Aftermarket GrowthOnce Super Ford documented this first 5.0 Mustang Shootout, others in the sport quickly learned and borrowed from the more successful combinations. This was a huge time of growth for the performance industry, no doubt brought on by the 5.0 owners demanding emissions-legal performance parts that worked (see A New Super Ford sidebar by Tom Wilson). There were innumerable parts that helped push the envelope, and to think we could cover them all would be crazy. However, some of the hottest parts for the 5.0 Mustang have come directly from Ford as Ford Motorsport SVO (now Ford Racing Performance Parts) aftermarket pieces. Their selection of cylinder heads, intakes, crate engines, exhaust, rear gears, the Extender, racing blocks, and complete performance kits hit the marketplace in just the right spot to keep the fires burning.
Power adders have played a huge role in the evolution of the 5.0 Mustang, with blowers from Paxton, Vortech, and ATI-ProCharger answering the call for more power. Turbo companies have come and gone, but it's not unusual to find a turbocharger of some type under the hood of a Mustang. Of course, who hasn't messed with a 150-horse nitrous system from NOS, Compucar, Nitrous Works, or other nitrous specialty houses? What 5.0 Mustang owners soon learned is that they may be expensive, but power adders always seem to deliver the goods, especially when taking advantage of the Ford fuel-injection system.
There are so many cylinder heads and intake manifolds for the small-block Ford today, we've given up trying to count them all. They all borrow from the Trick Flow Street Heat (recently rereleased as the High-Port). This high-performance cylinder head offered Ford enthusiasts the first aftermarket option over ported stockers or old 351 Windsor stuff. In the late '80s, Trick Flow also offered the first performance fuel-injection intake, which featured a heavily modified truck 302 casting. Later, the company's Twisted Wedge heads have been, arguably, the head of choice since their introduction in 1996. When aftermarket giant Edelbrock released its line of Performer 5.0 heads in 1992, we knew things were getting hot. After all, here was the industry leader openly recognizing the 5.0 Mustang arena was for real (and lucrative), and that it needed to build parts for it.
Fuel-injection control quickly took center stage. Early on, it was the Microburst chip, which helped "program" the stock Ford EEC IV. Once the Ford computer code was cracked, the Crane Interceptor (forerunner of today's PMS) was a viable option for adding fuel or adjusting timing as you added boost or rpm. Ford realized the mass air was the key, so it released it as a retrofit kit in order for the '86-'88 cars to be updated. As mentioned earlier, Ford's own Extender and EPEC systems lent further flexibility to the Mustang's potential. Soon, ACCEL's DFI system could be purchased as a truly stand-alone computer system. For street cars, custom-tuned chips using computer programming allowed for all individual applications to be met. Today, the FAST system and ACCEL's latest and greatest DFI, the Gen VII, rule the roost for optimal fuel-injection control on the 5.0 Mustang scene.
Perhaps the most important piece of technology that has aided the development of the 5.0 Mustang has been the chassis dyno. By the mid-'90s, every major city had at least one speed shop that would allow you to verify the horsepower potential of your 5.0 Mustang and then see what happened when equipment or tuning was altered. With this invaluable tool, Mustang tuners across the country could now side-step rumors and myths, and get down to business. Besides that, rear-wheel horsepower figures quickly became the hot-test point to brag about throughout the entire hobby.