Truck 302 Vs. Stang 302

[Coupe Devil]

ON my 96 truck can I adjsut the fuel and timing jsut like you can on a stang. Its the same motor but is there anything different about the computer that would prevent me doing this? Just looking for cheap "Mods" or things to help the way it runs. I dont have to have a 10 sec truck. It would be cool though.

Brad

[95GTS]

Yes you can adjust the timing. But you will need to get an adjustable fuel pressure regulator to adjust your fuel pressure. Also get a K&N filter to help it breathe a bit better.

[Coupe Devil]

What is a godd timing mark to start with 12, 14??? Is it necessasary to redo the fuel Pressure with the timing advance? If not I wont do that. I am probably gonan buy a cold air kit for the truck to. What other free or cheap mods can I do to get a llittle out of it?

Thanks
Brad

[95GTS]

I wouldn't bother with the fuel pressure. Start with around 14* timing and 93 octane gas and do some experimenting(see what octane you can run without detonation). A cold air kit would be real good. Also underdrive pullies for sure. Then hit the exhaust. I'd bet that mustang headers might just work with your 302. They won't work on the GEN 1 Lightnings because of our taller deck height 351W or else we'd use them, too. You could gut the cats on your Y-pipe for an off-road pipe. My exhaust setup on my Lightning, for example, is the stock 1.5" shorty headers, stock H-pipe with gutted cats for off-road pipe, and Magnaflow 2.5" dual in/dual out muffler with turndowns in front of the axle. The Magnaflow muffler is a straight flow thru muffler with X-crossover in the center. You can see straight thru it. Gave me a very low tone and sounds very good. Look into some aftermarket catbacks for your truck. Maybe just get a performance muffler and dump it in front of your axle (don't know if where your from they'll gripe about not having a rear exiting tail pipe(s)). That's about the cheapest way to do it that I can think of right now.

[Coupe Devil]

My truck doesnt have cats now. Someone else already took care of that and we dont test for emissions here so no worry. It Y's into one pipe, goes for about three feet enters a sinlge entrance flowmaster and is dualed from there. I believe the truck has manifolds and not headers. I have a set of stock Mustang shorties I will see if they fit. I would have to make provisions in teh pipe right after the header for the O2 sensor or will one of the MIL delete harness' work? I am getting a cold air kit but pulleys are out of the question because of the stereo. Ilike the tail pipe all the way out so no dumps on the truck.

Brad

[95GTS]

I don't know that the MIL eliminators will work or not. I seriously doubt it especially since you'll only have one O2 sensor. You'll probably have to put the sensor elsewhere like you said. I'd still go with the underdrive pullies. How big is your stereo system? Unless it's absolutely HUGE you probably won't have a problem. You could get the pullies and just use the stock alternator pully with them or upgrade to a larger alternator and use all three pullies. The L's don't seem to have charging problems with the pullies and aftermarket stereos and using our fog lights to boot. But then again, we have heavy duty alternators stock. I'd go with a better alternator, if the pullies affect charging. Also an electric fan(s) would free up some hp, too. And give you some extra room to work under the hood. Yeah your stock manifolds are very restrictive just like the stangs as you know. I'd try the stang shorties you have. Sure couldn't hurt to try. What brand are they? BBK, Bassani, Mac, etc? On our L's we get actual 1.5" unequal length shorty headers as stock instead of the usual crap manifolds like you've got on your truck. One of these days I'll upgrade to some 1 5/8" shorties.

[Coupe Devil]

I thought about the fan too but was undecided. I figure I will over time get a set of pullies, K&N, Electric fan, Headers, and bump timing. I think that will suffice for a while. I have the car to go fast. I mainly want to gain effeciency but if I add a couple horses to great. I havent looked but I thought it had two O2 sensors. One in each manifold. But oh well it may not. The headers I have are STOCK Mustang headers. Equal length BBk's might be later down the road but for now it will get the stock stang headers, true duals and two flows with no cats. Gotta love that no emission testing. I guess I'll just have to start reading truck mags to instead of just the Stang ones.

Thanks
Brad