86 5.0

[insanemach1]

I just got an 86 5.0 motor was wondering if it was a roller motor and had forged pistons. not sure what kinda car it came out of i am going to rebuild it and install a 100-150 shot nos kit on it eventually. I think it will give my 77 the kick i am looking for. Any info on these motors or advice as what to put in it and keep it a inexpensive rebuild would be great.

 

[dmoody]

I don't know much specificallly about the 86 5.0, but I do now that the heads were unique to that year. If I remember correctly Ford tried to create better fuel-air distribution to reduce the tendency for pinging and raise the horsepower. Most people prefer the E7 heads over anything Ford produced. However I have heard some say that they like the E6 head because it generates lots of torque and with bigger valves has lots of potential.

d

 

[jeffnoel]

This is taken straight from the 82-93 GT Registry. But I'm not sure this is true across the board for all 86 5.0s.

"Although visually, the 1986 Mustang GT was nearly identical to the 1985 GT, under the hood was a completely different story. Replacing the tried and true 4V carburetor was a sequential multiple-port fuel injection system perched atop a revised 302 HO V8 block. This engine was installed in both the manual transmission and automatic overdrive units with horsepower now equal for both. Although horsepower was down 10, torque was up 15 foot-pounds. The compression ratio was increased from 8.4:1 to 9.2:1 with new forged flat-top pistons and redesigned cylinder heads featuring a new fast-burn combustion chamber. While retaining the roller lift cam and stainless steel tubular headers, the new fuel injection setup featured a 58mm throttle body (540 cfm) with 19 lb-hr. injectors and a tuned length aluminum intake manifold."

http://www.mustanggt.org/86gt.htm

 

[COBRAIIW]

The firing order is the same as an old 351W.

 

[Blue Thunder]

If I recall, the dyno test for an 86 HO was 185hp, while the previous carb 85 HO was about 210. The 86 heads suck, I would swap them with either the standard E7 variety or better yet, aftermarket heads, before you install the motor.

 

[Mustangj]

The 86 H.O has no valve reliefs in the pistons, so go easy on the cam profile. To check to see if it is an H.O pull the intake and see if it has roller lifter guide plates. Also find a factory roller cam distributor gear or you will have a big problem!! (SVO I mean Ford Motorsport......Ford ahhhh Racing has them.) You will also need to swap on your II timming cover to use the proper dip stick and have the hole for the mechanical fuel pump. Oh, ya and bolt on the fuel pump eccentric too!! On second thought drill a hole for the dip stick and buy an electric fuel pump The bolt holes for the mechanical pump are there so you could also just hog-out the hole

 

[itsaMustangtoo]

If I recall, the dyno test for an 86 HO was 185hp, while the previous carb 85 HO was about 210. The 86 heads suck, I would swap them with either the standard E7 variety or better yet, aftermarket heads, before you install the motor.

I believe,(if memory serves) ford was looking for a better head ,and the 86 design was it.But it did in fact suck. But what were they to do? They had destroyed the old molds in favor of the "new improved" ones. Once they figured out the heads were junk,and they had no molds they went to the truck head manufacturing facility and copied there molds. To make a long story short factory ford small block heads suck. After-market will always be better. Buy the best head you can afford. Roush makes a nice set of cast iron 180cc intake runner heads, 58cc combustion chamber,big valves and so forth for an affordable price. Cast iron also,which have advantages over aluminum as far as heat transfer go.

 

[insanemach1]

Thanks guys that was the info i was looking for. I will have to think about witch heads to go with i know a guy with some 90 stang heads he will sell for cheap thought i might go with those only thing is gonna have to figure out how big a cam i can go with. Other than that should be done here as soon as i finish up on a paint job i am doing for my father in law which i better get on before it gets to cold just got some finishing work to do. Thanks again

 

[joeythesaint]

I opened up an '86 H.O. with stock flat-top pistons and E6 heads using a custom cam grind. Because of the cramped space on the lift, they opened up the intake considerably. What I ended up with was basically the E303 grind with a couple of tweaks: .471" / .471" lift, 219 int / 209 exh @.050, 112 deg sep. Nice thumpy idle, slight lope, goes like a mofo.

I also ground out the exhaust ports on the E6 heads so that they match the Hedmann headers. I mean MATCH. They're, like, double the size that they were originally; maybe bigger.

I think I can get more oomph by porting a set of GT-40's, and people are practically giving them away. That's next spring's project. Hope this helps.

Oh, BTW, the serpentine belts won't fit in a stock II; you'll need a custom radiator, or you'll have to use the 302 fan, water pump and timing cover assembly, in which case you'll need to grind the hell out of the inside of the timing cover to make it fit. You could also go with an electric fan in front of your radiator, and leave the fan off the serpentine assembly. Just FYI.

 

[dmoody]

I have E6 heads on my car and although I haven't gotten to drive it much, I can tell you they are a lot better than the stock D6s I had. I stuffed oversize Chevy valves in them (2.02, 1.5), removed some of the valve shrouding, smoothed the thermactor bump, gasket matched them and had them squared. That is the advantage of getting a cheap head, you can have fun with them. Heck I found grinding heads to be relaxing. In fact I might have gotten a little carried away at times.

d

 

[itsaMustangtoo]

I have E6 heads on my car and although I haven't gotten to drive it much, I can tell you they are a lot better than the stock D6s I had. I stuffed oversize Chevy valves in them (2.02, 1.5), removed some of the valve shrouding, smoothed the thermactor bump, gasket matched them and had them squared. That is the advantage of getting a cheap head, you can have fun with them. Heck I found grinding heads to be relaxing. In fact I might have gotten a little carried away at times.

d

With the longer chevy valves,what did you do for pushrods.?

 

[dmoody]

I bought the heads with the valves in them. The only thing I done was remove some of the valve shrouding and gasket match them. I then cc'd the chambers to make sure I would have a consistent compression ratio. I assumed Chevy valves were used because they are typically cheaper and I didn't pay much for the heads. The pushrod length was fine when I installed the roller rockers.

d

 

[Blue Thunder]

I thought chevy valves were shorter, and that using them in a SBF head required the spring seat areas be cut down the appropriate amount to avoid coil binding? Anyway, they do offer a lot of SBF parts in the aftermarket world, including various valve sizes, so maybe there's OEM-correct length valves in those heads. Unlike 15 years ago, today the SBF performance items are almost as readily available as the SBC stuff.(though of course, still more expensive)

 

[dmoody]

I thought chevy valves were shorter, and that using them in a SBF head required the spring seat areas be cut down the appropriate amount to avoid coil binding? Anyway, they do offer a lot of SBF parts in the aftermarket world, including various valve sizes, so maybe there's OEM-correct length valves in those heads. Unlike 15 years ago, today the SBF performance items are almost as readily available as the SBC stuff.(though of course, still more expensive)

I think you're right on all accords. It has been probably a decade since I rebuilt a head from scratch.

d

 

[itsaMustangtoo]

I thought chevy valves were shorter, and that using them in a SBF head required the spring seat areas be cut down the appropriate amount to avoid coil binding? Anyway, they do offer a lot of SBF parts in the aftermarket world, including various valve sizes, so maybe there's OEM-correct length valves in those heads. Unlike 15 years ago, today the SBF performance items are almost as readily available as the SBC stuff.(though of course, still more expensive)

I just bought a set of the australian heads ( alum) off of eBay with the chevy 202 valves. I was moving so I had my machine shop guy put em together for me ( get em outa my way for a bit) I had ordered the correct ford springs for the cam BUT they were too short. Ended up getting a longer chevy spring that was almost the same lbs open & closed. But longer. I forget by how much.Now I have a new set fore sale, E-mail me for specs.