O.K I am wanting to know all kinds of things about my 5.0 and my MGM. What size stock gears do I have, what is the best after market distributor for my ride. what kind of performance chips and possibly upper and lower intakes are the best for my car without rebuilding my bottom end. I am wanting to boost my car with out changing cams or dampers or putting after market H.o. kit in it. I am just wanting the most of my stock bottom end with out over spending. Could somebody put me together a list of what I can do on a $1000 dollar budget!!!!Thanks.

 

not much. you could get dual exhaust and build a cold air intake and give it a tuneup and possibly use the rest for an MSD distributor... but without changing to the H.O. cam (351 cam) and firing order, and putting larger injectors, you won't really see much midrange or upper end pull from that standard 302. The best way to upgrade the intake is to find the upper plenum (top half of the intake manifold) from a HO engine (Mustang, Thunderbird, Mark VII) and point it in the right direction (they are reversible) along with a matching throttle body and EGR spacer. Good luck finding them though. Unless you happen on one in a junk yard, they don't come cheap. I priced it out a few months back for just the intake upgrades, cam parts, injectors, and computer from a Mark VII (plug and play - keeps cruise functional) and it was about $800. You absolutely need the cam and injectors to realize the HO potential. Heads really help, but if you are a machinist, you can port those and really help the flow a lot. Airflow research makes great heads, but they're proud of them... the 165CC (perfect for the 302) costs about $1500. just pipes and fresh air intake will probably run about $700 unless you do the exhaust work yourself. You will find that NOBODY makes an aftermarket cold air intake for this car and you will have to build it yourself. Check this thread for some ideas.

Check the performance thread for more info.

 

Thanks man! This info helps a lot. I think duals, msd, and cold air is probably all I need. Also what do you think about performance chips are they a crock or do they actually work. But, for my daily highway application for this car to much would just get a 25 year old kid like me in trouble with to much throttle to play with!!!!!! Please reply on that chip I've been really curious. Thanks!

 

considering the restrictive heads on the standard output 5.0L, you won't get much out of anything really beyond the duals and intake. A performance chip may help with a larger look-up table than the stock computer, but that's about it.