need 5.0 cheap tricks
 

Me and the founding members of a local car club just got our hands on a 5.0 fox body with a 5 speed. This is the groups project car. Seeing how we are all seniors in high school, we don't have money to blow. We need to know what the cheapest upgrades are that will give us the most "bang-for-our-buck."


-Thanks

bump the timing(14-15deg), remove air silencer, put a short belt on it, take weight out of it(rear seats, sound deadener and useless crap)

i forgot to add rear gears, those give you the most bang for the buck i'd say!!! good luck on the car.

get rid of that heavy A/C. throw the battery in the trunk. it will help with weight transfer, and from what I hear get some 4 cyl springs.

In addition to the 4 cyl springs, remove the sway bar, carpet, unless you want the look of the carpet, and get some nitrous. If all of you go in on the spray, it'll be relatively cheap per person.

Caymon

ok thanks for the help, this will give us a place to start.

I'm new to this group...just picked up a 91 5.0. I'm one of the founding members in the car club 4.7L referred to... So anyways..question..isn't 14-15 degrees a hell of a lot of timing to run on a V8 without giving her some premium unleaded? Dunno about the Mustangs but Camaro V8's are stock with only 6 degrees and would knock and ping like crazy at 10+ I'm sure.

well 10 degrees is the factory setting on the 5.0, but yeah if you run 14-15 you should run premium gas, and it will work better.

Wow..these 5.0's run as much timing as my 3.1 V6 did....

Underdrive pullies are usually a good bang for your buck. Check out http://www.mustangworks.com/articles/, there are some good articles there. Good luck :)

Another cool trick is to take the spout connector out and run your timing at around 36 degrees. I did that and it got me .3 in the 1/4 but my computer wants to retard the timing on me.
The easiest thing you can do to get it going fast is take stuff off you don't need and get it lighter.
If it's gonna be a drag only car kill the power steering and A/C and use a short belt between the alternator and water pump. A cheepo autozone electric fan should be able to cool it along with a 160 degree cheby thermostat.
Kill off all the smog pump stuff if you can, drop the front sway bar. Take the inner bumper supports out, remove all the carpet padding.
Then just take it to the track and put it on a set of slicks and launch it from about 4500-5000 and you should be moving along pretty good.