What do yall think, i want power

[85LTDCrownHip]

So, i made a post about 2 months back about free power gains for an 85 Crown Vic/Grand Marquis, in that post i was porting my cfi unit to try and get some extra power, at the time that was the most "custom" work i did to her. Now i have a Pro Performance Hurricane singleplane 4bbl intake, autolite 2 barrel from. 71 Montego, E6SE heads (which i want to port for somemore torque.... Ive also got stock e5 heads, which do you think would perform better?), Hedman 1 5/8 hedders to a 3 inch collectors, down to 2 1/2 magna flow straigh throughs, and it all exits to the side infront of my rear wheel. Do you guys think ive free up any hp? I havent driven the car yet, still dont have my liscence, yes its MY car (my dads got a GTO he doesnt care about my car when it comes to power). I know its easy to throw out hp and torque numbers, but im starting off at 150 BHP and 250 Torque, weve taken off the smog pump, catted her, she breathes good for what she is, what power gains do you guys think ive made? 10? 20? 30?? I wanna drag race in the future, i know shes gonna be slow at the start, but do yall think ive set my self up for an ok car?

[85LTDCrownHip]

https://youtu.be/5Z5bzzqtVAA

[jaywish]

Well I would like to suggest you consider the improvements that many have done to get the car ready for power.

There are many things proven to make theses cars stop and drive better then stock.

Big brakes on the front and disks on the rear. This would include larger wheels and most probably better performing rubber.
A sway bar on the rear and a larger one on the front.
Upgraded headlights.
Even adding ABS
to name a few.

There are many posts here and people who will discuss these and other upgrades that you can do to really make the car better to drive and therefore better at taking more power. Most upgrades done by the folks here use off the shelf or out of the junkyard ford parts from later model cars so cost is moderated by that. This is really traditional Hot Rodding

[85LTDCrownHip]

The car came stock with a sway bar in the front and rear of the car, but i will consider getting bigger brakes and also doing a drum to disc conversion in the back, i got it with 15x7 wheels so they are a little wider then stock, and i got nee calipers so that will help with stopping, but you are right, if you wanna go fast, you need to stop fast

[gadget73]

honestly I suspect the E6 wouldn't be an advantage over the E5. Ported E6 vs stock E5 should be better, but ported E5 vs stock E5 or ported E6 is probably better. Frankly, I'd be looking for some junkyard Explorer heads. They're significantly better than either an E5 or E6 can be without doing anything to them. Gear swap in the back will probably also be a help, but CFI is pretty limited in what its capable of. With gears, a better intake, and better heads it should breathe better but it probably won't add more fuel so it might not actually perform much better.

I've never been much for carbs so I never suggest that as a solution to anything. I'd much sooner go with the 86+ multiport injection vs swapping CFI to a carb but ultimately I would expect a carb to be capable of making more power on the same engine vs the CFI just because you can re-jet the carb to give the engine sufficient fuel to take advantage of the extra air it moves. Motors are nothing more than an air pump, but fuel is what makes the power. The more air you can move through, the more fuel you can burn, and the more power you get from it. Fuel and air must be added together or it just doesn't work.

[85LTDCrownHip]

Ive got a ported upper and lower from a 94 gt, but thats it, i still need injectors, fuel rails, wiring harness and that all seems too much to do right now, and everything its going to cost, a carb seems like a more budget friendly option and i want to get gt40/p heads but im concerned my headers wont fit and id need to buy new plugs, i have priced it out and a set of heads from a junkyard is about 80 dollars, so they are cheap. I just dont want to go through the hassel of pulling my own heads to just have them not fit, i guess it isnt alot to pay, i just need to sell some stuff first

[gadget73]

gt40 heads don't need special headers. gt40p do. Spark plugs are cheap enough either way. They should fit from the E5 but no guarantee they will be the right heat range.

94 GT upper intake is fairly useless. Its that stupid bendy thing that can't be reversed. The nonsense required to use that is way more than its worth. For stock intakes, the Explorer parts are the way to go. Frankly you could do a whole lot worse than to get a complete Explorer motor and swap the whole thing in.

Carb needs a different distributor, different fuel pump, and fuel system modifications to make all that work. Depending on what exactly you want to do determines what you're going to do for fuel system. Mechanical pump needs a suitable timing cover and the pump cam eccentric installed. It also needs the stock pump removed and a suitable pickup made for the tank. Electric low pressure pump needs the pickup and possibly a regulator. To avoid the pickup, you can use the stock pump and a return style regulator, which would use the stock fuel lines but those regulators aren't super cheap either.

Either way I would strongly suggest pulling the timing cover and replacing the chain. The 85- have plastic teeth on the cam gear and when they fail the engine bends valves.

Basically there isn't a free way to do any of this. You just have to figure out where you want to put your time and money.

[Tiggie]

Ooh a two door. Cool stuff.

Will this be a street car or just a drag racer?

They are heavy cars. To go “fast”, you either have to wind the snot out of the 302, get more cubic inches, or forced induction. Most people here find moderately “peppy” to be a good balance using cast off Mustang go fast goodies. What is your quarter mile time slip goal?

Put some good gears and an LSD if you don’t have one already. 4.56 if you want a track car, 3.55-4.10 for the street depending on what your preference is. Consider a shift kit or valvebody for the AOD if you plan to keep it. All this you can keep for when you do something for the engine.

[85LTDCrownHip]

just a street car,, i dont want to go crazy fast but i wanna be better than slow maybe a 6-7 sec 0-60, and a i couldnt care less for the quarter mile, i guess a good word is peppy, i dont want some fast as hell dragster, i want more of a sleeper if you could say that, i was looking into Aod Shift kits, they dont seem to complicated to do, you just gotta be precise with where you drill. ive already got the lll Trailer towing package, that comes with 3.55 and LSD, the owner before me put in air shocks so i wanna pump them up as much in the rear so i can try to get a little more traction, i figure weighting so little in the back it couldnt hurt,

[Tiggie]

I’d say you need around 300 horses at the crank for those goals which is completely doable. I’m very much leaning towards gadget73’s suggestions above. Do an SEFI MAF and HO conversion, with some Explorer heads (mild port work if you are comfortable), a moderate cam, and you’ll be there.