Ford 5.0 302 in my 86 325e?!

[sumoashe]

Here's a pretty cool example.


Pump gas on Meth. This was a street car, his wife drove it around town pretty regularly. Funniest part is he would tow a trailer behind it with slicks and a jug or two of race gas from Illinois to Kentucky, race, then drive it home.

[sumoashe]

If your looking for build up advice on the motor shoot me a pm with your goals. Hp and rpm. I spent many a year working with some of the top ford drag guys, as well as building and selling some of the best 5.0 parts out there for one of the top ford only performance companies out there. From high rpm NA to big power forced induction cars.

For the bolt on vs turbo debate. It's true to each his own. My view lends more to the bolt on aspect. It's true in the long run turbo will be a cheaper route. But from personal experience it's not always the most drivable or trackable setup. Think 2 stroke powerband. You also have to look at the rpm aspect of it. 5.0's aren't the greatest at turning rpm stock, between the heads, intake and valvetrain they don't like to spin all that high. Now with a swap out of those parts and a proper cam you can get a 5.0 to spin up rather nicely. But that's gonna add to the cost. It's true you can get 500+ on a stock block, but you're on borrowed time at that point. These motors are great, but just like m20's, to really get good power out of them you have to upgrade things as a group. Not just heads, or just intake, or exhaust.

For heads, trickflow all the way. Flowbenched and dyno'd pretty much every 5.0 head out there. Trickflow's won out every time. Look at it this way, to even out competition they put weight penalties on racers using them.
Intake, don't need anything super special. A professional products typhoon will work awesome to 6500. It's basically a copy of a holley systemax II at half the cost.

[jalopi]

If you can find an engine and wiring harness together for a reasonable price, definitely go EFI. Not sure how things are in CA, but I couldn't find anything. People selling a harness wanted ridiculous amounts of money for them (1k or so).

Also, I bet you could get 350 no problem with a good cam, good heads (not gt40's - they don't quite flow as good as aftermarket heads, unless you wanna port em - a lot) and pistons with a slight dome.

[bimmerboy709]

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There are a few things to consider when you set off to do this swap. First and foremost, go read through Funfgan's thread - it's what inspired me to start on my project:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=233691

The second thing is this:

E30V8 does have a somewhat comprehensive guide to doing the swap. If you plan on going EFI, even better. Their guide is quite detailed with all the odds and ends for that matter. If you're going carb'd, well, most of the guide won't be of much use to you.

Aside from the variable of whether you get a good engine or not (or better yet, rebuild it) the biggest obstacles you will face is the exhaust setup and the braking system.

As far as turbos and whatnot goes, Funfgan was nice enough to give me a ride in his car a few months back. He's got stock everything, minus a mild ford racing cam and gt40 heads. His setup is probably making in the ballpark of 260~280whp. With just that amount of power (and he had some pretty decent tires too) the rear tires were lighting up pretty good at lower speeds. Once we got rolling though, I'd say his car was marginally slower than my bike when the rear was gripping. Not that I've got some super bike or anything, but a $5k machine (when new) that can run a 12 second quarter mile is nothing to scoff at - nor is the car that can keep up with it.

I guess what I'm saying is this: unless you plan on running some CRAZY wide tires and spending ALOT of money, don't go for a turbo - unless, of course, you want to go really REALLY fast. In which case, do go for a turbo :) Besides, those stock blocks only hold up to about 400whp or so before cracking.

Haha thanks for your input man Ill be more than content getting into competing with 350 at the wheels. Efi is a forsure thing though! Ill check out his thread when I get to a computer.

[jalopi]

There are a few things to consider when you set off to do this swap. First and foremost, go read through Funfgan's thread - it's what inspired me to start on my project:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=233691

The second thing is this:

E30V8 does have a somewhat comprehensive guide to doing the swap. If you plan on going EFI, even better. Their guide is quite detailed with all the odds and ends for that matter. If you're going carb'd, well, most of the guide won't be of much use to you.

Aside from the variable of whether you get a good engine or not (or better yet, rebuild it) the biggest obstacles you will face is the exhaust setup and the braking system.

As far as turbos and whatnot goes, Funfgan was nice enough to give me a ride in his car a few months back. He's got stock everything, minus a mild ford racing cam and gt40 heads. His setup is probably making in the ballpark of 260~280whp. With just that amount of power (and he had some pretty decent tires too) the rear tires were lighting up pretty good at lower speeds. Once we got rolling though, I'd say his car was marginally slower than my bike when the rear was gripping. Not that I've got some super bike or anything, but a $5k machine (when new) that can run a 12 second quarter mile is nothing to scoff at - nor is the car that can keep up with it.

I guess what I'm saying is this: unless you plan on running some CRAZY wide tires and spending ALOT of money, don't go for a turbo - unless, of course, you want to go really REALLY fast. In which case, do go for a turbo :) Besides, those stock blocks only hold up to about 400whp or so before cracking.

[eurotrash]

Im talking aftermarket aluminum heads not gt40p.

[IronFreak]

To each his on is how you should take it. Both motors that we described will make power. Keep one thing in mind when planning on boosting 1. A motor that wasnt boosted stock, and 2.that same motor in a car it was never in from factory......your cost of custom fab will sky rocket if you don't have the means or ability to fabricate stuff. Just a stock NA 302 swap will cost money if you cant fab. You'll have to pay someone to do welding to the pan and exhaust system. Something to think about. Keep doing research, there is no one right answer. Its all personal preference.

[bimmerboy709]

Not going to lie. I'm a tad confused.. So just get some gt40s and polish them a little, or just boost it, or get the e7 or gt40 heads, polish them, AND boost it? lol

[eurotrash]

What your forgeting is the added weight over the front axel. The extra weight of the heads isnt much 40# or so but when u jam intercooler piping and the turbo weight in there it adds up quick. Plus the money it costs to go turbo. By the time everything was up and running you may as well of bought the heads and not had all the weight. If you wanna throw boost at it after that then rad but from a performance standpoint its 6 of this half dozen of the other.

[IronFreak]

With a little clean up the will flow enough air to be very dangerous. Look at some builds on turbo forums, guys running completely stock block pushing well over 500hp to the wheels.

http://www.theturboforums.com/content/158-Stock-Block-Chronicles

Granted these are drag cars, but I want to emphasize the the power that was made on stock setups. fuel pump, injector and turbo are what got it there.

[eurotrash]

Please get heads. E7s flow terrible and gt40s are still steel and still dont flow great.

[IronFreak]

You'll see my build thread in a week or two. I like being well into my build before I start throwing a thread up.

Why skip the bolt ons.....because if you EVER plan on boosting a 302 in an e30 you won;t need them. E7 heads or gt40's flow decent, a little home polishing and they will allow you to create 500+hp with a tp38 garrett turbo easy.....Which will blow a stock block. That's a lot of power. I have my motor/tranny/turbo combo, but I'm dumping easily two or three times more money into the suspension and steering to handle it. Trying to get that kind of power to hook in a car thats made for turning not drag racing isn't cheap. So unless you plan of drifting, I'd really focus on suspension, and tires haha.

There will be a lot of custom fabrication in my build, including custom motor and tranny mounts. not at all impressed with some of the stuff out on the market, especially the price tag. It could be designed much better, and cleaner for less money. That's just my opinion though.

[eurotrash]

Hang out in these for a while then ill answer any more questions you have. Killa i may be interested in the mounts. been thinking about doing a daily 5.0. message me.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=268104

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=273199

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=233691

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=231221

[bimmerboy709]

Low hp....HIGH torque.

This swap is awesome, ask me how I know....

Do yourself a favor.....save your money with all the aftermarket crap and boost it.

Read the turbobible at turboforums.com. 302's are boost monsters. I'm doing a build now that will have a stock 94 302, TP38 turbo and a tremec tr-3550 transmission. This swap is truly awesome power on a budget wallet!

build thread link for your current 302 build?

Please tell me how you know the swap is awesome!

[bimmerboy709]

Do it! Also buy my motor mounts and tranny xmember for cheap

You've done the swap before? I'm just starting to plan everything out but If i take action soon I will let you know!