87 lx 5.0

[JOlbert]

My new toy car. I really don't know much about these cars, but plan on learning. The car is fairly stock, currently the only mods are a March Ram Air kit, ORH, Magnaflow type catback, 4.10s & a Pro 5.0 shifter. Plan on doing a H/C/I package, clean & paint the engine bay, lower it & definitely wheels & tires. I'm picking up a MAF harness & computer for it tomorrow. I would like to ditch the 4.10's for a set of 3.55 or 3.73 gears over the winter. I'm also going to be removing the Ram Air kit in favor of a fenderwell mounted one. I'm not planning anything really radical for the car & I don't have any plans on turning it into a track whore. I like driving this thing, it just needs some more balls. Can anybody recommend any good combinations for this car? I'd like to see it make better than 300rwhp & not have any real bad street manners. Anyway here are some pics:

[ModularMike]

Lets hide a few kits on it.

[yeahloh95]

do yourself a favor and run a stock airbox at first, the mass air meters sometimes dont like the bend before them with the fender mount kits. here is a great stock short block combo, afr 165s, holley system max intake and a fti cam, it will make at or above 300 to the tire and drive like a dream . nice car by the way

[lib88stang]

I got 355s ill sell you for $40 and throw and nitrous kit on it and have fun

[03 OW SVT]

Stock 03 04 Cobra motor in that thing would be awesome, they're not cheap thou. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[no1sirbutler]

do yourself a favor and run a stock airbox at first, the mass air meters sometimes dont like the bend before them with the fender mount kits. here is a great stock short block combo, afr 165s, holley system max intake and a fti cam, it will make at or above 300 to the tire and drive like a dream . nice car by the way

I 2nd the far 165's and Holley intake

[Mark Aubele]

If you want dirt cheap, a set of GT40ps, Explorer intake, 65mm TB, and a mild roller like an N41 is a great combo you can put together for 500 bucks nowadays. You will make close to your horsepower goal and this combo went 12.40s@109 in my '90 with "road race" suspension. Beautiful car by the way, I would leave it looking just the way it is.

[White2011]

WTF? a lot changed in a week or so.lil prp tom..

[JOlbert]

WTF? a lot changed in a week or so.lil prp tom..

Yeah, major change of plans. lol Going to go pick up my MAF conversion harness & stuff tomorrow after work, so PRP is out for me tomorrow

[JOlbert]

I have a couple questions about injectors, MAFs, Throttle bodies & EGR plates.

How much power can be sustained with the stock 19lb injectors? Will 24lb ones support what I want when it's time or should I go with a 30lb?

At what point is the stock MAF done & what is the recommended replacement? I've looked around a bit & it seems the C&L ones are adjustable for injectors. Is that the way to go? How big is too big?

What size throttle body does a Fox have stock & how big should I go when I upgrade it? Obviously the EGR plate needs to be size matched to the throttle body, correct?

Are underdrive pulleys worth doing on these also? The car still has the stock engine driven fan & I probably won't replace it for a while.

I'm probably going to use shorty style headers on the car so i don't have clearance issues when I lower the car. I know it will leave a little power to be had vs. using long tubes, but how much could I be giving up?

Sorry for what might seem like newb questions, but I'm not familiar at all with these cars yet & only want to buy parts once for it when I start upgrading it.

[yeahloh95]

Yes do under drives they do help free up power , if you can go with long tubes they do make more power , I would go with 30lbers that way you can grow I to them and price wise they are the same .stock tb is 60mm go as big as intake will allow and I like pro-m mass air meters they are more accurate than the c&l method

[JOlbert]

Ok, I figured I would update this a little. I since my last update I've installed BBK equal length shorties, underdrive pulleys, put a stock airbox back on & removed the March ram air kit. I also got a MAF conversion, UPR clutch quadrant, firewall adjuster that I hope to start installing in the next week or so. I also scored a Centerforce clutch & a set of iron GT40 heads. I couldn't pass up the price of free on the clutch or heads, so they're getting used. I need to get the rocker conversion for the heads I believe & probably also some roller rockers. I still plan on getting a systemax ll intake setup & hopefully the Trickflow stage l cam. Probably also going to get a adjustable FPR & different injectors & MAF at some point over the winter. I'm trying to keep the car a budget build & seem to be doing ok so far, as long as I can quit buying wheels & tires for this thing. lol I just picked up a set of pony wheels tonight & put them on as soon as I got home with them. Overall I'm still enjoying the crap out of this thing, but I thing I might have to take a little bit of timing out of it. I was told that it was set to 16* but I think that's a little much, especially after seeing the plugs & the car has a pretty good flat spot down low in the RPMs then pulls pretty good above 3500. Just going to mess with it a little & see what happens when I back the timing down some.

Here is a pic of it with the Centerlines:


Another with the Pony wheels:

[03 OW SVT]

Like it better with the pony's