H.O. Upper stuff swap on LoPo - Does this produce noticable gains?

[88grandmarq]

Well there was clearly something wrong with your parts there.

nothing wrong with the parts, that I could find

[gadget73]

I'd skip the Cobra rockers and go for something more durable. Also from my own experience, they get sloppy and noisy. The Scorpion rockers I have fit fine under stock 1985 Mustang valve covers. Won't swear to them fitting under the steelies.

[pantera77]

nothing wrong with the parts, that I could find

I mean, numerous people including myself have converted lopo's to HO's with no problems, so I'd have to say you had a problem somewhere with your setup.

I really don't get the point of matching e7's with a lopo cam. As terrible as e6's are, they do one thing well, and that is low end power, which just so happens to be the lopo cam's specialty as well. It seems silly to me to break them up. e7's really aren't any better than e6's in the low rpm range, which if you have a lopo cam, is all you will ever see.

[knucklehead0202]

I'll likely end up getting a set of either AFR 165/185 heads, or something like edelbrock performers. They can be had at a reasonable price if you keep your eyes open, and are a million times better than any factory ford head. I don't want to be constantly changing setups so I want to get it all and do it once. The HO-type cam I have is an old crane 2030, which is very similar to Gadg's xe258, and were known for being a torquey bastard all across the RPM range. I'm currently shopping heads with 58cc chambers to give a little compression bump too, which should help it make use of the other stuff much better. Once I get back over to the junkyard i'll see if that box wagon has a 3.55 trac-loc axle and maybe grab the whole damn thing. If not i'll likely be doing 3.55s and some kind of limited-slip to get rid of the 3.08 open. Anyhow, my car is Mass-air so I really don't expect to have any running/drivability issues short of just screwing something up.

I do have a question for the electronic/computer savvy here: Being that I'm mass-air, if I switch to HO computer, will an automatic mustang computer work and allow my cruise to still work? Many of the mustangs of that era had cruise control so I just wonder. Or do I need to find a mass-air MK VII computer? If so, any idea what that model# is? I'll probably have money for heads within the next month, and all the other small stuff i'll be picking up here and there. Project is not moving forward as quickly as I'd hoped, but they never really do, do they?

[gadget73]

Auto Mustang ECM does not have cruise built in. You'd need to convert it to the older style stand-alone cruise or figure a place to mount a second ECM, using yours just for cruise functions.

[DerekTheGreat]

Looks like I'll never be able to find H.O. stuff but I've come across several 5.0 equipped Exploaders. What about swapping my upper & lower intake for that stuff? Will my lightning TB fit? Will it clear the hood?

[87gtVIC]

Your lightning egr spacer and throttle body are better suited for Explorer bits.

[gadget73]

hood clearance is not a problem at all. I've been running that setup on my car for years now. I also have a 1" spacer. You may need one as well in order to clear the fuel rail properly, or you can probably fake it in there with minor grinding on the bottom side of the throat to clearance it from the fuel rail.

[DerekTheGreat]

Thanks fellas, I'll raid the yards for a decent explorer set up. Found one when I was at the yards with Vic, was real nice but thought that wasn't necessary and honest I was trying to save labor by just getting away with an upper swap. If I do the sploader stuff I'll more than likely put new lifters in too to get rid of the morning clatter fest. Is it possible to use the sploader fuel rails? Are the injectors better? Is the spacer an aftermarket deal or are they on some cars? A quick scan of eBay shows some with what looks to be a 1 inch spacer..

[VicCrownVic]

PG on 8 mile expanded their truck section. I had the day off yesterday and it looked like the expansion was recent. There were a few Exploders there, but I didn't check if any of them had the 5.0.

[DerekTheGreat]

Wow, did they finally clear out the carcasses? The trucks I saw there were pretty much stripped clean, what was left was either broken or not worth the effort. Last time I swapped an intake (Fireturd) it leaked a bit of oil so I'm a bit hesitant to do that swap myself, had no qualms about the upper but the bottom has me concerned a tad as well as the lifters.

[AshleyTheGreat]

PG on 8 mile expanded their truck section. I had the day off yesterday and it looked like the expansion was recent. There were a few Exploders there, but I didn't check if any of them had the 5.0.

It's about time! Interested to take a look at it next time we hit up the junkyard. Dream Cruise this weekend so it'll probably be next weekend before we can take a peak at what they have.

[gadget73]

You want 96-97ish intakes. The ones with 9 holes in the middle. Later ones don't have EGR passages internally.

Lifters aren't any better. Usually they aren't the issue anyway, its more often a crappy drainback valve in the fuel filter. I would not use used ones anyway.

Injectors do not work unless you swap the cam. Honestly if you've got the intake and lifters out, a cam swap is not that much more involved. Basically yank the timing cover off, pull the radiator, and swing the condensor out of the way and the cam will swap in and out. I might go Explorer cam with the stock heads, they just don't breathe worth a damn and swapping an HO cam with them will not help much. Explorer cam will play OK with them, and you get a bit more oomph and the better firing order. Mark VII ECM should let all that play OK. At that point the Explorer injectors work as well.

Exploder fuel rails do not fit.

[VicCrownVic]

PG had plenty of Exploders from the mid 90s, maybe you can find one with the 5.0 and intake with proper holes.
Although, knowing that place, by the time next weekend rolls around all the trucks will probably be stripped carcasses again.

[DerekTheGreat]

You want 96-97ish intakes. The ones with 9 holes in the middle. Later ones don't have EGR passages internally.

Lifters aren't any better. Usually they aren't the issue anyway, its more often a crappy drainback valve in the fuel filter. I would not use used ones anyway.

Injectors do not work unless you swap the cam. Honestly if you've got the intake and lifters out, a cam swap is not that much more involved. Basically yank the timing cover off, pull the radiator, and swing the condensor out of the way and the cam will swap in and out. I might go Explorer cam with the stock heads, they just don't breathe worth a damn and swapping an HO cam with them will not help much. Explorer cam will play OK with them, and you get a bit more oomph and the better firing order. Mark VII ECM should let all that play OK. At that point the Explorer injectors work as well.

Exploder fuel rails do not fit.

I thought about that too.. For what I'd pay in parts & stuff I could probably get an actual H.O. motor, or at least pretty darn close to it. I'm just not that confident in what I can do. No garage means that would have to be done that day, can't chance animals getting into it or the car sitting down forever. My luck would have me breaking a bolt off in the timing cover or effing up gasket work. I'd need help from someone who has done it all before so they can help make sure I do it right. Manifold I could probably do, least it would be cheap enough if I farmed that out.

PG had plenty of Exploders from the mid 90s, maybe you can find one with the 5.0 and intake with proper holes.
Although, knowing that place, by the time next weekend rolls around all the trucks will probably be stripped carcasses again.

I bet you're right on that lol. Those guys have got to be hungrier than me for that stuff.