I've decided its time to rebuild the 5.0 in my mustang, cuz lets face it a stock high milage car under my teenage foot is in for a beating.

Damn teenagers, haha.

Here is a list of the parts i have put togetherto help get some more power out of my 5.0 (theres a 300hp '83 trans am at my school i beat by a fender b/c he has a crappy tranny and a peg leg and i need some power if im gonna beat him in the spring):

Stock replacement forged pistons and rings, i have a BBK cold air induction kit sitting in my basement, Flowtech Long tube headers, Purple Hornies header mount glass packs(I dont have the money for the matching H-Pipe and catback yet), smog pump eliminator, all new bearings, Holley fuel pressure regulator, new valve springs and valve seals, BBK underdrive pullies, and new valve tappets and a new oil pump.  The thing im stuck on is choosing a cam, and a chip.  I have my eye on a Ford Racing F303 Cam (duration@ .050": 226/226 degrees.  Lift: .512"/.512". or Ford Racing B303 camwith 224/224 degrees duration@.050" with .480"/.480"lift.  The first cam has more midrange and high rpm and the later has more low end torque and says lots of horsepower above 4000.(these are in the sept-oct summit racing)and as far as choosing a computer chip iam clueless

Anyone who can help a young aspiring gearhead out in his quest to go quick in a straight line is my freakin hero.

I run a 90 stang converted to carburation.

I made the mistake when I was younger of buying a bunch of parts I did not need.  Your parts list sounds OK, but do you really need that stuff?

I subscribed to some of the stang rags from when these cars were new and they used to run articles about bang for the buck, free hp, etc.

Years ago, they asked some stang shops what was the best bang for different budgets.  Here is what I recall

#1 tires.

Tires gave me 2 tenths at the track.  A good budget tire is the American Racer G6015 DIRT compound DOT tire.  You can run these on 10 holes or turbines.  The tires stick much better than regular tires and cost under $100 each from circle track shops.

#2  short belt.

Bypassing the power steering pump is good for about a tenth and only requires a new belt

#3  gears if you have 2.73s or 3:08s

You can score a complete junkyard rear with better gears and not have to pay labor to install gears in your current housing.  Look for 1987-88 Thunderbird Turbo Coupes.  3.55s in the 5spd cars and 3.73 in the automatics.  I am running a 3.73 one with the old axleshafts and drum brakes from my 2.73 geared stock rear.

#4  shift at the right rpm.

If you have a 5spd, you will want to dial in your shift points.  The factory tach usually reads high when you are at WOT.  My factory tach reads 100s of rpm high.  You might want to shift at a true 5000-5200 rpm for a stock motor.  I run a shift lite.  They cost under $50 and you don't need to mount a huge tach.

If you have an AOD, you will want to address this first before spending money on the engine.

#5 timing

Run 12 - 14 degrees initial advance.

#6 offroad pipe.

They can help a little, but the 4 cat stock H pipe is not that bad.  Headers can help, but the stock headers are not bad for the stock engine.

Some general advice.

Make sure your car is mechanically sound.  You can do a compression test and check the oil pressure to verify the engine is OK.  The stock 5.0HO motors are very durable and can run with high miles.  Some parts that wear out are valve springs, bearings, timing chain, and rings.  You might not need new pistons, lifters, etc.  The stock cam is pretty powerful too.  You can advance it a little to raise the rpm range.  The stock intake is out of steam about 5000 rpm or so.

Take advantage of the junkyards.  Besides the tbird rear end, keep your eyes open for v8 explorers.  They have lots of goodies like better cylinder heads, better intake manifolds and 65 mm throttle bodies.  Another option is to buy a complete, low milage Explorer engine and swap it in your car using the Mustang front timing cover and balancer and the Mustang camshaft and headers.

Good luck.  http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2001/01/92LX/index.shtml and http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2002/01/gmII/index.shtml  and http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2002/03/powershift/index.shtml has some nice buildups on the budget.  The green machine project is a great example of bang for the buck and the difference between AOD and 5spd performance.

Tom

Whew thanx for saving my money for me.  The junkyards around here arent as abundant as the ones in the states there basically stripped of anything good and the stuff that is good is way over priced(200 bucks for a rad!)

but im gonna phone every wrecker within one tank of fuel and see what i can stir up.

ive already bought the cold air and im gonna do the exhaust anyway cuz its not loud enough(haah) and im gonna eliminate the smog pump cuz im getting an off road pipe.

Time for me to start thinking realistically i guess, but i have one more question, do i need a chip, and ive boiled er over a couple times after ive had the rad out and it puked its guts out when i was filling it 3 times on different occasions is there a method to this and will it hurt my rings?

Hey stang banger you said like in the states? where are you located?  I addressed it to min 301. because his blood runs blue oval from the sounds of things thought he maybe able to add some suggestions.  Hope this all works out for you, do you have an accurate temp. guage?  just curious how hot it got when it puked.  If it didn't start to seize afterwards your probably ok there.  Have you flushed it out to make sure there is no debri, blocking a passage?  Do you know what temp thermostate you are running and did you test it ahead of time?  A good cheap way is to get a candy themomiter from grocery store put it in a pan of water boil it with the thermostate in the water and watch the temp to see if it opens at specific temp.  I had a crazy overheating problem a long time ago with a new thermostat stupid thing was only opening on one side, so no flow.  really sucked cause I didn't have an overflow and people thought it was gonna blow.  two times in one day, cuaght it that night but it still was embarasing.  Good Luck  

I would replace the t-stat just cause it's boiled over. Also, fill it with the engine off, all the way to the top, then squeeze the upper hose, it should bubble out some air, continue doing this till it no longer bubbles. If you do this, start it up and cap it, fill the overflow container to the full mark. If it still pukes, you have a head gasket that is blown.  

the car is bone stock with the stock temp guage and thermostat and as far as i know hasnt even been cracked openonly thing i did was electric fan it but im going back the engine driven piece because im sick of the electric fan.

im located in canada in saskatchewan like an hour from the canada usa border.