what i hope to complete one day

[import convert]

as some of you may know by now i have a 90 GM LX. as of now the 5.0 has 197,000 miles on it. the car has a few rust spots and still needs some suspension work before i do any performance stuff to it.

heres a list of mods ill probably do to it
GT40 heads
comp cams camshaft
not sure bout headers
cobra replica intake manifold or a trick flow manifold
mass air conversion
bbk egr plate and TB
3.55 or 3.73 rear gears
trac lock posi
shift kit

whatever else im not sure of yet

my biggest thing right now is whether to just rebuild the motor in the car or try and get a full motor from a junk yard and rebuild the block? the motor like i said has almost 200,000 on it and though it seems to be in very good shape, i dont want to put the hing together and then find out my cylenders are out of round. it doesnt seem to be burning oil at all so its probably still good but idk wha im gonna do yet. i am on a budget so i may just rebuild it.

as far as some of these parts go (like the rear gears) im not too sure where to get them or if i can just use some off of ford racing for any of the 8.8" rears?

any info, tips or ideas will be more then apritiated. thanks for the help

[1987cp]

Good sounding plans! Sounds like you'll end up with something similar to mrltd's combo. He's got 3.73s and a '96 Exploder motor with a Comp Cams Xtreme Energy XE264. It's a little more radical than mine, and he reports great results with it.

Got any pics of the Grand Marquis?

[gadget73]

I'd get a donor motor for it that way the car isn't down for an extended length of time. Can have the new motor ready to go, then just yank the old one, clean everything up, and drop the new in. Its going to be a couple weeks getting machine work done most likely.

[import convert]

Good sounding plans! Sounds like you'll end up with something similar to mrltd's combo. He's got 3.73s and a '96 Exploder motor with a Comp Cams Xtreme Energy XE264. It's a little more radical than mine, and he reports great results with it.

Got any pics of the Grand Marquis?

i dont have any pics yet. and yea it is close to his build, i almost feel like im copying his stuff but im not trying too

I'd get a donor motor for it that way the car isn't down for an extended length of time. Can have the new motor ready to go, then just yank the old one, clean everything up, and drop the new in. Its going to be a couple weeks getting machine work done most likely.

i would have all the parts ready so when i rebuilt the motor i could just put all the parts on. idk i may try to find a block to build off of and drop it in

[1987cp]

i dont have any pics yet. and yea it is close to his build, i almost feel like im copying his stuff but im not trying too

Would it make you feel better to copy my engine but with his cam and rear gears and then just randomly decide to keep the car fuel injected? :p

i would have all the parts ready so when i rebuilt the motor i could just put all the parts on. idk i may try to find a block to build off of and drop it in

I forgot to mention ... I assume you're not intending to reuse a block without having it cleaned up on a honing machine? A cheap bunch o' grapes hone at home will rough up the cylinder walls appropriately, but it won't tell you squat about whether you're out-of-round. Definitely at least either make the out-of-round measurements or find someone to do it for you. (apologies if this info was unnecessary!)

[import convert]

well thats what im affraid of if i just rebuild the the one in my car now. i think ill try and buy yht explorer block a kid i know is selling. 70,000 on it he says

[1987cp]

Yeah... of course, I like to have a machinist at least check my stuff over even before I buy parts (bored block and turned crank -> stock-sized rings and bearings won't fit), so in a way I don't worry that much what I start with as long as it's not cracked and will clean up at a standard overbore (i.e. no .080"-plus cuts on a stock block). My '96 Explorer block in my avatar pic was scored when I got it, but it cleaned up at .030" over, and the crank at .010"/.010" under, so it's all good.

A 70k Exploder motor could work out extremely well, especially if it runs well enough you're comfortable plopping it right in the car. What year? Does it come with heads?

[import convert]

the kid has mustang top end parts. so id probably take all of it for spare parts and use the block and maybe the intake manifold till i could get an aftermarket manifold

[1987cp]

That could work. Hm, come to think of it, I don't offhand know of any GMNers running aftermarket EFI intakes. If it were still there, the Exploder intake is actually supposed to be pretty decent - it's a little different than the Vic or the Mustang pieces.

[import convert]

yea just about all ive seen has been mustang style intakes besides the carbed stuff

[86VickyLX]

I'd get a donor motor for it that way the car isn't down for an extended length of time. Can have the new motor ready to go, then just yank the old one, clean everything up, and drop the new in. Its going to be a couple weeks getting machine work done most likely.

That's a good Idea. This is what would probably be best for you.

[import convert]

yea. now to find a block and heads. at this point too i mihgt as well have it overbored to make sure its all round and take advantage of a slightly larger bore

[1987cp]

Yeah, your machinist will be able to tell you in a jiffy whether it needs to be bored or whether a pass on the hone machine will be okay. My 130k-mile '87 lowpo cleaned up with just a hone on the cylinders and a light polish on the crank journals, and I tossed in new rings and bearings and threw it back in the car - but as heavy a foot as I have, it hadn't been abused near as badly as the Exploder test motor I bought.

[import convert]

i may just overbore them either way

[1987cp]

Oh well, it's your block. I just say a 4 cubic inch gain in displacement from an .030" overbore is pretty much negligible in the power department, and I want my blocks to be rebuildable as many times in the future as possible. :p Now, if you get an aftermarket Dart block for $$$$, you can have that bored/stroked to at least 360ci for a 302 block, and I think as much as 460 for a Dart 351 block.