mods to high mileage motor??

[paintslinga2010]

Im kinda stuck right now as far as plans for my car goes. My car has the stock shortblock in it with just under 130,000 miles. It has a trickflow intake, e303 cam, and stock heads. It has a few other mods but i know right now the heads are holding me back. Im not sure if i want to spend the cash and put some heads on the motor now(gt40s most likely) or if i should just leave it alone as it runs solid right now. Then I would save up and in the next couple years drop a new longblock in it after i finish paying the car off. Keep in mind this is the car i plan on driving to college so i need it to be reliable.

Basically what im asking is, is it worth it to put gt40s on a motor with 130k or will i run into more problems than i want to deal with? Sway me one way or the other because the senisble side of me says leave it alone, but the competitive side of me is tired of losing to 4cylinders by a length.

 

[LAFENATU]

130K is not a lot of miles really..

Do a compression test and as long as it makes decent compression I would put a set of heads on it. If GT40's is what you can afford do it. They are definitley better then E7's. If you do decide to do a set of GT40 heads make sure you upgrade the springs and have them checked.

I am a guy that will run it until it blows up and then rebuild so..take my opinion with a grain of salt lol..

 

[Win]

If you throw some heads on there just grab some GT40's or P's and go from there.

As what Lafenatu said if it is a healthy motor why not. I have 180k on mine right now and it runs damn good. I think i might have a main bearing going out so i am trying to do a motor right now very budget.

Fox block, gt40p's, explorer or cobra intake ported and polished. then a set of Mac Lt's and with my setup i should be about the 270 rwhp range and should have a fun little street car. I'm doing a simple budget build not anything to wind it to 7 grand but a resonable 5500 or so and i should be good to go.

 

[THEPATRIOT]

My car has 186K! and runs GREAT!I don't plan to run this car hard though.I had a "91 with 250K that had many bolt ons and was run VERY hard.That car never gave me an ounce of trouble.130K is nothing if it's been taken care of :thumbsup:.

 

[F1atlander]

i'd say go for the head swap. i have about the same amount of miles and im about to do it. did it to my fox with 190k on it an blew the bottom end completly out. all my compression was in the oil pan. lol

 

[Venom351R]

The issue is not really if your car has to many miles on it to put heads on it. Its not the mileage aspect its the condition of the engine and if other things need to be taken care of first like if it did not have proper compression. The 5.0 Engines are very strong and will last a very long time when taken care of properly. I my last Mustang a 95 GT I supercharged it at 120,000 miles and ran it that way for about a year before selling it. There is not a point where these engines reach a certain mileage where its not worth to strap a set of heads on them. What you should really consider is do you want to keep this engine in there now or get another one? Unless something is wrong w/ your current one there is no point in getting a new one.

 

[paintslinga2010]

My main concern is that if i put a set of heads on the current block that it will blow headgaskets or have other problems since the block is worn to the old heads. Or am i making things more complicated than they are?

 

[Venom351R]

Your going to replace the head gaskets when you do new heads anyway so they will be new. If its not leaking oil anywhere else then its not going to by just putting heads on unless the upper intake is not torqued down right when re installed

 

[sn95gtvert]

im right at 125k my friends 90lx is at 205k both are healthy and both are getting gt40 heads and intakes. theres nothing wrong or bad about changing heads on motors with over 100k. just clean everything use good gaskets and follow install steps 100%

and have the heads checked and cleaned.

 

[paintslinga2010]

When people say have the heads checked what does this mean? Where can i take them to have them checked. I dont know of any machine shops near me. Is there anywhere else to take them?

 

[Venom351R]

None of your NAPA auto part stores have a machine shop? When buying a used set of heads you can check to see if they are warped or not. Not something that really is a common problem but if they are they would leak even when torqued down correctly. Ive never done it but you could prob check w/ a straight edge too

 

[Slykin]

You can check with a straight edge.. i've never done personally but it shouldn't be too complicated if you know what to look for.

 

[50GTMach1]

I just put gt40 heads on my car 94 gt. the stock motor had 269000 miles on it when i did the head swap and now has just over 270000k. car runs real strong. its my daily driver. Go for it!

 

[Steven]

None of your NAPA auto part stores have a machine shop? When buying a used set of heads you can check to see if they are warped or not. Not something that really is a common problem but if they are they would leak even when torqued down correctly. Ive never done it but you could prob check w/ a straight edge too

Sorry we are not blessed with holy turds. I'm just going to sit over here and complain about all the craptacular machine shops we have here. A motor with a 100 miles could go before a motor with 300k miles. You really never know with an ol 5.0

 

[jthorn9]

My 5.0 has 140K and I modded the hell out of it. Now everything is pretty much new on the car, but the internals (while I cleaned/restored them) are still the original that came on the car.

 

[THEPATRIOT]

And people think only japanese cars can go the distance!!! :tard:

 

[silver 4.6]

god.. i love reading these threads that make me feel like the miles on my car arent there..

but the fact is... i have 160k and nothing can change that....

you have 130k... and nothing can change that....

sure... the condition of our cars might be great, but parts get tired after a while.