How about that-a nearly stock...
How about that-a nearly stock 5.0 LX hatch, 10-holes and all. A big thanks goes out to Chad Kolakowski for letting us experiment with his ride.
It's been a while since we've gone completely old school on a 5.0 Mustang. That's not such a huge surprise, because by now it's been done before. We know some of you are still scooping up your first 5.0 Mustangs or even embarking on projects with newly acquired 5.0s. Let's face it-these cars aren't going away, and we have no doubt that one day you'll be able to build a complete 5.0 Mustang with all aftermarket parts.
While discussing the the need to test more 5.0 gear with Rick Anderson of Anderson Ford Motorsport, we came up with the idea of starting from the beginning, then climbing the bolt-on ladder using the tried and true bolt-ons with a splash of the knowledge gained since the 5.0 heyday. As it so happens, Anderson Ford employee Chad Kolakowski had a nearly stock 5.0 LX hatch that he wanted to modify. Rick and Chad agreed to put the car back as close to stock as possible. They tracked down a stock exhaust, an air silencer, and other stock parts to put the bolt-on car back to showroom-type power.
Chad was kind enough to return...
Chad was kind enough to return his car as close to stock as possible for our testing. The only piece they could not find was the rubber junction that joined the stock airbox and mass air meter, so a piece of blue silicone hose is the only non-stock blemish. [If they had only asked. . . I had one in the garage-Ed.] He even went so far as to replace the tired stock engine with a near-virgin 31,000-mile stock engine. The car baselined with a healthy 202 hp and 286 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels, which tells us it was making a bit more than the factory 225 at the flywheel. While that's cool, we wanted more.
Along the way, the Anderson crew discovered the 128,000-mile engine in Chad's ride was a bit tired. When revved beyond 5,500 rpm, it sounded like it was ready to fly apart. As luck would have it, Chad managed to find a stock, 31,000-mile engine for sale. He bought it, yanked the old engine, repainted the engine compartment, and added a tubular K-member (hey-while you're at it, right?). We then had a "stock" 5.0 Mustang to build up.
With a stock canvas ready, we asked Rick to sketch a few stages of modifications that made horsepower sense, yet reflected what anyone might tackle on a such a project. Rick was happy to oblige, and he decided to make the packages available for purchase. Take the numbers with a grain of salt if you will, but Rick's always been a straight shooter with us. We'll start this month by making the most of the stock engine and install the Quick Kit Stage 1 package. As you'll find, the results were quite impressive. In coming issues, we'll add heads, cam, intake, nitrous, and more, so stay tuned.
Horse Sense: From 1987 to 1992 Ford rated the 5.0 H.O. at 225 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque. In 1993, as the Fox era faded, Ford down-rated the essentially unchanged engine to 205 hp and 275 lb-ft of torque. The company said the new rating was more accurate, based on engine revisions over the years and changes in the testing procedure, which require full accessories on the dyno. That might not sound like much power, but remember the 5.0 LX was just over 3,000 pounds, unlike the 3,356-pound S197s of today.
| Part | PN | Price |
| Bassani BX headers | n/a | $360.00 |
| Bassani off-road X-shape crossover | BX-5093-2 | $239.00 |
| Bassani mufflers w/turndowns | BX-5092R-4 | $269.00 |
| FRPP underdrive pulleys | M-8509-A50 | $95.00 |
| Professional Prod. 75 T.B. | 69215 | $144.85 |
| Professional Prod 75 EGR | 69505 | $36.42 |
| 90mm mass air w/Power Bell & filter | n/a | $199.00 |
| Load IO with plug-in | n/a | $279.00 |
| Anderson Power Pipe | AF-0112c | $232.00 |
| Total if Separate: | | $1,854.27 |
| Anderson Quick Kit I Package Price: | | $1,486.68 |
Here's all the gear in our first batch of parts. The bulk of the kit is Bassani's full BX exhaust system, featuring headers, an X-shape crossover, and after-cat exhaust with turndowns. The remainder of the kit consists of an Anderson Power Pipe, a Lightning truck mass air meter with an Anderson Load Tuner, Ford Racing Performance Parts underdrive pulleys, and a Professional Products 75mm throttle body.
Talk about a white rhino-the air silencer should be on the endangered species list. Of course, the silencer on Chad's car had been removed, so he found one and reinstalled it before our baseline runs. Then he took it out to start us down the road to more power. In the good old days before Mustangs were aftermarket darlings, people used to gut these silencers and attempt to convert them into ram-air setups with a dryer hose. There are some things we don't miss.