hi there, i have an injected 87 302 out of a pick up and im looking to juice it up and slam it in my ranger. i want to convert it to a roller cam and swap the intake to one from a mustang, there are a few things i need to know, will i be ok with the same main bearings, is there i mild cam that will clear with the flat top pistons, and if theres anything else i would need to put in to make the mustang computer work? :S this is my first motor build so and info would be great thanks.

 

Changing the cam has nothing to do with the main bearings.

What is the casting number on your block? An early motor like that may or may not be machined to accept the factory roller cam assembly and if not that will complicate this conversion. Do you have the motor stripped down yet? If so do you see 2 raised bosses in the lifter valley and if so are they drilled and tapped?

 

ok i wasnt sure if the mains need to be rated for a higer rpm, i want to basically make it a ho motor, i was planning on buying the whole conversion kit online(timing chain and sprockets, lifters, springs..etc), its an e7 block and im fairly sure there gt40 heads. i also want to make it sfi, mabye you could possibly help me figure out what im going to need to do this ? :S thanks a bunch (ps. no ive only almost got the upper intake off, i dont have a small enough torques bit ti get that last middle bolt, have to go get one)

 

Yeah I can help you out with this. If the motor came from a truck it won't have GT40 heads. Look for a letter cast into one of the corners, if you find a single letter like T then they're regular E7TE heads, GT40 heads will have the letters GT here and the p version will have GTP here.

The HO motor had regular E7 heads, a HO specific cam and intake, and forged pistons, but otherwise it's exactly the same as the truck motor. The pistons are the same compression ratio so they're not needed from a performance standpoint, and the HO intake is actually the smallest and most restrictive of all 5.0 intakes so if you don't have one already and the truck intake won't fit under the hood of your Ranger get an Explorer intake instead.

Using the Mustang SEFI setup on this motor isn't too hard, you will need an A9L or A9P computer and matching MAF meter, and a conversion wiring harness that you could source from an online vendor or create yourself if you have access to a MAF vehicle you can strip.