which year 5L again???

raceparts and brake upgrades.

alsil · March 21, 2001

anything after '89, I would say. they didn't change much after that, except for '94-'95, which had a different intake, harness, computer.....

Mike, check out my frame mounts for the 5.0 - fits well and makes a ton of room. I'll post some pics of the crossmember modification this weekend - had to replace the camera, it busted.

But for the crossmember, I cut the engine perches off, the rack perches off, and welded on an 18" long piece of 1x1 to the front of the crossmember with 2 2.25"x3/4" tube pieces welded to that 15.5" apart, and slid the rack right on- fits perfect, 1" below the crank pulley - use tie rods froma '95 Mustang, and a stock '94-'95 steering shaft, cut and weld to stock shaft. Not too tough, I'll have the pics up this weekend like I said.

Motor mount pic: http://zcar.netdojo.com/pics/302motormount.jpg

Al

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alsil · March 21, 2001

Also, you don't have to worry about weight too much, since the stock motor is already about 75lbs lighter than the stock Z motor- lots of aluminum already. That's 90% of the reason I went with the 5.0 motor, it's WAY lighter.

For teh steering rack, I left out that you have to cut down the inner tie rods 5 inches per side, and weld them together.

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March 21, 2001

i'm not afraid of welding so thats no biggie............

Mike

March 21, 2001

is the 5L lighter than the L6 stock???

if so i'll save$ and not go for alum heads....

oh and Al i couldnt load the page with your motor mount!

alsil · March 21, 2001

Try it now, I guess the server went down for a while.

The total weight of the 5.0 motor and tranny way 403 lbs dry. That's WAY lighter than a 350 (525-560lbs) and a Z motor (about 460), so save your money. Although, the aluminum heads will give you more power, but since weight is not an issue, I would go for either the Sportsman heads, or GT40P heads. They are iron, but they are a better design.

Just some thoughts.

AL

Oh, and I would ditch the stock harness for the EFI conversion. Not stable enough.

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Ray · March 21, 2001

Depends on what you are going to do. The early motors 87-89 all have forged pistons. They are real popular here in Houston. Alot of the Mustang guys take the stock short block, rering, chang the cam, put good heads on them and spray them. They seem to last and put out alot of HP.

If you are looking for good flowing heads the later explorers have GT40x heads but cast pistons....

Look arround 5.0's are everywhere and the stock parts are really cheep. 100 to 300 down here will get you a really good long block...

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Remember it is only a piece of metal.

March 23, 2001

Al.........

can you clarify the "unstable" thing???????

Mike

btw- found a 92 5L with T5 K/N filter and headers/ hurst shifter with H pipe for $1200 complete with wiring/computer etc..

seem decent?? 80000 miles.

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Mike

raceparts and brake upgrades.

alsil · March 23, 2001

Any wiring harness that bursts into flames from turning on too many things at one time and melts the fuse box qualifies!!!

But seriously, the Z wiring harness is weak at best, and with EFI, you have to have a constantm CONSISTANT voltage to the ECU. If not, it will run uneven, will have starting problems, etc... It relies on a constant regulated voltage from the battery. This can be fixed by wiring the battery directly to the power Lead on the ECU, but you also have to splice in the EFI harness to the stock harness. I was going to just skip the whole thing and go for a Painless Harness. Only about $280, and has everything. I will go for that eventually, anyway, probably when I convert to EFI.

Unforunately, the Painless 5.0 harness is not available yet (from what Summit Racing tells me), which would be ideal, getting both.

Al

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March 23, 2001

there are a few harness out there for 5L already.

i dont know off hand but i have heard that

Ford Motorsport has one, and i've seen some wiring harness' for installing a FI 5L into a 65 stang.. so somewhere out there already makes it.. the magazine i saw it in was over 3 years ago.. no not new..

Mike

March 23, 2001

got the motor mount pic.. is it alum or steel?

are both sides the same?

hmm now which way to go?

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Mike

raceparts and brake upgrades.

alsil · March 23, 2001

EFI Harness:

The Windsor-Fox one seems to be the best value, since it includes everything. The cost at first seems high (over $600), but after you factor in the fuel pump (over $200), inertia switch, EFI harness, ALL sensors, and instructions.

The frame mount is made of .250 steel. A friend of mine made it at his shop for me, I just drew it out and he built it. Took him one day, where it would have taken me about 2 weeks fo trial and error. I can send you a drawing if you like, but I will be making one to post on my site. Pretty much, I bolted it up to the motor, lowered it in place, slid the engine back as far as I could, marked the holes, and drilled. Pretty easy considering how much hair I pulled out trying to figure out the best way to do it.

For the tranny, I am using the JTR bracket, but I drilled it out for the 2 bolt tranny mount for the ford. You CANNOT USE THE STOCK FORD TRANNY MOUNT!!! It is WAY too tall, and the tranny will hit the top of the trans tunnel. I found one at the local parts store that will work, that is half the height. I will post the part # on my site when I get to the house (forgot to write it down this morning, meant to). then I bolted it up the same as the JTR manual. I am adjusting the tranny angle today, to set it to the same. So far, I have a pinion angle of 5 degrees, and a TRanny angle of 4 degrees. So I'm going to raise the rear of the diff by taking out the washers on the top. Should give me that extra degree.

What year car are you using? The shifter comes up in the stock '72 and up location, so you can't use the early console. Also, if you're eliminating the smog pump and AC, you don't need to use the eliminator brackets, I found the right belt part # to fit the reduced length.

Al

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alsil · March 23, 2001

Oh, and yes, the frame mount is the same for both, except there is a .250" difference in the mount height for the tube the bolt goes through. it's higher in the front for the angle of the motor.

AL

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Z-Dreamer · March 24, 2001

scca, I agree with Alsil about going with cast iron heads, the weight savings is a non issue in my opinion. If your interested in low cost CNC ported iron heads checkout PowerHeads @ www.powerheads.com/ you can get a complete pair of CNC ported heads for as little as $635!

Mark

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" Now where did I set my beer? "

BLKMGK · March 25, 2001

I don't agree with the "non-issue". I've picked up both iron and aluminum Ford heads - there'a BIG difference between them! IF you can afford the lighter aluminum ones I'd go for it. Aluminum heads can be repaired, weight less, generally flow pretty well, and can allow you to run a higher compression ratio without fear of knock. What's not to like? Yes, it seems a Ford motor weighs less than the SBC but you're also giving up 50 cubes over a 350 unless you go high dollar and stroke the 302.

For that matter - why not look at a 351W? Many of the parts are the same and it's just a little wider. The blocks are stronger too but they don't like to RPM like a 302 - main bearings are bigger and the bearing speed gets too high (shrug).

March 25, 2001

first the convertible has no roof and will have no roll bar- i have a rollbar that used to be in it but i currently like the "clean" look of no bar. i used to have a 95 stang with underdrive pulleys, 3.55's , bigger headers/exhaust. i think it had a chip too--it was pretty fast for a 3200lb? car it will be PLENTY fast for the convertible! its Bloody hot in the sun with no roof above you so i will eventually have AC as well, and maybe PS.. i tinker with the racecar enough i want the convt to be a turn key - no muss no fuss car, hence staying relatively stock 5L and i want to use cheapo 87 octane gas too!

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Mike