stangracr

I know people are gonna call bullshit on this but its the truth. I sprayed my original 5.0 175 shot for 3 years. Ran the car at the track everyweek. The engine had over 100,000 miles. I never had a single problem. I sold that engine to a friend and he has been spraying the thing for at least 3 yrs. That is the honest truth. I drove this car daily with no concerns. During that time I had a trailer hitch on the back of my car and pulled a pop up trailer over a thousand miles on a family trip. No oil usage and the car always ran great. Just my experience. Just gotta be smart about using it. I feel the same as you. Even if my car ran 10 flat on the engine I would spay it into the 9s. ed

just wondered what people were using for a radiator when swapping a 5.0 in a Z car. Thanks I tried the search and didnt find anything. ed

Toms right. I have had almost all of the ford motorsport cams at sometime. I would opt for a custom grind. You know with the stock pistons you have to be careful with piston to valve clearance. I know their are alot of cams out since the B cam ford motorsport made but I still like that cam and will probably put one in my z car. Sounds good and runs good. I know its an old cam grind. Who knows might go custom.:burnout:I never liked the F cam but Im sure some have had good performance from it. ed

You shouldnt be dissappointed. 300 horse is a pretty strong 289. In my opinon the 2 things that really help make good power is camshaft design and a good set of heads. How does the car feel when driving it. I am planning on just using a 5.0 with good heads and a decent cam in my 280Z. I hope its enough power to be fun. The other thing that makes power is compression. You can get by with 10.5 or so if you have aluminum heads.

I have been running the 331 for almost 4 1/2 years street and strip. Date on the dyno sheet is 10/27/02 ed

Car made 398.9@6200 rwhp and 366.1@5200 rwtorque. I have made some minor changes since this dyno. Should be slightly stronger now. Torque comes on hard and stays around the peak from 4200 to 5600 rpm. Just for grins ran the car on the dyno and sprayed 100 shot. Hazed the slicks and put down 502.8 rwhp and 599.0 rwtorque ed

I will have to find my folder on the engine. I will look tomarrow and get them posted for ya. I dont think the numbers are anywhere out of line for the combination. It would make more power with more compression but I need to be able to drive it on the street with pump gas.

The combination was designed by Ford Performance Solutions. I built the engine. This is the basics. 331 cubic inch, Ross flat tops 10.8 to 1 compression, camshaft is a custom grind 234/244 with 598 lift. Trick flow twisted wedge heads stage 1 port job by Fox Lake. Victor Jr intake with a 750HP Holley. My car is heavy 3420 with me in it. I never power shift the car (stock T5) but I do launch the car hard. Only track times I have is when the car was first put together. Only miles on the engine was the 25 miles to the track so I wasnt trying to kill it. Also had the car tuned at the dyno after these times. 11.94 @114. Sprayed 100 shot of NOS car ran 10.90@128 Thats with a poor 1.74 60 ft. The car is full interior with working A/C. Car will diffinetly go faster. Car has all stock rear suspension. It does has 31 spline axles and center section but stock everything else. Car does some serious twisting. Needs anti-roll bar installed in the rear to keep the rear end level when launching. Buy the way this is in a 1992 Mustang not a 280Z I am building a 1976 280Z with a 5.0 Hope that clears some things up for ya. Its not anything special just a good combination of parts. Im sure some guys make more power with less. I have the dyno sheets and the time slips if you still cant believe a mere mortal can build a good running 331. ed

Hey I got a quick question for you. What did you do about the clutch? Did you use cable or slave cylinder? thanks

Just my 2 cents worth (again) Love the car looks great. Im thinking of sending you my 280z. You would for sure have it done quicker then me. I am making progress though. I just purchased the BBK SSI intake for the 347 in my sons GT. I will let you know how I like it. I have always had great luck with BBK products. My 331 has BBK long tube headers (fit great) it has the BBK H pipe Fit great. These are just my experiances with their products. I have never had a BBK product that I wasn't happy with, and no this is not a paid endorsment for BBK:mrgreen: Your car does look great. I cant wait for the weather to break here so I can get started on mine. I will take some pictures of mine this week sometime and get them posted. ed

Im pretty new here but have really enjoyed your post. What great progress in such a short time. This is just my opinoin. I have both a 331 and a 347 Mustang. I love my 331. Car has great power. I would highly recommend the 331 for a stick car. I built a 347 for my sons AOD mustang. I buy all my parts from Ford Performance Solutions. I really like dealing with them. (Ask for Troy) The only reason we went with the 347 in the AOD car was the fact that the 347 would make more low end torque that the AOD would need. I have dyno'd the 331 on a chassis dyno. My car is a street car so it would make more power with more compression and a larger cam. Car made 398 to the rear wheels. I feel pretty good about that number for a street car. I too thought about building a 331 for my 280z project but decided to just put a engine in it simular to yours. Basic 5.0 with heads and cam. I just figured I would try to get the most of a near stock combination. I think a 331 would for sure find the weaknesses of the rest of the car. ie rear end and axles. Not that it couldn't be made to handle that much power but I want to keep the car looking fairly stock. Again these are just my experiance. By the way my 331 wrist pin intersects the oil control ring and I have had no oil usage. As far as the stock block goes. I have had good luck using them but they are weak. I say engine balance is very important. I have a girdle on mine. It may not help but I have split one block on a early stroker engine and you could see where the main caps had shifted so I hope the girdle helps some. I would never supercharge or turbo a stroked stock block. Again just my opinions. Good luck and again love the progress you have made. ed bettis

Thanks for the advice. I read that post. I just wondered if someone had used something else that worked better. No pan issues and all. Thanks for the correction. How about we all try to be friends:wink: ed

Yeah you know me. I bought the curio cabnet from you. Thanks to you Im doing a Zswap. I bought bryans car. ed

Just purchased a 76 280z. I have a 5.0 to put in it. What do you recommend as the best crossmember to use. I read where someone on here sells one for this swap. Any info would be great. Hope to have this up and running by spring time. Im sure I could have a race car friend fab something but if one has already been proven to work good then I will just buy it. Thanks for any info. ed