromont "Pony Style" rims and requisite tires of course. Now while this car is by no means a Rally Racer it sure is a joy to drive down a winding mountain road with the top down.

Use new rollers on your new cam. A new cam deserves new lifters.

My recommendation is the Ford kit. GT40X heads with the Cobra/GT40 intake, E cam, timing chain and gaskets. Less than the kit from TF and NO it doesn't include the lifters !?!

rd

I think the GT40X kit is the best deal but I cant find info on the RPM range, power band. WTF ?