99 explorer 302 for Gen 3 coupe

[bil1024]

Starting to collect donor parts, what do you think of the 302 from an explorer ? Positives / negatives ? Going old school with carb

[Erik W. Treves]

I would go with a blueprint 302.

[Usudno]

The biggest benefit of the explorer 302s are the intake manifolds and heads vs what came in an efi mustang. It's a good motor. That being said, if you are going carb and thinking about a bit more power, I would snatch it up, sell the heads and intake off of it and buy some nice heads a carb intake and a new cam. You would have a nice combo.

[GWL]

Good basic engine.

GT-40p heads, the best Ford stock iron heads they made.

I would change out the cam for a Stage 1 Trick Flow cam. Also you can upgrade the valve springs with a Trick Flow kit that does not require any head machining. With this set up you'll start getting close to 300HP and have a very dependable engine.

As said above you could add aluminum heads and be getting around 350HP. Depends on your budget.

George

[blitzkreig baja]

I believe it is a cost effective way to get a good base to start with. I'm using a 5.0 HO from a 96 Explorer in my MK4 build. (Keeping the EFI) Picked it up at the junk yard for only $300. The parts for them are plentiful (stock and performance) and switching to a carb is not that difficult from what I understand. As mentioned before, the GT40 intake and heads are sought after stock parts and you could offset the cost by selling them.

Risk is you can't be sure what your getting from the junkyard until you open it up.

[Jeff Kleiner]

I believe it is a cost effective way to get a good base to start with. I'm using a 5.0 HO from a 96 Explorer in my MK4 build. (Keeping the EFI) Picked it up at the junk yard for only $300. The parts for them are plentiful (stock and performance) and switching to a carb is not that difficult from what I understand. As mentioned before, the GT40 intake and heads are sought after stock parts and you could offset the cost by selling them.

Risk is you can't be sure what your getting from the junkyard until you open it up.

Note that the GT40p heads did not come into use until midway through the 1997 model year. Up to that changeover the Explorer 5.0 used iron GT40 heads; better flow than the E7E head from 5.0 mustangs but not as good as the P. Due to the different spark plug angle the P head can pose header clearance in some cases. Tere is a lot of misinformation regarding the Explorer intake; it is often touted as being equal to the GT40 and Cobra units however the numbers say otherwise.The '93 & '94-'95 Cobra intakes, as well as the GT40 flow ~11-12% more than the Explorer on average. Here are some numbers from flow testing Edelbrock did on the various OEM intakes some years ago. The first 8 numbers are each runner, the bold number is the average.

Runner CFM
Intake 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, Average

Mustang "H.O." 5.0: 123 140 142 145 119 139 133 150 136

Explorer: 169 180 176 180 177 177 183 183 178

GT-40: 186 202 202 204 182 197 198 201 197

'94-'95 Cobra: 184 200 197 198 186 206 206 207 198

'93 Cobra: 187 203 200 200 188 206 207 208 200

That said either version of Explorer head and the intake offer some improvement over the 5.0 Mustang pieces.

Hope that helps clarify things!

Jeff

[KegMechanic]

Let me know what you decide to do with the motor. I just got a 5.0 from a 98 Explorer and ordered the MK4 basic kit during the sale last week. I'm still deciding on upgrades and what to do with the motor. I think I'm gonna go carb and upgrade the cam and springs. Good Luck

[bil1024]

Thanks guys, using 88 Mustang donor carbed now in my roadster. Looking for a decent budget friendly motor for the coupe, not worried about power, its gonna be a cruiser and since the coupe price increase the budget is tight. Gonna look at it today, guy asking 200 off of craigslist, 112k on it

[bil1024]

Made the deal, guy is gonna drop it off Monday, the journey begins!

[Jeff Kleiner]

It would be hard to go wrong for 200 bucks.

Jeff

[bil1024]

Yep same that Im gonna do, some upgrades and go from there

Let me know what you decide to do with the motor. I just got a 5.0 from a 98 Explorer and ordered the MK4 basic kit during the sale last week. I'm still deciding on upgrades and what to do with the motor. I think I'm gonna go carb and upgrade the cam and springs. Good Luck

[bil1024]

Note that the GT40p heads did not come into use until midway through the 1997 model year. Up to that changeover the Explorer 5.0 used iron GT40 heads; better flow than the E7E head from 5.0 mustangs but not as good as the P. Due to the different spark plug angle the P head can pose header clearance in some cases. Tere is a lot of misinformation regarding the Explorer intake; it is often touted as being equal to the GT40 and Cobra units however the numbers say otherwise.The '93 & '94-'95 Cobra intakes, as well as the GT40 flow ~11-12% more than the Explorer on average. Here are some numbers from flow testing Edelbrock did on the various OEM intakes some years ago. The first 8 numbers are each runner, the bold number is the average.

Runner CFM
Intake 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, Average

Mustang "H.O." 5.0: 123 140 142 145 119 139 133 150 136

Explorer: 169 180 176 180 177 177 183 183 178

GT-40: 186 202 202 204 182 197 198 201 197

'94-'95 Cobra: 184 200 197 198 186 206 206 207 198

'93 Cobra: 187 203 200 200 188 206 207 208 200

That said either version of Explorer head and the intake offer some improvement over the 5.0 Mustang pieces.

Hope that helps clarify things!

Jeff

Thanks Jeff!