Ford 5.0 302 in my 86 325e?!

[eurotrash]

Im talking aftermarket aluminum heads not gt40p.

[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.

[bimmerboy709]

t

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]

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.

[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.

[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.