Are AFR's going to be worth the downtime?

[90mustangGT]

My buddy's co-worker bent a valve due to a broken valve spring, He learned the hard way running a cam over .500 lift on stock springs at 6000rpm isn't that good of an idea. The shortblock is fine but the stock heads are shot. He wants to buy my Thumper heads with double valve springs, as is, for $550. I will in the mean time save money for a set of AFR 165's most likley. It might take me until March to get the cash for new heads. When all is said and done, will I be glad I waited??? (I have a second car)

I'll probally run it with the B cam and regular performer intake for a while before I get the RPM upper and a cam matched to my combo.

 

[2001droptizzy]

Oh hell yeah! AFR's own all! Might want to go with the 185's.

 

[Someguy80]

yes they will be worth the wait

 

[5spd GT]

With your combo 185's would be to much....your cam wouldn't match the higher rev and horsepower that the heads like.....Stick with AFR 165's and if you can wait it out then you will be very satisfied

David

 

[Ranchero5.0]

Nope, nothing is worth having the car down for three months. I don't like having my '93 apart over this weekend to do the anual teardown and inspect on the motor. Put 30k on the new combo last year so it's time to do some more port and smoothing work. Also the balancer is wobbling and the water pump is leaking. OEM balancer was $88 and the water pump has a lifetime warrantee (it'll be the third one in three years of ownership.)

If I were you i'd take a small personal loan for $1k or eat eggs and bread for a month and get it turned around a whole lot quicker. It's called sacrifice and sometimes it's worth it.

Jamie

 

[90mustangGT]

I just relized how stupid the question I asked was...

Ranchero 5.0: Sounds like your having some problems. I bet you have one of those nice cheap waterpumps with the lifetime warranty. I belive after the third time they fail they have to give you back your money instead of just swapping it out. I am not shure exactly what but I think it has to do with the Lemon Laws, check into it. As far as your balancer, stockers are only rated to about 4500rpms which I bet your engine exceeds this quite often. You need a SFI dampener. Pioneer, Romac, and Powerbond are a few with a really good rep and low price. I just got a Romac for $220 Shipped, it is a nice piece and I can feel the difference in the engine.

I think I will do it. I hate tearing my car down when it is running just fine and runns so strong. I really like the Thumper heads, I kind of hate giving them up because I did plan on upgrading later on but keeping them in case I get another 5.0 project. If the guy falls through and doesn't want to buy them, I won't be heart broken. He's on a budget himself, good guy also. He's got everything but heads, it will really wake his car up alot.

 

[thumper460]

If you CAN... the wait is worth it!! Dont go too wild on the AFRs... the 165s will rock and still give you room to grow!! Cool??

Just me........................

Thumper

 

[NeQX]

I got 165's and some other goodies, my car wont stop pulling! but I blame that on my camshaft

 

[ahuge1]

yeah man there worth it

 

[90mustangGT]

A little lump in the planns. The guy said he had just fired it up and heard the noise and shut it right back down, no, evedence has proven he drove it like this. Turns out when the heads were pulled he droped another valve on the other side and looks like someone took a jackhammer through the cylinder wall, safe to say his engine is dead. Soooo... he's going to need more than just heads. Oh well, I'm not feeling bad about it at all. My engine runs damn good. I guess he still wants my heads when he gets it back togeather, but it will be a while longer, I guess I will continue to save.

I really doubt I'll do this, but I'm thinking of offering to sell my engine, just the heads and block, I don't know about the cam, RR's and all, but considering just the block and heads what would be a fair price? So... $550 for the heads and how much do you think a 145K well maintained, good compression shortblock is worth? About $1000 so it would be about $1500 for the longblock. More downtime but I will have a foundation to a 306/331/347 AFR headed buildup!

 

[Highbredcloud]

$1500 is a bit too much if you ask me...After all you can purchase a crate engine with a bit better than stock ratings for about $1200. He is your friend...right? Save your money for the AFR's...

 

[stangbear427]

Yeah- I just bought a Jasper 5.0HO for my wife's stang, complete with heads, pan and timing cover with a 3yr/36,000mi. warrantee. Drop it in and turn the key for $1600. If you get anywhere near a grand for a motor with over 100,000mi on it, you must live where there's a market to steal. I can keep you supplied with as many engines as you can find suckers to sell them too!

 

[5.0 HOtrain]

Nope, nothing is worth having the car down for three months.
Jamie

Mine has been down since june, worth it to me because of the 600fwhp pump gas motor on the stand that I've been scaping together . Just me though, it's been a AWFUL long summer

 

[5.0 HOtrain]

I really doubt I'll do this, but I'm thinking of offering to sell my engine, just the heads and block, I don't know about the cam, RR's and all, but considering just the block and heads what would be a fair price? So... $550 for the heads and how much do you think a 145K well maintained, good compression shortblock is worth? About $1000 so it would be about $1500 for the longblock. More downtime but I will have a foundation to a 306/331/347 AFR headed buildup!

I sold my 85k shortblock that had 5k on these parts: New pan/pump/timing set. Ed Curtis cam/AFR 165's. performer rpm, 30lb injectors, and 76mm c&l. Complete long block for $2500 fwiw.

 

[PURESTREET5006]

Yup at 11.0's@119 mph plus...Id say there worth the wait and i would bump that B303 and get a better off the shelf cam or a FTI custom grind.

 

[90mustangGT]

Scratch the selling of the block thing. No it isn't worth as much as I was wanting but I didn't want to get rid of a perfectly strong running engine. What it is worth to me and what it is really worth is sometimes different. He know's a guy that is selling a low milege short block for about $500!

Yup at 11.0's@119 mph plus...Id say there worth the wait and i would bump that B303 and get a better off the shelf cam or a FTI custom grind.

That much difference!?!?!? I was thinking of doing a FTI custom cam matched to AFR 165's and hopefully a ported lower along with the RPM upper. I will need to do some fuel upgrades also, which I think I need anyways. Either way, I now my plans. I'll take a second job flipping burgers, waiting tables, washing dishes, delivering pizza(with second car of course), everything short of turning tricks to get there. I proballly need to save about $2000, if I don't sell the heads.

 

[PURESTREET5006]

But you know what though,my combination is totaly different from yours so you would have to take that in to consideration

 

[QDRHRSE]

Heck ya!!!!!

My buddy's co-worker bent a valve due to a broken valve spring, He learned the hard way running a cam over .500 lift on stock springs at 6000rpm isn't that good of an idea. The shortblock is fine but the stock heads are shot. He wants to buy my Thumper heads with double valve springs, as is, for $550. I will in the mean time save money for a set of AFR 165's most likley. It might take me until March to get the cash for new heads. When all is said and done, will I be glad I waited??? (I have a second car)

I'll probally run it with the B cam and regular performer intake for a while before I get the RPM upper and a cam matched to my combo.

I love my Thumpers but there is no comparison to AFR's. My only advice is that you should do the whole thing at once- Heads,Cam,Intake- otherwise you are wasting a lot of time and money. Do not ever consider your time as being "free". Your time carries a lot of value and having to spring for gaskets twice and teardown time twice is not a smart move. You have another option also. Because of the time and money involved you could tell your friend "no" and save for an A-trim vortech. I've seen them new for as little as $1549. You will not have to tear down your motor and you'll gain more power for the same relative amount of money. Sorry, I over think everything. I did take my own advice though, I just bought an S-trim myself. Just my .02.

 

[Stang6911]

For what its worth, i picked up a brand new(or should i say rebuilt) short block with 0 miles on it for 500 in dallas~!

 

[Ranchero5.0]

Damn AFR's

90, funny you should comment. Tore it the rest of the way down and found #2+3 gasket bores blown out the top and bottom, #1+5 oil soaked with the fire rings distorted bad (fel pro 1101-1) and get this, every exhaust valve relief is smashed from the valves floating.

Best part is I just checked AFR's site for their existing spring rates and they now have a disclaimer that reads this;

Note:
Hydraulic roller cams typically experience valve float at 5800-6000 rpm because of their fast ramp rates. AFR suggests you upgrade your springs to AFR part #8032, 1.530 O.D. with higher spring pressures to reduce chances of valve float associated with rpm’s 6000 or higher.

Guess that explains why it wouldn't rev over 5800 at the track :O BTW, they were supposed to have the rev package when I got it. Machinist now says that explains why it blew gaskets all over the place and he'll kiss the face to retrue the heat distorted areas and get some decent springs for it. This is gonna hurt.

Jamie