How about a Stock HO cam ? The HO cam would most likely make more power with the dish piston and driveline components you already have . It won't give you the noticeable idle you mentioned but it would out perform and provide the best drivability and work well with the 3:27 gear. Down the road you could look for a set of cylinder heads, and a cam which could still be changed out easily while in the truck.

 

Now your talkin', that's what I am going to do, well actually the engine is a HO.

So, I think the HO has a different firing order, so if you used the HO cam would you have to change the firing order?

 

Why the HO cam? Does it make pretty good low end power? I'm not familiar with it.

I have to do heads no matter what since I don't have a set right now. My preference is to get it right this time and not have to go back in.

 

The HO cam or stock explorer cam will be much more enjoyable to drive, It will give you gobs of torque over the E 303 and probably more HP with your set up. Spend the money on some heads that flow well.
A good set of heads will almost always out perform a camshaft change.

 

Okay, I have more information now from the conversation. First, the advice to talk to your engine builder is a good one, he's the expert and he's going to make sure everything works.

If you need to buy a cam, and you need to buy heads, and your transmission will need to be rebuilt either way, you're starting from a different place than I was thinking. I like the AOD transmission fine for a slightly performing cruiser, that's what the Mustangs came with for a decade and those were peppy little cars in the day. You will like having an overdrive gear for cruising. If you like to shift, the T5 is a great match for those motors too, and again they come from wrecked Mustangs and are plentiful. Less fluids to leak too...

If I was going to buy all new stuff, then I'd buy good aluminum heads that match a thumpy but not overly hairy cam and whatever fuel system you want to use. I love carbs, but the new throttle body injection systems are bulletproof and need zero tuning once set. Plus if you change things up over the years, you can adjust your tune on the EFI later. Your builder should be able to give you advice on what works. The words you're looking to use with him are things like "streetable" and "cruiser". That will help with build and gear choices. 250 HP will feel like a lot, and you should be looking at about 300 HP with what you're doing here. No matter what, you're going to like it...

 

I put a basically stock 1991 5.0 HO in my daughter's 66 Mustang when the 289 died. I used the external parts we had from the 289. Edelbrock Performer intake, Road Demon 625 carb, stock exhaust manifolds and dual exhaust. (Headers would have sounded meaner) I bought a reman distributor for a carbureted 85 Mustang 5.0 HO going through an MSD 6A box. I used a mechanical fuel pump. Had to use an earlier timing cover and an early fuel pump eccentric. I don't remember what oil pan. I used a balancer from Summit that had optional weights.

I put in an AOD from a 1988 Crown Vic. I used a conversion flex plate I got cheap from Summit and a shift kit from Art Carr with a Lokar TV cable. The rear gears are 3.55 with a Trac-Loc. I fabricated a simple cross member and cut different gates in the stock shifter.

The engine was low miles but, I tore it down and freshened it up with new bearings, a hone and rings. Some basic port and bowl work and a touch up on the valves and seats. This was a scrounge parts low budget build and it's a snappy running little Mustang. I did this when she was 16. She's 35 now and the car is still running great. Needs a few leaks fixed, otherwise still a strong runner.

 

If you go HO this might help I could let it go cheap

This is a take off not new but never used

 

Interesting. I'll do some research on it.

 

Thanks for the input. I'm going to use my truck a lot and want it to have good manners. I think my builder is more in the mindset of a street rod that only gets driven once in a while and has a hot motor. I just need to communicate what I want out of it better.

The aod came out of a crown Vic that was wrecked in 1999. It only has 60k miles but has been sitting for so long that I think it would be best to go through it and have a shift kit added while they are in there. I can run it with the 3.27 gears and then swap them out later if I don't like the performance.

Definitely going with the Holley sniper efi for the same reasons you mentioned.

 

What kind of cheap please

How is that different from a stock 1992 HO ? Thanks.

 

I sent you a message and that is the same as a Mustang but never had engine running surplus ford parts

 

With my AOD and 3.00 gears in the 9 inch rear I'm at 1,600 RPM at 65 mph. Gas mileage still sucks though. On a good day I'll get 12 mpg.

 

What motor are you running? With those gears and that trans is it pretty sluggish off the line?

 

AOD and C4 first gear ratios are pretty much the same so takeoff wouldn't change . TIRDOOD my guess would be you're running too slow . My 35 dodge coupe (350-350 ) runs 2700 at 65 and gets 17mpg with 3.00 gears .

 

I have 3.73 gears with an AOD behind a stock 5.8 W and it's sluggish off the line...