As I mentioned in my previous posts, this is my first Ford car in 30 years. The car we have is a 1995 5.0 GT convertible. What have many of you found to be the best cylinder head/intake combos for the 5.0. Is the GT40 stuff still the best or is the aftermarket pieces like Trick Flow,Afr etc better. Also what camshaft seems to be the best. What is the 303 cam I have seen advertised in the magazines. The car is an autmatic with 327's in the rear. Also, is there any advantage to going to the after market headers as opposed to the factory tubular headers.

 

I'm far from being a 5.0 expert, but I know alot of guys who love the Trick Flow parts as well as AFR heads. On a fairly mild 5.0 setup, AFR 165's, a trick flow or even the holly systemmax II intake are great. Those combined with the right cam choice makes for an awesome street car. Yours being an automatic, you are probably going to want to install gears as well to help pull through any sluggish tendencies of the tranny. 3.73's may be the way to go, but i may be off on that.

 

First question I have for you is what do YOU want from the car....what are your goals with it?

 

and how mch money are you willing to put into it. You might want to consider 4.10:1 gears, considering it is automatic. you may want to consider getting a stall converter as well in order to use the power properly.

 

svo paul, i have a question. Do you own/run SVP unlimited?? Do you work there, or whats the scoop?? Just visited the sight, and thought it was interesting, and wanted to know what exactly you had to do with it.

 

He's the owner.

 

svopaul, We are just looking to put a few more hp into the engine. I would like to jump it up to the 300-325 hp range. The car is strictly going to be a street car for me & the wife to have fun with. The car already has tubular headers, flowmaster exhaust, saleen suspension & brakes and what else I don't know. I haven't had time to crawl under the car and really look it over.

 

Are you talking 300-325 Rear wheel HP or flywheel HP?

 

300 at the rear wheels would be nice, but for a daily driver, 300 or so at the flywheel would be fine

 

Run a Bassani Exhaust, headers and all. Use brembo brakes and TFS Twisted Wedge Heads. I would also use a Trick FLow or Cobra intake.

 

also run 4.10 gears in the rear. Also change the throttle body and put a phenolic spacer on the intake.

 

Fordracing200......keep in mind that although YOU want to run that it may not be for everyone. The reason I always ask someone what THEY want from the car is because everyone has different expectations. Just throwing out blanket suggestions might build a car YOU would like but may not fit the actual owner's interests . Your interest appear to be more drag race oriented while the owner stated they want an all around street car.

With that said...Brembo brakes are not necessary...they won't make you any more power(your original question) and what you have not been told is that brake pads for Brembo brakes run near $300/set while you can buy brake pads for 13" PBR Cobra style brakes for around $80. I know this because we specialize in performance brake systems here at my shop .

A throttle body only change will do nothing for you unless you have more mods to build on which include an intake.

4.10 gears are great if you only cruise around on the street locally but if you ever take extended highway trips your fuel economy will suffer and your RPMs will run higher.

Exhaust is all in what you like....Bassani is nice but pricey but some people don't like the sound and prefer another sound. I would recommend looking around and hearing for yourself other systems to determine what you will like. Bassani won't make any more power that is worth mentioning over any other exhaust out there.

A Cobra intake is a good all around intake and really shines when extrude honed...but that is pricey. THe Holley Systemax and Trick Flow intakes are good intakes....I don't care for Edelbrock intakes on the EFI 5.0 so I would recommend staying away from that.

Heads.....TFS heads are alright but I would recommend AFR as a better choice for what you want....but this is jumping the gun a bit.

300 Flywheel HP is going to be fairly easy.....Rear wheel 300HP is a taller order.

If you don't want to dig into the cam and heads on the engine then get a good inake, 1.7 rockers, Exhaust, Throttle body, MAF meter and Cold air kit. Gears out back will be a noticeable improvement and I would recommend 3.73's for a good balance and all around performer. Being an automatic a Precision torque converter and shift kit would be a great upgrade to your AODE....Don't go for the cheap converters...you WILL regret it .

If you want to get into cylinder head swaps and camshafts then you will want to match the two....you can go with an off the shelf camshaft or a custom grind. At the same time replace your timing chain...I recommend nothing other than a Rollmaster timing chain.

 

4.10 gears are not that bad at all. My uncles daily driven 86 Capri had 4.10s. He had a T-5 too.

 

Not bad for some and yes for others...it depends on each individual person.

 

the only gear set that would be too low for a 5.0 (stock tire size) 4.56 The 4.10s won't hurt a thing

 

Paul and I both know a guy with a AOD 95 GT and has 4.10's, he mainly street drives his car, makes it to the track maybe once a year and wishes he had stayed with teh 3.73's due to higher rpm's on the freeway.

 

Svopaul and friends, what size throttle body, maf meter and cam would you recommend? What size throttle body comes stock on these engines? Wrenching on the car is not a problem for me.

 

You don't need anything larger than a 65mm throttle body unless you are going the forced induction route....likewise a 73mm MAF meter would be fine as well...no sense in going much larger than your smallest opening. I see a lot of guys go huge with these things and gain nothing or lose as a result. The stock throttle body is around 57mm(I'm probably off a little..memory is fuzzy on that since it's been a while since I even needed that info ).

For an off the shelf cam the E303 cam is good for an auto equipped car....not my favorite cam but for the money you can't beat it considering most Lunati cams are twice the price. You didn't mention budget restraints but like most I assume you don't have an unlimited budget.

Scothew is right....there is a local guy with an AODE equipped 95 GT who regrets going to 4.10's. As I said before....it is an individual decision on gears....it is wrong in my opinion to blindly recommend a gear to someone based on your own idealogy without even knowing or understand the useage the car is going to get....the "max gear mentality" is that of a drag racer...not a driver/enthusiast.

 

Whats so bad about being a "drag racer" 4.10 gears are great, but if u want 3.73s so your car doesn't wind up fine. (theres a 200 or so rpm difference between the 2.
How did you guess i am a drag racer type............

Was it the sig or was it the avatar?

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both.

Nothing wrong with being a "drag racer", but not everyone has that go straight as fast as possible desire as some of us do. Thats why you really gotta look at what you want out of the car.