I've search this forum and didn't come across what I need. Could be I'm not search the right keywords


I have a 91 Ford F-150 5.0 has a bad motor. I've sourced a good running 5.0 from an 89 f150. To install

I keep seeing everyone say upgrading to a roller cam is a great upgrade


For you guys experiences with this what all do I need to do to upgrade to a roller cam.

 

You need the full roller cam assembly which in this case includes the spider and dogbones that goes in the lifter valley and attaches to the two raised bosses, and you need roller lifters and pushrods(lifters are longer so pushrods are shorter than the flat tappet versions), and of course the roller cam. That '89 block should have the raised bosses in the lifter valley but they may or may not be drilled and tapped, if not that has to be done before cam bearings are installed. And you can't use just any bolts to hold down the spider you need the correct length bolts to prevent damaging the cam bearings that are directly below, so be sure to keep these bolts from the donor motor.
All these parts you could salvage from an junkyard roller motor, the best candidate would be a '94+ truck motor as that has the best truck cam which is totally safe to use as long as it doesn't show excessive wear, wouldn't be a bad idea to buy new lifters though as they will suffer the most wear and they're not terribly expensive. Second best candidate is a 5.0 car motor, look for them in the 89-91 town car, t-bird or crown vic, the cam in these cars is junk so it's really just the spider assembly you would grab here. Third best candidate is the 5.0HO from a Mustang, Lincoln MK7, or T-Bird XR7, you could use this cam but the powerband will be pushed up in rpms a bit so the truck will need more gearing ideally.

Also note you could also pull most of these parts from a '94+ 5.8 motor, that is the same cam as found in the 5.0 truck of this vintage but the pushrods will be too long so you will have to source a set for a 5.0 roller motor.

 

Wow thanks for all that info I've saved it all and I'm gonna hit up Craigslist and the junk yards