I am thinking about buying a completely stock 1989 Ford F150 2wd 5.0/302 with AOD. An older gentleman is selling this truck that he bought new. Gearing is the stock 3.55. Stock tire size. I know this is a rather small motor, and NO, I am not drag racing, but I was just wondering if these trucks will typically spin the tires if floored hard from a stop? This truck does not at all. Is the motor that under powered, or is the gears the problem?

Do similar 1992-1996 trucks offer better performance over the 1987-1991 models?

Thanks!

 

With stock tires and 3.55s an '89 302 should be able to spin tires, I had a friend that had a similar truck and it would spin a tire (no traclok) even when he had 31s on it, it didn't light 'em up, but it would spin a tire a little. Same motor, same trans, same gears. I would say that motor is probably getting tired. How many miles are on it?

 

The newer 5.0 roller motors have more HP than the older non rollers......Lew

 

It should. My 83 302/2v with the Aod, 3.55 gears, and 235/75/15 tires could with over 200k on it. x2 on the rollers.
regards
rikard

 

Mine did the other day leaving an intersection. Course there was sand all over the place.....

 

No, in general an all stock 5.0 truck of this vintage would have problems making the tires chirp from a dead stop let alone break them loose.

 

I dunno, i can usually make mine chirp from a dead stop, or if i want spin and i got the 5.0 3.55 and stock sized t/a's i could even do it with the cap on.

 

My 302 will light up the back tires from a dead stop & break them loose from a 20 mph kick down ,......Lew

 

On my stock truck with stock size wheels and very cheap/crappy tires, mine would bark em no problem. I put new Toyo Open Country AT's on there and I have a lot better traction now. I can spin em when I take a hard right and nail the gas, the inside (right) tire will spin and smoke a little.. I smoked my back right tire off pretty good before I replaced them. haha

IMO, it really depends on the tires and how healthy your engine is.

 

Lew your truck is nowhere near stock so it's not a fair comparison.

As already stated the later trucks were more powerful than the early trucks... a lot more than the published numbers would seem to indicate, I have driven many of these old 5.0's and they are all pretty lame for the most part. It should be no problem to make one wheel spin around a corner especially with an open diff, but put a tight LS in there and suddenly it's not so impressive. My 5.0 will spin both tires a little from a dead stop going straight forward on dry/clean pavement but it's got a cam and longtubes and even then it won't produce a burnout like my 5.8 would.

 

Yeah when my truck was stock i dont think it would spin the tires , never tried ...Lew

 

It does depend alot if the rear end is LS or not. When mine was one wheel wonder and had the stock 235 75 15 tires that were shot, it would spin the one tire. Now ever since I put in better gears and LS with 31 10.50 15 tires, It won't spin them on dry pavement.

 

That's impressive, Lew! I want my 302 to do that too. Tell me, what modifications have you done to your 302 to make it run like that?

Don't hold back on me, Chief.

 

Its a built HO in a lite truck , i have a build sheet on my profile ...

 

Put gt40 heads on it with a E303 cam!!! The gt40p are a good head, but look at the flow chart, the 40s will out flow the P's!!! Any way you go they both are a good "stock" head! Plus you can get a set of P's cheaper than the 40s!!! Have fun with it!!