Thinking of changing to carb setup on 5.0

[JimH]

I'm at the point in the refresh and re-assembly of my 89 5.0 EFI completly stock engine, where I'm thinking that perhaps I should change to a carb setup instead? EFI is looking lots more complicated as I get closer to re-assembling the engine, and I may be way over my head to make EFI work( No experience with fuel injection). What carb and manifold setups would work best for my stock engine? Street use only, also I have a Calif. SB-100 certf. so I don't need to meet smog requirements. Thanks, Jim

[Clois Harlan]

I changed mine because the carb is correct for the Cobra but besides that like you I know more about carbs than I do FI. As someone will be soon to say the EFI is a more reilable system but for me it was just wrong.

Clois

[blykins]

I'm in the process of changing my 1990 Mustang over to carb.

Yes, EFI is more efficient and it's nice in cold weather....but to me when you can't get a valve cover off without pulling the upper plenum, that's a pain in the butt.

You will need to replace your distributor to one that either works with a current TFI setup, or one that works with an capacitive discharge ignition box. When you eliminate the ECC, your distributor won't know to advance the timing.

For a 302, you can't really do much better than a Weiand Stealth or a Performer RPM. A 600-ish cfm carb will work fine as well.

[YerDugliness]

I am in the process of negotiating for a Cobra kit with a 1989 5.0 HO/WC T-5. It has been converted to carb, looks like the only thing that they did was change out the EFI intake system for the Edelbrock Performer intake and the Edelbrock 500CFM 4-barrel. I did speak with the individual who managed the conversion, he said the motor overheated at first b/c they also converted from the serpentine belt system to a V-belt system. That caused the original water pump to rotate in reverse, necessitating a different water pump. No problems since the reverse rotation water pump was installed. It is something you might want to check if you change over.

As for how it runs, IMHO it ran smoothly although it idled a bit high. I think some simple fiddling around with a screwdriver and a timing gun can solve the high idle. We didn't get into any real performance driving that day, just simple neighborhood stuff with a short stint on the freeway to check 70 mph RPM's. I'll be able to tell you more in a week, when I hope to be able to take possession of the car.

If I had to do it myself, I'd opt for the Performer RPM or (better, IMHO) the Air Gap manifold and I'd run a 600 CFM Holley. I'm just more experienced with the Holley than with the Edelbrock. I suspect a cam/lifter swap is in order to get best performance from this current Performer/Edelbrock combo, most certainly if the manifold/carb combo were upgraded to the Performer Plus or Air Gap with the Holley.

Next on the list would be a set of good aluminum heads !

Dugly