know i know that my 5.0 is a powerful motor, but i was wondering how much can i safely get out of the motor. Can i get one of those hand held programers or are those only for newer trucks, what about a chip? The truck has cold air intake and exhaust already done to it. It just needs a little bit more get up and go.

Thanks, Chris

P.S. 87 F150 EFI 5.0

 

what size tires are you running? chip and those programers are pointless on a stock motor. start with headers and a bassani Y pipe then run 3" exhaust out stock location. from there look into an edelbrock truck efi intake and bbk 56mm throttlebody. also a good tune up with autolite or motorcraft copper plugs, ford 9mm wires , msd coil and bump the timing up to 12-14* btdc with spout connector removed.
you can even upgrade to some aftermarket heads.

 

CAI's dont really add power on a stock engine, unless youve got a turbo diesel. You need to do what Kemicalburns said and get an aftermarket truck intake.
The HO 5.0L made 25 more hp and 30 ft/lbs more in mustangs 88+....you could go that route and pull the cam/intake from a 88+newer mustang, Im pretty sure they are all HO and parts should be plentiful. If budget isnt a problem Id say go aftermarket intake/cam/underdive pullies

 

the guy i bought it from kept the stock size tires on it, but i'm gonna put some Kumho Ventures on it sometime this summer, 31's probably, the truck does have MSD ignition on it already and the exhaust is something that i will be working on, 3 inch sounds good with some headers, some heads and a cam are probably what i will put on the engine first and then the efi kit from edelbrock

 

The stock 5.0 truck is seriously limited by the camshaft. It is an embarrasment, really. Probably the best thing you could do is find a 5.0 mustang motor and drop it in.. but short of that, swapping in a HO spec flat tappet cam is the best bang for your $$. An aftermarket cam and lifter package can be had for $200 and will work with the SD computer, as long as it's not too wild. The truck block will accept an actual mustang roller cam as well, but you'll need the lifters and retainer, and will have to rewire the injectors and plug wires if you go that route, because the firing order is different. If you're going that far however, you're halfway to a mass air conversion, and that's what you'll need to add heads and a bigger cam later anyway.
Lots of people swap out the intake but is will have little to no effect if you don't improve the engines breathing ability first. That means a cam and some exhaust work. People are also under the mistakes impression that the aftermarket intakes are bigger and flow more air than the stock unit, but they would be wrong. The truck intake runners are HUGH!! As a matter of fact they are bigger than anything found on any other Ford vehicle, and anything they offer aftermarket. You would think this would be good, but the resulting low intake air speed kills low rpm torque, and the motor doesn't breath well enough to ever come close to utilizing half the intakes potential. The stock truck 5.0 makes more torque and horsepower with a mustang or crown vic intake on it. The intake Edelbrock uses on thier 500hp kit uses smaller intake runners than the stock truck intake!! Size is not everything..it's all about airflow management. So it's better to put together a proven package like the one's Edelbrock sells than to just throw random parts at an engine.

 

summit sells a cam and lifter package for 69.99...and after a lot of reserch i found that it is the identical specs to the edlebrock performer cam (wich is a 1000-5000 rpm cam wich is good for the truck motor)...

 

how hard is to install a cam and heads?

 

I have also been wonderin what to do for now to get some more *** out of my 1990 5.0. I already have headers, true dual exaust with H pipe and a K&N filter in the stock intake box. i also gave it a tune up but have been thinkin about the Jet chip as well as some cams but didnt know what cams to get. The motor still runs stong with only 66k miles on it but since i put the new suspension and tires it needs a little more power. I know gears would solve alot of issues but i kinda like the gears in it now for highway driving, makes my gas milage a little better.

 

cam selection is very important. because most of us have speed density efi systems the cam must have a lobe seperation no less then 114* otherwise the computer will not alow the motor to run properly. so that summit cam mentioned above probably wont work. Call compcams they can recommend a good setup. but know that in some cases you also must upgrade the valve springs and lifters and while your in there changing out the timing chain would be a good idea to.

surfin are you figuring in the difference in tire size and gear ratio to get the correct mileage. if you have the correct gearing your mpg will improve allowing the motor to operate in its optimal power range. and if you have an od gear its even better.

 

Ya i have an OD gear, but i also dont have the $$ to change the gears. im summit, Trick Flow has a setup for the 5.0 EFI that includes everything you need but at a cost of $2200 plus if i were to put gears lookin at another 1k for 4x4 and with a baby on the way i just cant afford it.

 

Conaski is right, my 89 F150,302 with M50D is an embarrasment. I've done the exhaust with the crossover,advanced the timing,and the CAI. I feel like "Scotty", "Captain,I'am giving you all she's got!". I just don't see a way to get any more out of it without spending quite a bit more. Thanks Nibog.

 

Crane has the Compu cam series, and Ford has several as well(probably made by Crane). I have dual pattern Crane that is close to FMS part # M6250A311. Specs are 204/214 duration and 448/472 lift. This cam idles smoothly, but performs way above stock. The truck can actually accelerate in OD and will climb pretty big hills without downshifting. It also builds power out to 4500rpm where the stock 5.0/5.8 motors don't like reving over 3500 it seems.

 

^ are you still runnin stock heads?

 

It is very easy to get horsepower and torque out of a 5.0. Using my mustang as an example I gained 110rwhp and about 60rwtq out of a head, cam, and intake swap with the supporting mods.

The biggest thing to limit these 5.0s is the heads and intake, swap those and itll feel like twice the engine. Being a truck I would lean towards a cam that'll get you torque over horsepower though.

 

I'm running ported/reworked '86 mustang heads. These would not be my first choice but were all I could come up with when I was building the motor and found a crack in one of my truck heads. For the most part, all windsor heads are the same casting with slight variations year to year, and bigger bolt holes on the 351 versions. This particular head is badly flow limited in stock trim due to excessive valve shrouding, which results from the deep swirl style combustion chamber shape, and a hugh air injection bump in the exhaust port. I laid back the combustion chamber walls to unshroud the intake valve, completely removed the air injection hump, smoothed the exhaust port roof and blended it into the pocket area behind the valve. I did only minor smoothing on the intake floor to remove burrs. I have no data to back it up but I feel they should flow better than a stock truck head, mainly on the exhaust side, though probably no better than the more popular E7 style head with the air injection hump removed. My goal was not high horsepower, but big torque, so the smaller combustion chamber on these heads(64cc vs 68cc on the regular head) helps that some.