svopaul

Sorry I haven't been here much, just darting in and out from time to time but we have been slammed getting others cars ready for the MCA 30th show and last week my GSP Coupe developed a rod knock.....so now with everything else I am building an engine for it.....nothing radical, just a warmed over stocker....5.0 Roller block, std bore, original TRW Forged pistons, new rings, bearings, balanced rotating assembly, E-303 camshaft, Rollmaster timing chain, Ported E7 heads, Explorer intake and shorty headers.

This is basically a "throw together" for me right now due to time constraints but this car wasn't getting anything radical anyway so no aluminum heads or anything like that

Scothew

chop chop, but do it right . I dont wanna have to pull the GSP home with the element

svopaul

Do I do anything other than "right"

But no, I couldn't let the Transformer pull it....the tow rating on that thing is what like 25lbs?

I'm not letting up on you until there is another Mustang in your driveway(with your name on the title...no parking a friends there)

Scothew

oh and its 1500lbs on the towing cap.

svopaul

Close enough....a Fox Mustang weighs twice that....and anything newer is near 4,000lbs

ScottyBoy302

Whats the towing capacity on a 5.0 fox anyways?

svopaul

No idea but considering an F150 used the same engine and rear end I guess the only weak link compared to the truck would be the transmission...although some truck models used the AOD as well.

I heard of a State Trooper in Florida years ago towing a Tractor Trailer off the interstate with his SSP Mustang....he did it, but he cooked the clutch while doing it. So that should tell you something there

StangFreak

What's a rebuild like this usually cost??? I'm thinking of doing exactly the same thing except I'd bore my motor 30 over and use a cobra lower intake manifold. Then I'd add a 9 psi Kenne Bell supercharger to the mix.

Valentino

I'm also interested in what a rebuild typical consists of and how much they usually cost. I'd imagine labor costs a lot more than the parts, right?

bob

Lol, like cheap especially if your gonna hog out some stock E7 castings yourself (wouldn't spend money on them though, you'd be better off buying some aftermarket heads or finding some V8 exploder heads instead - non PI if your really running a tight budget)

StangFreak

Actually, I was going to have some one do the work. So what your saying is rather than waste money on porting the stock heads, just spring for it and buy a set of aftermarket heads like GT40's or some thing. I am on a budget so spending a grand or more on heads is not what I was planning to do.

bob

Unless your just planning to do some very basic mods to the heads, like a valve job and port matching, then the cost of completely modifying the heads isn't very cost effective compared to the gains you'd recieve with either better factory castings or aftermarket heads. IIRC after having a set of E7's fully ported and fitted with bigger valves along with some chamber work, they flowed about as good as a set of box stock windsor jr's, with the money I had spent on modifying the E7's at the time I could've gotten a good set of aftermarket heads.

Ergo, IMO you'd be money ahead with either finding a set of GT40 or GT40p heads and freshing them up or saving a bit more for a set of good aftermarket heads. Opps - gotta goy to work for a bit so I'll add to this when I get back, but just for starters a set of stock E7's flow about an average of 125 cfm from .100 to .500 and a set of GT40s flow about 150 cfm on average from .100 to .500 (and depending on your build each cfm is worth about 2 horspepower).

svopaul

The machine shop bill to clean and vat the block, install cam bearings and brass freeze plugs, pattern hone the cylinder bores, recondition the rods, clean the pistons and balance the rotating assembly including rings and bearings was under $600....$200 of that was the balancing job(I won't build an engine without balancing the rotating assembly). Then comes the assembly...some machine shops charge around $350 to assembly an engine, I do my own.

That is just the short block, you still have to buy gaskets, timing chain, oil pump and oil pump screen/pickup.

Don't bore your engine just because you "think" you have to...many of these 5.0 HO engines don't need to be bored thanks to Ford using Low tension piston rings and since all but '93 are equipped with factory TRW forged pistons you can save a lot of money there. If you are boring an engine you can figure in $11-$14 PER hole to bore the block plus the cost of a set of good pistons....your rebuild cost can jump very fast by just boring it....if needed that is fine but why spend the extra money if you don't have to....

StangFreak

Thanks, a lot of good info here. So basically I could be looking at $1000 - $1500 for the rebuild of the bottom end. Then I have to add in the heads, lower intake and then the blower, not counting other required parts. Hmm, I might be better off going NA vs using the Kenne Bell. Might better fit my $6000 rebuild budget.

Thanks again

bob

6k rebuild budget, would build a pretty spiffy motor, my 347 didn't cost much more than that, even with all the machine this and that so it would screw together.

svopaul

$6K is a pretty hefty budget....I built a 331 using Eagle H beam rods, Eagle forged steel crank, Probe pistons, file fit rings, Mexican block, TEA stage 3 ported TFS heads, Systemax intake, retrofit roller lifters, rollmaster timing chain, F303 cam, ARP head studs, PRC main girdle, and more for less than that amount...This engine with a single turbocharger should make 700RWHP or more.

Granted a lot depends on what you can do yourself but that kind of budget leaves you lots of options....don't forget some things can be bought used to save you money...we got the TFS heads and Holley intake around Christmas and got a great deal since people often need money at that time and sell off car parts to get it .

StangFreak

Most of the work will be done by some one else so I have to keep labor costs in mind. The 6k budget was set with a blower motor in mind. Now I'm thinking I'll go NA.

I'm planning on a bottom end rebuild like you did, E303 cam, AFR 165 heads w/comp package, 1.6 rockers, BBK SSI intake manifold, and long tube headers. Hopefully this package will be good for about 400 hp (crank).

bob

Well here are some AFR dyno-tested small blocks

http://www.airflowresearch.com/ford_dyno.php

this should help guide you.

StangFreak

Yeah, I saw those on AFR's site as well. That's what I estimated from. Here's a little piece on BBK's SSI manifold, it's a PDF file so you need Adobe to read it. (caution: this link will download and open the pdf file from BBK's website)

http://www.bbkperformance.com/downloads/mmffSSI.pdf

I'm also not sure how the E303 compares to the cam they used in their dyno's that's why I went with only a 400 hp estimate.

Edit: Found this on Ford Racing's site

svopaul

I used the E303 cam because it was laying around(it's actualy a Crane Compucam but same specs as the E303-Crane makes them for Ford)...and it is a decent cam for an alphabet off the shelf cam but I much prefer some of the Lunati camshafts that are available. This was a low budget build so it used parts that were laying around not in use. Check out Lunati for some of their N/A camshafts before settling with one of the FRPP cams.