im seeking some advice on what upgrades I can do to my 5.0lt V8 in the 98 EL.

after doing some research, i am considering the following:

GT40 heads - {DESCRIPTION}

Cobra Intake Manifold - {DESCRIPTION}

Cam shaft

Pacemaker Headers, high flow cats and 2 1/2 inch twin exhaust.

and once all the above are installed, a full tune.

My biggest concern is buying the heads and intake manifolds from the US and finding out that they are not compatible. for example: the inlet on the intake manifold appears to be on the other side of the motor then the standard intake installed at the moment. Can anyone confirm that these parts are compatible, and if not, where would i find those parts that are?

Secondly, can anyone provide suggestions on the cam make/model that would the proposed mods above?

Finally, I'm open to any other suggestions for mods to the engine... I have about $4-5K to play with.

Cheers
Col

With the Cobra intake, you can just turn the upper intake around. The lower is the same.
GT40 heads... well you can get them over here and probably cheaper if S/H.
Why not aftermarket heads? The currency exchange rate with the U.S. is at parity at the moment and aftermarket heads will far exceed the flow of GT40 heads.

Cam choice can be: Comp Cam, Trickflow TFS1, Crane 2030 / Crane 2031 etc. There's more choices or course.

thanks for the info.

thougth that might have been the case re the intake!

i haven't had any luck in finding any GT40 heads here in perth for a reasonable price. There is a perth head exchange do fully reconditioned heads for $1400, supply only. Plus, if i find a used set, I would want to get them cleaned up before fitting, and by the quotes I have obtained, that would cost me >$1000 in addition to the $300-500 for the heads themselves.

The GT40s from summit are new aluminium heads, fully assembled ready to install.

The cost of the cobra intake and GT40 heads inc delivery is a touch under $2K. The cost of the after-market heads is going to tighten the budget a fair bit.

I know very little about cam shafts. where is the best place to get some advice regarding the most suitable cam shaft for my engine?

if your looking into the states dont worry about gt40p's, get a set of trickflow or afr's. There ready to go straight on your car, no reco bs with gt40p's. Just pick up a explorer intake for $250 on gaybay and respray it an alloy colour. Will save you heaps of $$, a bit of a waste with the cobra intake especially seeing how cheap an explorer intake is now a days. In terms of the perfromance, both manifolds are same.

Spend the money you have saved with the explorer intake to port the lower manifold to your heads, thats only if you get a set of alloy heads. This will yield you alot more power then stock gt40p + cobra intake all over the powerband.

with cam choice, stick to something that doesnt make power over 5500rpm with a gt40 manifold.

Plenty of people on here who could give you their opinions, like myself, but I guess it all comes down to what you want your engine to do. Do you want your power evenly spread across the range? Do you want your power developed up high?
For example, I reckon the Trickflow TFS1 has the best area under the curve for overall power increase for a GT40 style heads upgrade.

I'd also recommend going to a performance engine builder if you can and picking his brain. Perhaps give BPT a call over in Perth and ask their opinion? They are very good with Fords.

trickflow or afr heads are going to put me over budget.
i would rather avoid buying a used intake that might be screwed when it arrives via the mail and doesnt fit.
for the sake of ease, I would prefer to buy the heads and intake from summit in one hit.

correct me if i am wrong, but the GT40 heads (found here: {DESCRIPTION}) are brand new aluminimum heads. they are NOT: stock GT40 cast iron heads that are fitted to the AU V8's.

also, I dont want to take my car off the road for anylonger than a couple of days. pulling the intake off to get it ported is not an option for me.

regarding what I am chasing, i am looking for something to give me more power all round, but propbably mostly at the lower end. take off speed for the 302 windor is sad, and I would like to improve this first and foremost.

I have tried speaking with BPT, but werent interested when I called and no response to my email. All the other well known performance shops deal mostly with commowhores. Do you know any other performance guys in perth area that know a decent amount about fords?

ok, for starters...these sortov things always takes longer then planned. Not mention problems arising with fuel or spark as you are upgrading your engine perfromance, everything else must be running absolutley perfect or this will turn into a nightmare quickly.

those heads you listed are alloys gt40x, the only au to get these heads was a t2 220kw engine. The rest had iron gt40p's and modified iron gt40p's for the 220kw xr8 and t3's. EB gts, el gts and ed sprint got gt40 heads not gt40p's.

Now summit have deals on trickflow heads every so often, about a couple of hundred dollars cheaper and come in just under a grand AUS, avoiding gst.

And what do you mean intake that is screwed and doesnt fit? the only way an intake can be screwed is the bolt threads.....even so they can be re-tap for $30. If your not looking into porting the lower then invest into some roller rockers most definitly.

You still gota put money aside for gaskets, might as well do lifters while your at it, larger maf and t/b, chip and a tune. Thats well over a 1 grand extra right there ontop of your 2k budget.

Not trying to sound like an a**, just trying to help as iv done this several times. Sadly with long gearing and auto, downlow sucks. All these mods wont do that much to downlow power, but alot more to midrange top end. Shorter gearing or a highstall will fix any downlow issue.

i appreciate that the unexpected might arise, and I am trying to organise everything to minimise that possibility.

my point was that the GT40's that the link brings you to are brand new and ready to bolt on, just like the trickflows and afrs you referred to.

I will keep an eye out for the deals on trickford heads. If they are only marginally more expensive, i am more than happy to go with them.

my point regarding the intake was that I would rather spend that little bit more to get the new parts that I know there is more chance will fit properly. ive bought and almost bought too many parts that just dont come as described.

as stated, my budget it $4-5K (not $2K). If I spend too much over $2K on heads and intake, then I wont have enough left for the rest. What I am saying is that I have budgeted for rockers, pushrods, gaskets, spark plugs, leads, and all those small parts that I should replace, as well as the exhaust, cam, heads, intake, labor, etc etc.

I appreciate that the mods i have considered will not eliminate the downlow power issue altogether. however, althought it wont do much to it, it will do something.

Fair enough.
In consideration for new intake over second hand intake and wherever you decide to purchase them from, you could port the upper & lower intake to eachother before you install them on your car. As for Explorer vs Cobra intake, there is a flow difference in favor of the Cobra over the Explorer even though it's not huge. I run a Cobra and it's had the upper & lower intake ported before I installed it. They're a good bang for buck manifold and assist the lower to mid rpm range.
Explorer intakes are large enough for a 65mm TB to fit straight on and the Cobra intake is large enough to fit a 70mm TB straight on. I can't remember what size MAF the AU XR8's ran but you could scrounge for one of them.
Another thought for freeing up some power is to fit underdriven pulleys. I bought a set of race pulleys from BPT some years ago for about $300 delivered and they have been an asset.
Also, Pacemaker Tri-Y headers will provide an increase in low to mid rpm as well.

sweet.... sounds like it can work then!!

can you suggest a place that would do the porting for a reasonable price? depending on price, i might get the intake ported before fitting...

under drive pulleys are definetly on the cards... and if im come in under budget, they will be done at the same time as the rest of these mods.

pacemakers were a deifintely goer anyway... just waiting to make a decision on the heads.

do I need new rocker covers for the new heads, or will the factory fitted ones fit ok?

As a general rule the heads you're referring to go like this in terms of performance starting from lowest...
GT40p
GT40Y ally(as used on T-series)
GT40X
Trickflow
AFR
Now this doesn't mean a 40p is terrible it's just not worth the exercise when you factor in reconditioning and spark plug/header clearance issues(which none of the others have) and the fact they need porting to approach the performance you already get with the lighter(another advantage of course) Ford racing and aftermarket ally heads.

Unfortunately I live in Victoria so am not knowledgeable about Perth businesses, sorry. But any performance shop would be able to get it done for you.
As for rocker covers, if installing roller rockers then you may find the standard rocker covers will hit and the solution is a set of taller rocker covers - Summit have them.
I have to say that with the set of parts you intend to install, you'll end up needing a custom tune. Is that something you have budgeted for?

have budgeted $1K for custom tune. I intend to install the necessary parts for the upgrades, then bring it to a peformance shop to get a full tune and dyno.

ok, i think i have decided on the GT40's and Cobra intake from summit.

Now, just need to make a decision on rockers and cam.

for the rockers, would this kit suffice? {DESCRIPTION}

Thanks.

It might be worth selecting your roller rockers after selecting your cam.
Then you can buy the right ratio rockers.
I would also suggest the trusty Yella Terra RR's as they are good quality for a street application.

G'day bigcol81,

I know of a guy who has a Fairlane off the road with a heap of AU gear on it that is all in pretty good condition. Explorer intake, GT40P heads and I think throttle body and MAF as well. I also have an AU MAF and know of another one that may be available, too. There is quite a bit of gear floating around hear in Perth, you just need to know where to look.

If you want to save a bit of coin on the install, fire XH5LWEPN a PM and see if he'd be keen to take the job on. He'd also be able to help with a lot of advice. If you haven't seen it, he runs a blue XH ute that he's installed a Kenne Bell onto, as well as full fuel system and various other mods himself. He's got a few projects on the go, including finishing my motor off and a Vortech blown Sprint motor that's going into an NC 'lane. Here's a link to one of his build threads - http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread ... e=17&pp=30

When it comes to tuning, if you're keen to learn a bit, I'd be happy to help, as tuning the E-series isn't really a forte of any of the workshops around here and you'd end up getting charged anywhere between $1300 - $1600, then extra every time you wanted to make changes after that.