My 96' XLT bronco just hit the 300k mile mark on the odometer and the engine is still running strong but, since I have the money to rebuild the engine I am going to do just that. In the past I have put engines together for my schools drag cars so with a little help I can put an engine together. HOWEVER, I do not know a single thing about the specs with the cam/crank (lift/duration numbers and such) so I'm having quite a bit of trouble figuring out what to get for the rebuild.
So far I'm going to get:
- Sealed Power MKP6116A-000 - Federal Mogul Premium Engine Rebuild Kits - Overview - SummitRacing.com (premium rebuild kit)
- Different aftermarket heads from a friend

I want to get a little more horsepower out of the engine without blowing all my money and not getting crazy numbers. I'm on a bit of a budget and all I want is a little better then stock motor so I REALLY need some help with this rebuild guys.

 

before you spend a penny get the Block, Heads and Crank to the machine shop to be measured...

 

I haven't done anything to it yet. All I'm doing right now is planning. I know the crank and cam will have to be checked for wear along with the cylinder bores. The heads I have no idea their condition but I know I am going to get a valve job done on them.

 

Where you will make more power is in the cam, head, & exhaust of the 5.8L.
Clean up the heads, removing any casting or machining flaws in the ports. Mill the heads .020-.030 to raise the compression a bit and install some kind of headers, LT or shorties. Also do a search here on what kind of cam to use. Your block is most likely roller lifter ready so go with a roller cam. The number of cams to choose from is large. You don't have to buy new roller lifters or a new cam. A used cam from a 302 HO Mustang will work well and it's cheap!

 

Well for an exhaust I have LT hedman Headers, into true duals through thrush tubes and thrush mufflers. I never thought of milling the heads because well I honestly didn't know you could do that in the first place but I'm just trying to keep the build just about as cheep as I can. All it is going to be is a DD so I don't need a whole lot of HP/Torq.

 

do yourself a favor and find a 94-96 5.8 roller cam block and have that rebuilt that way you can continue to drive what you have. most machine shops will take a couple weeks if not longer to do the work. Personally i would have the machine shop do everything but the tear down. have them order the hardware , machine everything necessary and have them put the motor together. then you get it home and install your accessories and such onto it.

also since your bronco is mass air obd-II you might consider going with a stroker setup since it wont set you back that much more. run some gt40 heads and you wouldnt have a screamer but it would sure produce great low end and be fun to drive

 

Well I'm not driving it currently anyway due to the fact that I'm working on the EGR and EVR and without them the truck won't stay running. I've thought of a stroker kit before but isn't a stroker motor just for short distance kinds of driving? and it would cost quite a bit more for the machine shop to do everything for me and I don't have a whole lot of money to put into this rebuild in the first place.