Ok, here is what I have planned for the engine rebuild in my 90' Bronco (with 92' clip) so far. This rebuild is happening a little sooner than I had hoped for due to the engine breaking a piston skirt and bending a rod a few weeks ago. Plan as of current is:

Probe 408 ci stroker kit with their cast crank, forged pistons (15cc dish) and their 5140 CNC machined beam rods with ARP bolts.

I was going to make the switch to aftermarket heads had the engine given me more time to save the funds, but its just not currently in the budget. This forced me to do further investigation and I'm glad I did. What I came across was that although the stock E7TE-PA heads are apparently dogs in stock form, alot of 5.0 Mustang guys have been sticking with them and apparently they really come around with mods. So, tomorrow I am boxing up my heads and shipping them off to Powerheads the flow numbers they can get out of the E7's is somewhat hard to believe, but its about all I can see affording as of current. Powerheads per their website and my phone conversation claim they can get these to flow 217cfm on the intake and 174 on the exhaust @ .500" lift, after CNC porting, bowl work and fitting them with 1.90/1.60 valves. The low and mid lift flow numbers are really impressive as well. I would think this would equate into a very strong and flat torque curve. Hopeing for a good big block impression on the torque numbers.

Intake will be the Edelbrock Performer for the 5.8 truck.

Will be ordering the Ford Lightning Mass Air conversion kit shortly (ouch big bucks).

The undecided items are:

Cam.......Hydraulic Roller or Flat Tappet? Specs?
If I can afford it I'll go roller, just not sure yet.
Was kind of thinking of something in the 220-230 duration + area and maybe up around .550" lift Dual pattern

Roller Rockers yes, but who's???? what would be durable and cheap and fit under stock covers????

Please Note: this engine will have to pass emissions testing, so the usual compromise situation. I want as much cam as will safely pass the sniffer test.

Throttle body size???? Had not even gotten that far yet.

Stock volume oil pump or high volume???? Curious as I've seen reference to HV but still low (stock?) pressure. I don't want real high pressure at cold start ups.

Would like to keep the stock valve covers and oil pan.

Do I need a windage tray???? If so how do I add that?

Headers? Well everyone I've talked to says this thing is gonna want 1 3/4" primarys, but the only shorty emissions legal headers I've spotted for my application are the BBK's with 1 5/8" tubes. So they may just have to do.

I have the O4D trans with a shift kit and I am hoping to be able to afford a looser convertor if not immediately, in a very short time.

My Bronco already does have a 2 1/2" true dual exhaust with flowmasters, exiting on each side before the rear wheels.

Thats about it off the top of my head. Any and all input is greatly appreaciated. Thanks in advance.

 

nice! Gt40 would have been nicely priced but ported e7 will be better. Roller cost more but they make more power. You can change cam or lifters seperate unlike the Flat tappets. daul pattern cams work well on fords. High Volume oil pumps seem to have more draw backs than benefits. Stay with the shortie headers but remember you will be losing power dueing that. What can you say with emissions. I would recommend checking into injectors. I think stock is 19lbs but 24 or 30 might be more along the lines.

 

Thanks, and the injectors that come with the Lightning Mass Air conversion kit are 30 pounders. I wonder what kind of HP 30# injectors are good to.

 

well stock 19# can handle up to 350hp probably in the 500hp+range

 

they are rated for 300hp max!

 

Which is rated for 300 max????

The 19's I'm assuming you mean.

 

yeah the 19s.

 

What kind of head room do we have with the 30# Injetors????
Big numbers????

 

What kind of gears and tire size are you running? That will be a big influence on the cam selection.

Forged pistons are not nessasary unless you plan high boost level (12psi+) or high levels of nitrous.

Is that suppose to say E4OD tranny?

 

Hey 1TUFF, you might want to go to www.racesystems.com and play around with their perfcalc to figure out injector sizing. I was just checking it out and if your going to be running over 380 HP, it looks as though you'll have to be getting the 36 lb injectors. I dont know if you'll find the 36's from FMS around anymore. Summit has the FMS 42's which will hold over 500, so these might be your best choice if you want to use any power adders in the future.

Brian, I think he's better off to stick with the forged pistons, for all of us that can never seem to get enough HP, better to start with the parts you'll probably need in the future anyway.

 

Yes, I'm running the E4OD trans, sorry on the typo. Trans has a shift kit and did shift firm enough to occasionaly chirp second gear depending on the blacktop conditions (we'll see how long the trans lasts with double the power plugged in). Plan is to add a 2500 rpm convertor before the motor goes back in.

Currently the truck just has the stock gears, I believe 3.50's or 3.55's. Plan is to within a few months change the gears to either 4.10's or 4.56's.

Truck is currently riding on Interco Truxus M/T's 33x12.5's. Actualy they measure 34"s tall. Very nice tires by the way, only about a month old.

On the forged pistons, well I was going to try some Hyperuetectics. However, even though I was reading about plenty of engine buildups making even 500+HP, well the several engine shops that I asked about them basically said the people pushing those kind of numbers were pushing their luck. Basically I didn't like the info about the Hyperuetectics retaining alot of heat in the domes and the top ring gap being so critical that if there wasn't enough clearance you'd break the tops off the pistons. Likewise I may put a lower psi supercharger such as a Powerdyne on her later. I just don't want to be worried about the pistons and I was having to many experienced people tell me things that had me worried.

On the injectors, thank you and I will definetly check that link out. I'm still not sure exactly how I'm going to go about the Mass Air conversion. It will probably be the last thing I get before the first light up. When I spoke to ProM to see what they had to offer, they told me that 30# ers would be the way to go for 400-550HP. They said 24# ers would work up to about 400HP.

On alot of the details I'm just going to have to make the best educated choice and be ready to possibly change a few things as I'm fine tuning. I think the cam and injectors could fall into that area. I am atleast committed to going with a roller lifter cam at this point, that should help to keep the HP up and the duration spec down. Although with my love of the effect higher duration has on the idle, I'm going to have to be extremely restrained in a couple of weeks when I have to make that simple little part number choice. Springs on my heads are going to be good for a .600" lift roller, not that I'll need that.

If you take into account the gears I'm planning to run (4.10 or 4.56) what would be the most cam I should try out keeping in mind that the truck will have her first emissions test with the new motor in Oct of 06'???? This should give me plenty of time to get her fine tuned and tested before it counts.

Ordered my Pro Topline heads yesterday, and should have them in my hands by the first part of the week. Can't wait to see em in person. Feal like a little boy anticipating that first motorcycle at X-Mass or something. This 408 buildup has definetly got me excited. Should be a good learning experience for that future bad *** 5spd vert Mustang I have plans for in the future.

Thanks for the continued help guys.

 

Humm, I'm not certain that 30 lb injectors will support over 370 HP based on the calculator for injector size thats on race systems site. When you compute these you have to enter in a 80% duty cycle to be realistic. There is the calulation sheet under Mustang math at the ProM site that computes it the same way, and given the real #'s the calcs come up much less than what you were informed. Maybe they were basing those on 100% duty cycle? the computations are recommended to be made at 80% duty and at 0.5 BSFC for realistic measurments. Try out the calcs and see.

 

I think the most cam you would want is something like Comp Cams x-treme energy grinds, such as the XE262H or XE268H. I don't know about the emissions though.

 

I can't seem to download the perf calulator deal at racesystems. Keeps saying page cannot be found. I'll keep trying though. Lots of other interesting info on their website though. I'll email them and see what they have to say regarding the Mass Air conversion, etc.

Does not surprise me that I was given wrong info. Out of everybody I've talked to and everything I've read there is a lot of variation in info. Kind of frustrateing but thats life. You'd think it would be pretty simple, x number of HP is gonna take x amount of fuel to support.

I've got one build up that I printed out months ago where a guy has a 73' Bronco with a 423 stroker, 10.5:1 CR, BBK 70mm TB, FMS 70mm MAF, 30# injectors, solid lifter cam (specs unknown), A9P EEC (no idea what that application is for). Wish I new this guys cam specs, but he refers to how everyone said the computer in stock form would never work with his mods. Then the guy goes on to say how it works perfectly and all he's had to play with is the fuel system (I assume pressure). The dude even goes on to say how strong the thing runs and describes it as "fluctuates from 650 to 800rpm and idles through mud bogs at 10,000 feet elev., jumps to 6000 rpm in a heartbeat, starts up cold just fine, and has great manners". Now I don't know forsure how good this guy really has this thing running but if its tuned and idleing like that.......well he's got a nice cam in there! Reminds me of the way you'd describe the idle I had years ago with a 340 Duster that I had. It had a 292 248dur@.050 and 509" lift. Well now that I think about my idle did fluctuate more than that. Probably more like 800 to 1050, but I didn't have fuel injection ofcourse.

Over the next couple of weeks I will have to nail down the following remaining details.

I have to pick a cam. Specs undecided at this point. Brand also undecided.

Retro fit conversion lifters to run a roller cam in a non-roller block. I think I should do the conversion via the lifter route as opposed to a small base circle cam so I'm opened to more of a variety of cams in the future.

Have to nail down the injector size I'll need and I'm betting your right that 30's aint gonna cut it.

Have to pick roller rockers.

Have to figure out if there is any way of running a spacer or thick gaskets so I can just run the stock valve covers.

TB size.

MAF meter size and make.

Headers. Bassani it turns out unfortunately does not make a shorty emissions legal 1 3/4" for my app. Haven't looked further though. May have to put BBK's on.

And finally, I have to nail down how I'm gonna go about the Mass Air conversion.

I like the factory type airbox that comes with the lightning kit, but kind of feal like the ProM kit although much more expensive might still be the way to go with there killer 90mm MAF meter.

 

Oh, and I did speak to Comp Cams tech line the other day. I told the guy I was doing a 408 stroker for a Bronco and he didn't ask me anything other than what trans I had and what convertor I intended to run. I told him a 2500rpm convertor and then I said don't you need to know what heads I'm gonna run or any other details. He didn't ask, so I told him anyways and also told him that the cam specs he had just told me I should run which were if I remember, something like 214/220 @.050 and 5 teens on the lift specs on a 110 lobe sep. I said firstly I've been told I need to keep the lobe sep up to 112 and secondly don't you need to know whether I'm doing a Mass Air conversion or not. He said oh ya, are you? (Duh) I said those cam specs seem kind of tame and I'm hopeing for over 400 hp here. He say's I don't think you'll be making more than about 320 to 330 hp. I said your way off. Then I asked him for some other cam specs for a little more valve movement. I fealt like I was definnetly talking to the wrong guy.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Powersurge Performance and I'm hopeing that since there is no performance bronco shop engine wise, that they will be the next best thing being into Lightnings.

If only it was half the job it is to change cams I'd have one for emissions testing and one for max performance. Sort of like back in the day when I knew guys that would have one motor for emissions testing and one to kick *** and take names.

Thanks again guys.