have a 94 f 150 flareside 5.0 liter, 5spd, 4x4: looking at buying a 5.0 liter to rebuild...first question.. what year 5.0 liter is 100% compatable with this motor...some folks are telling me any 302/5.0 block i can rebuild and use? other say only 94- 96 is compatable?
second question in my rebuid what will be compatable using my stock ECM? Id like to do flat head pistons, mild cam, some head work or heads? any suggestions? looking at spending $2500....thanks

 

Really could use some help???

 

Any '87+ 5.0 engine will have the same roller block as yours but it may not have a roller cam in it, but if you're replacing all the internals that doesn't matter anyway. If you were just swapping in a used motor then you would want a '94+ truck motor to be 100% compatable,

GT40 heads are probably the cheapest uopgrade, and just add 1.7 rockers with the stock cam which is already pretty good.

 

What about flat head Pistons? Any advantage? Any other up grades that might be nice?.... And thanks for the info PAUL!

 

Ahhh what about headers? And can I run true duels and by pass the converter it does it need the converter to run well ??

 

The stock pistons are pretty much flat top anyway, use whatever you like but make sure they have valve eyebrows(for future upgrade compatability) and static CR doesn't go above about 9.5:1.

Headers, yes shorties and longtubes are good upgrades. Shorties are easier to install and and you can even buy an aftermarket Y pipe with or without a high flow cat that will make it an easy bolt-on job. The motor doesn't need a cat to run correctly but all aftermarket cats are high flow compared to the stock units and will not hurt performance but they will clean up the exhaust some so there's really no good reason not to install one. Longtubes will produce the best low rpm gains but there are no intermediate pipes available to buy so you're on your own there, but it's not that hard to fabricate a single or dual system if you're at all handy with a welder or have a good exhaust shop nearby. In either case make sure the O2 sensor is reinstalled in the passenger side header collector(doesn't matter that it only "sees" one side of the motor), and do not use exhaust tubing larger than 3" for a single or 2.5" for duals. And chambered mufflers like those from Flowmaster drone badly at cruising speeds so I'd suggest something from Magnaflow or Dynomax.

 

Can I not use the converter?

 

And thank you so much for the good advice just what I was hoping for!!