Just humour me...
 

I found these forums last day, and read up a bit on 'em, but I'm posting this on a few Mustang/Ford forums just to see what everyone has to say.. thanks for any help/info.

How much would it take to get a manual 89+ Mustang GT 5.0 in the 10's or 11's? Assuming a GT was available then.. atleast the 5.0. That seems pretty damn quick, but I've also seen many Mustang buildups with many stock components, just supercharged and an upgraded drivetrain/slicks to bring all that power nicely to the wheels running 9's. I figure if it were that easy there would be many more Mustangs on the road, but I'm still very curious.

Now, I'm also basically a newbie in terms of actual performance work, but this will be a fairly long project, so I have the time it takes to learn (I want to do all the work myself), so if I'm just spouting out random names for stuff I don't really know, feel free to smack me :D Though I've been reading up a lot on the Mustang buildups that can break 9's.

I was thinking of a new performance cylinder head with 2.02 intake and 1.60 or 1.80 exhaust ports.. by the way, is that inches or what? Seems kinda large, heh. But that's been common on the better buildups. Upgraded EFI and ignition systems (really not sure what), exhaust headers, and for superchargers.. a Vortech V1 or YS-trim (haven't found the YS-trim, so I dont know much about that, the new Paxton gear-driven SC, or an ATI (don't know much about those either, except that they're very high perf.).

And new cams.. I've heard the E303 is good if you want the vehicle to be street-driveable. Though I've never understood why cars with a rough idle aren't street-driveable... probably things I'd know if my dad was a drag racer or something, heh.

New gears, it seems that 3.73 or 4.56 are good. I'd also upgrade the suspension/body in a minimalist approach but be able to handle the power.. I've heard of a bunch of different upgrades people do, but I honestly can't remember them off hand.

Now, regarding the internals.. I was wondering if valve clearance would be an issue if I got a new cylinder head, or if everything would work nicely. I've heard some Mustangs were equipped with forged pistons some years.. is it basically a given that if you want to run 400 hp+ that new internals would be a necessity? A few people just seem to shot-peen their pistons/rods and run fine. If this is a fairly unreliable setup, however, I will definately upgrade the internals.

Anyway, that's about it.. any suggestions/ideas/completely shooting down my new idea of a project? Thanks.

My guess is it would take somewhere in the neighborhood of 550-600 horses to get into the 10's. There is a kid in Amarillo with a street driven early 90's GT that runs 10's. He told the kids that the engine was so strong that it torqued the front subframe a long time ago.
Anyway, he's running a Vortech blower on a highly fortified 347.

As far as the cam goes, I have one engine with an F303 and it really sounds nice at idle. The problem is that it has no brakes once the engine idles down. (no vacuum for the brake booster) This makes for some real fun planning while driving in traffic.
As for the rest of your questions, I'm about as far from the 10's as I am from Baghdad so I can't offer anything that I could back up.

For 10's with a 302 you will need a good heads/cam/intake combo with either a 150-200 shot of nitrous or a supercharger making at least 8 lbs of boost.

On top of that you will need a tranny and rear end that will hold up to all that power. In addition to that you will need a good suspension set-up to get the power to the ground.

If you take a stock 5.0 you are looking at 5-10 grand to get it in the 10's.

5 grand will get it there but it will be a ticking timebomb and 10 grand will get there reliably.

Later,

I only run 12.40 on the motor at 108mph. With a stock head, e cam, and ported cobra intake. I have decent suspention 1.544 60ft time.

Lets add a turbo, with a well known turbo tuner doing the install and tune. Easy tens. Street driven. Mabey nines.
I have had a small shot of NOS 70hp, this put me at 11.93 @111mph. I never felt that the NOS was performing to it's full potential. And it was not. Now I am tring a 6lb charger. It feels stonger than the NOS did, but I still have some issues. A big part of me going as fast as I am is weight. Once you decide I want to go fast, decisions are easyer to make.