how many miles will a 5.0 last??

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My 88GT has about 200,000 miles on it. Never had any major problems. The valve covers haven't been off even. I did have to replace the water pump way back in '95, and a clutch (once). It was my DD from 1990 'til 2005. Now I'm rewarding it with a nice 306cid rebuild. Started to collect rebuild parts for the engine in 1998 thinking that the motor wouldn't last much more, just due to age. But, the engine is still alive and well. Not DD anymore so the rebuild will be easier now.

These 302/5.0's are great. As long as they're not stressed too much, they'll live for quite a while. An old-timer mechanical engineer told me a long time ago that engines have 'x' amount of RPM's in them and it's up to you how you spend them. Generally, if you take it easy on the engine (i.e. not too many RPM's at a time) and it will last for a long time. Race the same engine at 6000+ rpms on a regular basis and it won't last long at all. Big surprise, right?
 
My 86 had 230k when I sold it. Had the O.E. motor, tranny, and rear end. Tranny was an auto. Had a brand new A/c system though. I mean everything was new, even changed the heater core while we where in there changing the evaporator. Oh yea replaced the radiator @ that time as well. Sold it a few months after doing that work because our house was finished being built and needed the $$$$$ sold it for $3k.
My 93 has 30K on it. Just drove it to Baltimore and it got 25-26 MPG. Not bad. I agree the 302's are very reliable engines.
 
bought it with 82999, conn. state cop owned it, bought it new in 90, drove for 4-5 years ish, racked up 80k of them, then became a state cop, put my car in his garage where it lived for 10 years. he took it out sometimes he siad and im thinking thats where the 2,999 miles came from. the first day it came out of the garage the guy had to jump it to get me to test drive it, next day i bought it and put 500 miles on it getting it home, with who knows how old oil in it and everything else. we glanced under the hood and all we saw was dust and an intake manifold, nothing spraying everywhere so we drove it home. next day changed the oil, it was nasty. had rad flushed,ect. im at 87,200ish i believe been changin around 3k.

it leaks some oil in my front seal,and my valve cover gaskets have the flange of my headers gunked in oil stuff, im thinking thats because of the sitting for 10 years part.

i originally said to myself screw it im gonna build one before i get to 150 ish hopefully so whatever, but now im gonna take care of this engine and build the rest of the car up and just get really nice gaskets in there, and have someone take it apart and look at everything, and have them bolt it back up with better gaskets and im gonna take care of it and see hoe long it goes.

87k is nothing but i start it up at 6.30 am to go to school in whatever weather and start driving and it doesnt miss a beat, never stalls chokes bitches or moans. i had problems with it dying but that was because of my idle air controller.

clutch grabs hard and wont let go.

it gets talkitive and stuff and things get loud or squaky, and my clutch will sometiems get an attitude with me and grab wierd, but the mroe i drive it it smoothes itself out and fixes itself. i cant see it dying anytime soon. and im 17 and i beat on it.
 
241,000, it leaks a little oil, burns a touch on start up, but runs strong (high 13s dead stock unopened engine, when I took the fac headers off the gaskets were ford embosed) its got 185 PSI in all 8 cylnders
 
My '90 is at about 320,000. The block got a new cam, bearings and rings at 150,000 although the rings and bearings were still in decent shape. I had 90,000 on it when I put the first gear in (3.73). Moved up to the 4.10 at 150,000 when the other work was done. The car always saw alot of highway miles up until late 2004 (when I got the '92). Over the past few months its starting to sound pretty rough. Still has good power but the age/wear is starting to show. I can't complain. I think 300k is pretty good considering the beating the car took (takes!). Right now a new block is pretty low on the list of priorities though.
 
my 95GT has 170000 ,we,r the 2nd owner the only thing that has been replaced on the motor is water pump and starter, it still has the org clutch and plugwires and plugs [regaped] and gets 27 mpg on the highway and burns NO oil or leakes NO oil it is all stock and is are DD
 
My 79 Capri went 165,000 miles on the original 5.0 motor, and was running fine when I put the next motor in.

The car now has 266,000 miles on it.

Drove the second motor for 95,000 miles, let it sit in the garage for 2 years, put it in the 82, and its got another 2500 miles and 120 or more track runs on it.

Now runs quicker than ever!

With reasonable car, 200k is easy.
 
My old 91' LX 5.0 had 192k on it when i parked it to part it out....never smoked at all, no taps or knocks nothing...all stock motor, just a intake, and flowmasters that i put on. when i got it it was running off the h pipe, the rear was original too...left 2 solid lines no problem, not sure if the trans was original but it functioned fine. I beat the crap out of it for the two months i drove it, i bought it off a friend that had it for about 9 months he beat the crap out of it also, and the kid before him beat it.

My current 85 GT has maybe around 145 k on it? it has a 140 speedo that reads 43XXX right now...the speedo looks really old though so it had been in there for a while im guessing, maybe they matched it up when they put it in. But it runs great, no knocks or taps, occasional smoke when you get on it hard and let off, im guessing theres a little ring blowby going on.

My buddy had a 93 GT he bought i think it had like 92k on it when he bought it, drove fine for about 3 weeks, and it began to smoke real bad...changed the valve stem seals, still did it...we ripped the motor apart and found a few cylinders to be really loose.
 
BadAndy said:
my 95GT has 170000 ,we,r the 2nd owner the only thing that has been replaced on the motor is water pump and starter, it still has the org clutch and plugwires and plugs [regaped] and gets 27 mpg on the highway and burns NO oil or leakes NO oil it is all stock and is are DD

i bet if you got new plugs you would gain horsepower.
 
fivespeedsteed said:
i bet if you got new plugs you would gain horsepower.

It gets the same gas milage it has always got, I have regaped them about 3 times and they are always real clean, we have owned it since 19000 miles, we will see when it starts acting up i will spring for new wires and plugs
 
yeah...my motor has 30k on it and and burns a quart every 2 weeks or so. im assuming its rings, but im not really sure because i bought the car already built, and i really want to tear it down and figure out whats up. oh and my king cobra clutch is going out, and i drive it like a saint. i cant believe how many high mile cars there are on here. makes my car feel like a piece of crap.