87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

I am new to this forum and actually pretty new to the whole american muscle scene. Well, a couple weeks ago i bought an 87 LX hatch with a 5.0 and automatic tranny. Not knowing to much about v8 i thought hey its a v8 im sure it is pretty quick. well to my surprise i was wrong. so with that being said, I was wondering what would be a good way to start getting the most HP out of this car. here is what i was thinking... a buddy of mine told me that his friend had a 5.0 that hit about a 15.1 on the quarter and he port the lower intake manifold and dropped his time to about 14.5, so i was thinking of getting that ported maybe up the TB to 70 or 75mm, some LT headers, a pulley set, short ram intake with K&N filter, msg ignition i have the cap and rotor and just maybe wanted to get a coil and a good set of wires, and i want to do away with the auto tranny and make it standard. right now i am running straight pipe no mufflers and that is killing me i felt the loss in power as soon as i did that so i want to maybe put some flows with an H pipe and some little dumps. and maybe later 373 gears but i want to replace my rear axle with something newer and 5 lug a friend told me that like an 96ish explorer comes with 373 gears and an LSD so i wanted to look into that. and i guess thats all i can think of as of now. Well tell me do you think i am on the right track with all this or am i looking at this the wrong way? I just want to know whats the quickest way to get some power out of that motor without digging into the internals or SC, turbo, or nitrous. Thanks in advance. and sorry about my sentence structure. i didnt pay attention in school. And BTW im an import fan converted to american muscle.

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

First off welcome, secondly the auto is whats killing you not the motor, get some 3.73 gears and a lentech valve body and you'll be cooking, also get a full exhaust system and these cars respond very well the h/c/i combo swaps, furthermore dont bother with the 5 lug swap, its just for looks and rim selction, the rear drums are fine and if you have good pads/rotors and shoes/drums you'll stop just fine. Also do the freebie mods, remove the air silencer, advance the timing, get a cold air intake... etc. check out the tech articles in the top of the 5.0 section... good luck

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

thanx alot anybody else have some advice?

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

Yeah..don't get 3.73's, get 4.10s. It'll be a totally different car. You'll have a lot of traction problems :D:D

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

uhhhhh, is it "try to kill the newbie" week? stock fox brakes ARE NOT ADEQUATE, maybe for the four-banger version, maybe, but for a v-8 nope, not by a longshot

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

You don't need the lentech VB. Get some gears (I've got 3.90's), torque converter (I've got a custom built 3000 rpm converter from Edge), and some good tires, make SURE that you adjust your TV cable to shift at 5000 rpms it makes a huge difference in shift firmness. Some other ways to increase performance for free are removing the air silencer and bumping the timing.

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

I got the most from a electric fan, smog removal, off road H with my flows, underdrives...just to start off with a few(I have an 87 also) I bumped my timimg to about 16, but I have some head work done and run 93 octane. With speed density you would be better off not doing a whole lot of intake, cam, head work, but you can still get a lot out of your setup. Just have to watch you TPS voltage to get it to idle right. I am converting now because of future plans, but I had fun with my S/D. Good luck

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

TV cable? im sorry dont know what that is. And, my timing was advanced when i first got the car but it kinda had a rough idle so i set it back to factory but it didnt solve the problem im thinking maybe the egr is clogged or something. so how much timing advance would be good? i think it was at 14 but not to sure the pully was kinda dirty couldnt see all to well. and what gains will i be looking at? i remove part of the air box i have the filter tied to the top part of the airbox and removed the bottom porsion of it. and i think im losing power with the way i cut the exhaust and i need to fix that soon. but i am going to get the lower intake mani ported within the next couple days or weeks seeing as how nobody has said that was a bad idea.

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

You may run into idle issues if you do any major porting with speed density system(that comes on a 87) It has set fuel tables programed into the computer that is controlled by vacum and air temp(it is pre programed) and when you start changing things(like intake, heads, cam, ect) the computer doesn't sense the changes and it can make it run bad. Do a little research on speed density befroe you commit yourself to any big changes...JMO

RE: 87 5.0 LX Hatch Auto
 

tv cable controls shift points on the auto. if its loose even a little bit, your shifts will be affected.

as for porting the intake i say your money could be spent else where. the stock intake is good up to ~300 rwhp.

long tubes take away lower end torque but also give you some topend power. equal lengths are probably the best flowing headers for the money.

14* timing is perfect

i recommend a trans-go shift kit for the AOD with a 3000 rpm stall converter and 4.10 ford racing gears. perfect street/strip combo ;)

as for the whole CAI thing.. leave the stock airbox. make sure the box is attached to the fender tightly and its the best intake. drop a K&N in there and leave it.

you can buy a chrome BBK CAI that goes inside the fender too but those are usually just for looks.

something to also look into is cooling. these cars have pretty crappy cooling setups. get a 3 row aluminum radiator with an electric fan. heat robs horsepower