Guys I have a 1990 5.8L 4x4 bronco. I wanted to give it a bit more power. I was thinking of some head porting/milling a cam and an intake. Would I need to do the throttle body and MAF to go along with this as well? Id like to get a nice bump in power but not end up spending a fortune either. If I came across a good deal on some used GT40 heads or something I wouldn't be opposed to that. I'm used to modding 5.0 mustangs, but I dont know what the MAF/TB/Computer setup is in this vehilcle and what else I would need to do.

Obviously I would need some shorty headers as well to open up the exhaust.

Thanks for any input!

 

Anyone know the compression ratio on these motors and what size the stock CC is on the heads? I was thinking of getting a head to raise the compression a bit as well... any suggestions on that?

 

Stock 5.8 of this era runs about 8.5:1 compression. GT-40 heads will be roughly the same with stock pistons, but are a nice performance upgrade. My 5.8 is 9.0:1 due to the flat top pistons with valve reliefs. A cam and long tube headers really wakes up the motor. Surf through the last page or 2 of this forum and the 1987-1996 Truck forum, there have been a lot of discussions on performance upgrades, what works better with trucks and such.... MAF conversion is not necessary with some of the milder cams and an exhaust, but you get added performance potential going to MAF, plus smoother operation and in some cases better milage. It also opens up the door for more radical cam selection.. but getting carried away will that will often result in a poor performing combination.

 

Conaski, how did you rig your long tubes up. I've been looking at doing the same thing w/ my 93.

 

I bought the longtubes for a carb'd setup, and had a muffler shop weld on a couple fittings, one for the O2 sensor, and the other for the EGR tube, both of which go on the pass side header. I mounted the headers on the motor before it was installed in the truck to be sure everything was in the right place. You want the O2 sensor wires to come straight off the side of the collector towards the transmission, it a pretty tight fit in any other direction. And there's no way to know where to put the EGR tube fitting unless the intake is on the motor as well. I picked up a second EGR tube from a scrap yard and cut the large female end off it to use as my weld-on fitting.

 

i suggest get some headers like gibson,jba,edelbrock,bbk or bassani. get a bassani y pipe with hi flow cats and then run a single 3" exhaust from there out stock location. the gt40's are good heads and you can locate them for a decent price some times. long tubes can be a pain and will give slight low end gains over shorties but the headache trying to install them and the xtra exhaust work needed to make work dont make it worth it in my mind. since your bronco is speed density the best cam for you and still keep computer happy would be compcam 35-255-5, great upgrade cam for sure. you can also look into the edelbrock efi truck intake to top things off.

What tranny are you running, if its an e4od going maf is a bit more troublesome to say the least. it can be done but is not very plug & play.