performance upgrades

[90windsor]

since ill be changing my gearing, i assume it will be a bit faster. what are some cheap performance engine upgrades i can throw on?

k&n, throttle body spacer?

i cant put a cam bc its a 1990 so there is no mass air and i cant convert to a carb bc the tranny is e40d

 

[miesk5]

yo!

Cheap is the word for me too bec. HP = $$$

Some info here, altho it is titled Project MPG, there is some good info on perf gains;

Performance Comparison Tests

Source: by FOUR WHEELER Magazines Project M.P.G. via by performanceunlimited.com

Air Filter/FIPK, K&N

 

[miesk5]

whOOPs! shoulda banged the ADD REPLY before taking a ....

 

[90windsor]

Yes, you can cam it - it just takes a little more effort. A carb is NOT a performance UPgrade - it's a DOWNgrade, in every way.

how can i cam it? (besides a rediculousy expensive mass air conversion)?

the only reason i would put a carb on it is to be able to cam it.

im looking for a cam with a good idle lope/racy idle

 

[90windsor]

Is that a trick question? Take out the stock cam; install a different one. Done.
Want it to be an improvement? Contact a cam company & ask them for recommendations. Comp & Lunati have shops here in Memphis, but I like the stock cam, so I've never worried about it.

yes but wont the motor run like crap since there is no mass air to adjust itself to the new cam? the 87-91 5.8's have no mass air. they didnt start it till 92 (new body style)

 

[Broncobill78]

NO, you don't want to change your cam. If the truck is speed density & not mass air then it's not going to be able to handle anything that radically changes airflow thru the engine (like a cam does). Larger throttle body, intake manifolds & cam will all cause problems for a speed density engine because it cannot adjust for a different airflow other than what it's programed to look for & see. Since mass air fuel injection has the ability to measure how much air the engine is actually consuming & adjust for it you *can* run those mods but not with speed density. Changing anything that screws with airflow will result in driveability problems when the computer gets all confused and tries to "fix" the airflow problem by altering the fuel & spark curves.

About the only significant mod you're going to be able to get away with will be a set of headers & dual exhaust.

If you really want more out of the engine then what you'll want to do is convert to mass air & then upgrade the cam, intake & throttle body. If you do the headers & exhaust now they'll be able to handle the other upgrades when you make them.

 

[Broncobill78]

Many people cam SD engines successfully, and SD can handle changes - it just takes more effort (as I said earlier) to make it right. But a mild cam doesn't require much.

Kinda my point. It takes a lot more effort to make it work & the gains are negligible, I think there are better upgrades to be made for the time & money. Yes, there *are* speed density specific cams available (although they're getting harder to find since Crane went belly-up.) but the grinds are pretty mild because speed density simply can't cope with large airflow changes. Small changes, sure, but nothing significant. If that sort of thing worked the guys in the go-fast crowd would be all over it, but there's a reason they all suggest swapping to MAF. Even chips are hard to find. I was fortunate enough to get one for my T-bird when I lived in Memphis because Hypertech needed test cars & I happen to have one of the CFI (speed density) TBirds that they needed. They had the car for almost 3wks but I got it back with a full tank of 104+ fuel, a fresh performance tune & a prototype chip without paying a dime. Great guys to work with.

On an unrelated note Memphis has a great street scene, a number of Hi-Po companies (Lunati, Hypertech, performance distributors, etc), the MotorSports park, a $hitload of hot-rod/racing events, BB King's, Graceland, Beale street, Sun Studio, Huey's, killer freakin' BBQ and who can beat Memphis in May ? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> (I still have 2 bottles of Corky's BBQ sauce left from the last case I had them send me)

Anything more than a mild grind or a stock replacement cam is wasted *anyways* if you don't have the heads to support the additional airflow & SD has trouble with cams alone, much less aftermarket or modified factory heads. It's certainly a personal choice & if you're doing the work yourself then the labor is free & you're only looking at $300 or so for the cam & lifters but I certainly wouldn't *pay* someone to install one of those cams. If I'm going to spend the $$$$ and go thru the bull$hit of swapping cams then I want one that's going to produce a noticeable increase in HP & torque, not something I need a dyno to tell me it's there. If money is no object then great, spend whatever it takes to get every available pony. If you're on a budget though I'd go with headers & exhaust before swapping cams. Something like the Ford E303 is a good middle-of-the-road cam, more than mild but not full-blown but even that one won't work without a Mass Air conversion ( http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts/part_...rtKeyField=1329 ). A mild cam & maybe some rocker arms with a better ratio combined with headers & duals would give you a respectable bump in HP & torque but the cam/rocker combo would probably put you right on the edge of what the SD EFI can handle without choking. Although with 150K I don't know that I'd bother trying to do anything to raise the engine's output. Probably better to simply rebuild it & incorporate all the upgrades at once. That would be the time to change over to Mass Air or a carb.

Having said all that, Steve is right in saying there *are* speed density cams out there but it will take some looking around to find one that isn't essentially a stock replacement. I think Comp Cams probably has the largest selection but from what I've read the Crower 15511 works well. The Lunati Voodoo cams are supposed to be pretty good also so you could start with those if you wanted to do some research.

Also, you *can* convert to a carb and avoid the entire speed density/mass air tarbaby. Beauman makes a stand-alone tranny controller for the E4OD. If the whole inspection/emissions deal isn't an issue for you then that's probably the way to go because it just simplifies everything. http://www.baumannengineering.com/tcs.htm

 

[90windsor]

thanks for all the info guys. been a big help

About the only significant mod you're going to be able to get away with will be a set of headers & dual exhaust.

i already have that

 

[Broncobill78]

Lemme guess, not a fan of backwards engineering, huh ? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

It *would* be a way to run whatever he wanted as far as cam & heads went without dealing with complications from the Speed Density system. Admittedly you give up a bit of HP/Torque & mileage compared to a fuel injected system but on the other hand you can run a much larger cam & free-flowing heads so the *overall* increase in Hp/Torque would be significant.

Swapping to Mass Air would give you the best of both worlds but you have to admit going to a carb is a lot cheaper.

When I said it was probably the way to go I was referring to the original question. If you want to run a big cam there's no sense in doing that without free-flowing heads to take advantage to the increased airflow it will create & Speed Density simply *won't* support either of those modifications. Not gonna happen. The cheapest & *easiest* way to run a big cam & heads will be to swap to a carb. The *best* way to do it would be to swap to Mass Air. Take your pick but Speed Density just ain't gonna get it done with a big cam & aftermarket or stock heads that have been ported & sport larger valves.

 

[90windsor]

howd you get an OBD-II to work in car that virtually had nothing of the sort in the first place? howd you wire it up? interesting... must have took alot of engineering B)

 

[90windsor]

I just transferred the entire engine harness, as those pics show. And I added a few circuits to the rest of the car for the things it didn't already have - not that difficult, and no real engineering. Ford already did that - I just copied their design into an older vehicle. Same as what I did with my '83 & Frank's '75 Broncos.

interesting...

back to the subject of the cam in the speed density motor, and the basic performance upgrades, i found something interesting on youtube.

this guy has a 87-91 f150 with a 5.0 (speed density). he has these two videos. the first one it is pretty fast with some basic performance upgrades:

it is fuel injected and speed denisty. this vid is with KNN cold air intake, flowtech long tube headers, underdrive pullies, dual 2

 

[90windsor]

Is what possible?
Bypass the TB same way as anything else: cross-connect the hoses. It has no appreciable effect.

Advance the timing same as anything else: turn the distributor. The effect depends on how FAR it's advanced.

so its not worth bypassing the throttle body cooler?

how far should i advance it? what is the effect going to be?