Thread: 5.0 7-UP Mustang

Tweet

Just purcahsed a 1990 LX 5.0 7-UP Limited.
Emerald Green, Power everything, Turbine style aluminum wheels, white convertiple top.
It's got 100k on the OD.
It was a family car and I am the second owner. The Mom drove it to work and store, the daughter drove it to College until she lost it on some slick roads. The son had it till he was 18 and wanted a new 5.0. They even threw in a little 7-UP dot doll to hang on the mirror.
So, now it's mine, engine is clean, leather is cracked on the seats, new top in Nov of last year. Engine pulls very well, no smoke or leakes at all. I had Flow Masters put on it. Still has the cats installed. It has a few paint problems due to the crappy primer Ford used.
What I'm looking for is a bit more pep from the little 302.
I am looking to put a K&N intake unit on it in the near future, but was asking the group for advise as to what I can add without pulling the engine. Shorty headers are a real option. The factory headers look like someone used a pipe wrench and a hammer to make them fit.

I was given a CPU from a 1993 GT to try in the car, installed it after wrestling the damn thing from the kick panel, didn't change much other than the shift points. I understand that there are CPU's that can add 20% to the performance just as a plug up.

I'm an old SBC Carb guy, these CPU's and FI are Greek to me!

Any advise is appreciated

Sounds like a fun car, Craig. You might want to look at a different upper and lower intake and maybe some bigger injectors. Check out the Ford SVT catalog, your local Ford dealer should have one.

Whew

How fast do you want to go.

Is the car an AOD.

If so you need to swap it over to a 5 speed (can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit) lol

If it is an auto in good shape add a stall and a valve body that will hold the 2/3 shift.

You can get the heads/intake off a v8 explorer, roller rockers, electric fan, gears.

The aftermarket is HUGE for these cars. I would suggest a visit to corral.net

If you need some parts let me know I have a ton of stuff.

Mit,
I really don't want to jerk the tranny out and go with the 5 speed.
I would LIKE to but I want to keep it as original as possible.
The thing might be worth something one day. The car is an AOD, I drive it mostly in the # 2 on the shifter, it's changing 3 times but not to the low low OD.

I will look into injectors, a new plenum and headers for sure.
The shortys I have looked at are nice, looks like a streight bolt on.

Stick with the 19LB injectors in the car. A bigger injector will kill it unless you are going to supercharge, NOS, or do a heads, cam, intake. Plus you would have to get a mass air meter calibrated for the bigger injectors.

Yes, I would recommend the BBK shortys headers and off road H pipe. Like I said You can get an upper and lover intake off an V8 explorer. These intakes flow #s are almost identical to the GT40 intake (Came on the 93 Cobras) And they can be had for around $50. to $100. They are a direct bolt on and look similar to stock.

The heads off the explores are GT40s too.

With a little work and some wise parts shopping you can really wake this car up

depending on which injection system your 5.0 came equiped with, you can gain a little extra bottom end torque by adding a larger throttle body.... takes a matter of minutes to change out... computer wise, you're really not going to push that much further than you have.... the AOD, if you're gonna keep it, 100k is pushing it on one of those gnarley beasts..... add some redline transmission fluid to it and take care of it.... it'll make it shift a little better, and if you're lucky make it last longer.... preferably converting it to a manual isn't going to be that big of a deal, and if you really want to keep it for being a "classic" someday.... keep the AOD in the garage for some later day

Mu son bought a set of BBK shorty headers.
Polished Ceramic
I sure hope there isn't any surprises during the install.

Any hints?

they should fit like a glove

I'll let you know Monday!

Should I loosen up the H pipe?

I didn't have to. If they are individually flanged headers start with the back bolts first and work your way forward. Don't know why but it just works better that way.

I don't know what gear you are running. But a set of gears will be like night and day. I have 3:55 in my AOD car wish I had went 3:73 or 4:11 but it still gets decent mileage on the interstate (23mpg)

This one is in the 20's for MPG.

Not bad.
I have a bad habit of punching it, feels good in the middle of your back.

I was looking down in the passengerside of the engine and it looks like the back bolts may be a pain to get back in.

Anti seeze on the bolts when installing.

Got the shorty headers in yesterday.
Not a bad install, just a pain putting in the bolt on the back side pasenger side. The car still has the smog equipment and the two hoses attachments running to the pump were in the way.
I did find out that once you take those two hoses off, the metal ends of those two things are damn sharp! Got a nice circle cut on the back of my hand when I was removing the stock bolts to the header. Bled like a stuck pig for a while!

Got everything buttoned up except for the dip stick.

Due to the headers the angle changed for the tube at entry into the block. the dipstick will not go all the way down.
Looks like a call to Lokar to see if they have a unit of if anyone has a suggestion on how to fix it.

Performance.
Didin't see a big increase on the low end, mid range seems much better. Getting a little more "rumble" from the pipes.
Also I can hear a little bit of a "steel" sound during reving of the engine? Does that make sense?
It's a good sound.

what kind of steel sound are you getting? rattle, rub or ting?

I guess I used the wrong word.

It's a change in note of the sound from the original sound before the headers were installed.

You know how a 8 seond drag car sounds at the end of the run?
It doesn't really sound like a street car at all. It has a mechaincal sound, you really can't hear the expolsions as much as you hear all the machinery going crazy.

Nothing is wrong with the engine, it's the frequency?

oh hahaha yeah ok.... its just a change in the pitch..... you'll want to retighten those header bolts once a month for the first 6 months, just so you know.... and if you dont exactly like that sound... you can always go with new mufflers.... i know the exhaust shop by my house has a computer program that you can select which headers, pipe style, cats, and mufflers... and it'll give you what kind of exhaust sound you're gonna get... its kinda cool really.... did it with my mustang, played around with it til i got the sound i liked the best and performed the best... and amazingly... sounds just like the computer made it sound