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Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #15
Standard upgrade is a 255lph pump for a lot of the guys here. And an adjustable fuel pressure regulator

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #16
Forged pistons are just stronger. If you are thinking about boost or nitrous is say its highly recommended.

The stock fuel pump in our cars is around 60 lph, the stock mustang fuel pump is around 90, most guys go to a 190lph or higher. I would definitely upgrade either way.

Stay away from parts store pumps, I've had no luck with them, some even dead out of the box.
Quote from: jcassity
I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.
Hooligans! 
1988 Crown Vic wagon. 120K California car. Wifes grocery getter. (junked)
1987 Ford Thunderbird LX. 5.0. s.o., sn-95 t-5 and an f-150 clutch. Driven daily and going strong.
1986 cougar.
lilsammywasapunkrocker@yahoo.com

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #17
Forged pistons are just stronger. If you are thinking about boost or nitrous is say its highly recommended.

The stock fuel pump in our cars is around 60 lph, the stock mustang fuel pump is around 90, most guys go to a 190lph or higher. I would definitely upgrade either way.

Stay away from parts store pumps, I've had no luck with them, some even dead out of the box.

If not the part store then who? Ford Racing?, LMR?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]88 Thunderbird Sport 302 H-pipe,flowmaster 50 series delta flow e303 cam GT40 upper and lower intake, GT40P heads, trick flow springs and rocker arms.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #18
I have the BBK 255 in mine.

 

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #19
The crank in an Explorer 302/5.0 is the same as any other 302/5.0 crank. The difference in length comes from the front pulley, balancer, and timing cover set up. Just swap the front cover, water pump, and balancer from a Fox onto the Explorer block and you're good to go.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #20
https://www.americanmuscle.com/bbk-fuel-pump-255lph.html

This is the fuel pump I bought from American muscle years ago that I have a boost-a-pump hooked to and never had an issue with it. Probably overkill for what you're doing but looks like even the 110lph is only a few dollars cheaper. You won't need forged pistons unless you are planning to add a power adder in the future in that case I would do it now and head stud it unless you like doing head gaskets like me. But from what I can tell you aren't going that route.

Every time I put a new block in I check what I can see of the cylinder walls for scoring and address as needed. Then I take all the caps off the crank shaft and one at a time lift up on the crank and very cautiously roll the upper bearings out and roll new ones in without taking the pistons out and dealing with all that.  It gives me a little piece of mind takes a few minutes and the bearings are relatively inexpensive. Other than that I do all yhe normal stuff thats already been said here.

Haven't spent the money on forged pistons yet I run about 8-10 psi daily and 100-150 shot of nitrous off the line at the track. In the past two years I've replaced head gaskets twice and the block once, before that I was making stupid tuning and driving mistakes and blew up much more than that haha.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #21
I was wondering if I needed to have forged pistons or not for this application, I do want to stick a turbocharger on this build maybe sometime in the future though.  Does it make a difference or not to but new forged pistons or maybe look for some from the yard.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]88 Thunderbird Sport 302 H-pipe,flowmaster 50 series delta flow e303 cam GT40 upper and lower intake, GT40P heads, trick flow springs and rocker arms.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #22
I would say if you can find a block with forged pistons (I can't remember off the top of my head which ones had them) I would go with that and use the block they came in if you can, while you have it all apart now. I don't think you HAVE to by any means right now, but if it's an option its a good upgrade, may save you time in the future and anything to help with piece of mind I think is worth it. I can say this, if you do end up pulling the pistons out of any block replace the rings and do not go cheap on them. Made that mistake before.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #23
Picked up my 97 explorer motor today tear down tomorrow. 
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]88 Thunderbird Sport 302 H-pipe,flowmaster 50 series delta flow e303 cam GT40 upper and lower intake, GT40P heads, trick flow springs and rocker arms.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #24
Is it a running engine?

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #25
I’m not sure I got it from salvage yard.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]88 Thunderbird Sport 302 H-pipe,flowmaster 50 series delta flow e303 cam GT40 upper and lower intake, GT40P heads, trick flow springs and rocker arms.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #26
This is what I got when I tore down motor. Could anyone tell me if  I can use the pistons from this 97 explore engine?  And what the best DYI way to clean intake and heads?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]88 Thunderbird Sport 302 H-pipe,flowmaster 50 series delta flow e303 cam GT40 upper and lower intake, GT40P heads, trick flow springs and rocker arms.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #27
Why do you keep asking about if you can use the pistons?  Its already been covered in this thread that people use the Explorer 5.0 motors all the time straight out of salvage yards without any changes other than to swap on the foxbody oil pan/pickup tube, timing cover/harmonic balancer/driven accessories, motor mounts, and conventional TFI distributor if using EFI. 

In the past, before I bought a salvage yard motor, I pulled and inspected all spark plugs, pulled the oil dipstick to see if it was varnished/stained from poor oil change intervals, and tried to have a look at the vehicles radiator to check for coolant breakdown/crud, another sign of poor maintanence. Maybe popped a valve cover off also.

 If all that looked good, I had a reasonably good chance of having a runner that I could use as is with a new oil pump, roller timing chain, new roller lifters, and a used HO cam or aftermarket cam if using better than gt40 heads, and some common sense inspection,cleaning, and upgraded the head bolts to ARPs with Fel pro blue stripe headgaskets.

If you didnt check any of that stuff prior to purchase, you're now just depending entirely on luck or taking their word for it that it ran okay before they pulled it.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #28
Why do you keep asking about if you can use the pistons?  Its already been covered in this thread that people use the Explorer 5.0 motors all the time straight out of salvage yards without any changes other than to swap on the foxbody oil pan/pickup tube, timing cover/harmonic balancer/driven accessories, motor mounts, and conventional TFI distributor if using EFI. 

In the past, before I bought a salvage yard motor, I pulled and inspected all spark plugs, pulled the oil dipstick to see if it was varnished/stained from poor oil change intervals, and tried to have a look at the vehicles radiator to check for coolant breakdown/crud, another sign of poor maintanence. Maybe popped a valve cover off also.

 If all that looked good, I had a reasonably good chance of having a runner that I could use as is with a new oil pump, roller timing chain, new roller lifters, and a used HO cam or aftermarket cam if using better than gt40 heads, and some common sense inspection,cleaning, and upgraded the head bolts to ARPs with Fel pro blue stripe headgaskets.

If you didnt check any of that stuff prior to purchase, you're now just depending entirely on luck or taking their word for it that it ran okay before they pulled it.
I aplologize if my questions are redundant I’m a complete novelist when it comes to engine building I never removed a motor or any of the stuff I’m about to do. I’m done some research, but I’m still learning as I go, I do appreciate the feedback though. I didn’t ask the person who sold me the motor any questions about it, nor did I inspect the explorer the motor came from. I pretty much took this person’s word.  I have been working with this person on parts for a year now though.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]88 Thunderbird Sport 302 H-pipe,flowmaster 50 series delta flow e303 cam GT40 upper and lower intake, GT40P heads, trick flow springs and rocker arms.

Re: Build approval someone please!

Reply #29
Thats fine, everybody has to start somewhere, no need to apologize for it.  The reason I asked was that typically, pistons are not a wear item, whereas the piston rings are, especially if the engine had poor maintanence, excessive oil change intervals, was overheated, etc.

If the engine was well cared for, and inspection of main bearings, cyl bores, etc is all favorable, it is entirely possible that the shortblock could be run for another 100K miles as it is with replacement of the parts I mentioned above and no replacement of piston rings, bearings, block machining, etc. 

The gt40 cylinder heads should be inspected, have valve guides checked and new stem seals installed  at a bare minimum.  The valve seats, in my experience of taking apart probably close to 200 of these heads, are usually fine even with alot of miles due to it being a wide, single 45 degree seat. If however, the engine has been severely overheated, that can quickly change.

You can buy at most hardware stores a steel cup  brush that the shank can be inserted into a common power or cordless drill and used to quickly clean the gasket surfaces of both the aluminum intake and the iron heads. Use safety glasses. That goes double if you use the brush inserted into an air powered die grinder as the RPM will much higher. I dont even recommend it due to the risk of the brush violently seperating, but I know people do it anyhow. Alternatively, you can use the smaller roll lock discs with the correct mounting pad. The cup brush works better for cleaning irregular, non-flat surfaces.