97 5.0 performance rebuild help

[Lostcause66]

Hey y'all, newbie here. I've been reading on here for a while and haven't quite found the answer I'm after. What I'm wanting to do is get some power out of my 5.0. It is a mass air ECM and it has the GT40P heads. My question is what compression ratio can I run and what would be a good cam that will thump and sound mildly radical with headers and still remain street able? For what it's worth, I've built a bunch of engines over the years but most of them were older. So I know what im doing but just concerned about how any upgrades will get along with the computer.

 

[TestPoint]

In these days of computer magic any significant changes to mechanical systems will only be completely effective after a tune of the PCM software. The two most common changes, cam and MAF upgrades, certainly will benefit from custom tuning. James Henson, this forum's resident Explorer tuner, can provide you with more information and education.

HensonPerformance.com

 

[Lostcause66]

Ill send him an email. Do you have any advice as far as cam, rockers, valve springs, what ratio pistons, and porting the heads? I'm just curious what other people have done and what kind of results they've had. Maybe even dyno results if they're available.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i will give you and example.
my truck - 98 sport 5L swap
torque monster headers
flowmaster duel in single out muffler
mild head port and gasket matched
gasket matched lower intake (to both heads and upper intake when it was on)
90mm lighting maf
4 inch intake tube with amsoil filter
42lb injectors
stock fox body mustang cam (87-93)
explorer express m90 supercharger
henson performance tune
dyno'd at 245 bhp, and 320 ft/lbs torque.

how fast do you want to go depends on how much money you want to spend. for what i have done so far it is very streetable (to the point that i drove it 27 hours one way to a ford show in PA last month). there are guys that have done 347 stokers in their trucks and can still drive them on the street.