1988 Mustang GT Build

[rrewati]

Hi! New to the thread - found it off Craiglist. The site has been extremely helpful, aside from the classifieds section, I hope a few fellow Mustang lovers can provide some advice and assistance.

I own a 88 Mustang GT with 5 speed T5 transmission. As of now, the car will be parked for about two months in order to gather the necessary parts to replace the engine and other components under the hood.

However, I am facing a slightly dilemma when choosing a cylinder heads. At first, I was going to purchase from Thumper Performance, a company which specializes in rebuilding E7TE heads, but opted out for the luxury of an aluminum head since weight reduction is a significant factor.

I would like to keep the budget fairly low since the car shall be used mostly on the street with the few rare occasions of opening it out on the highway. I already own a FRPP Cobra Intake Manifold along with a 65MM throttle body - which I hope I can keep for my setup. I was inquiring into FRPP GT40X and Edelbrock Performer RPM heads. The vehicle will remain naturally aspirated, so with that in mind, I want to take all measures capable to increase the compression ratio. Should I just save some extra cash and purchase an AFR 165CC?

Is their a tremendous difference in power with the cylinder heads? Also, what kind of camshaft should I use for this setup?

 

[PrjctLxEnvy]

welcome to the site man, i dont know enough to help you out lol.

 

[stanginthe11s]

I know you'll think I'm wrong but heres goes lol. I'm not a big fan of aluminum heads on a street car since the 50lbs you save is of no significance and id rather make more power but hey . The AFR heads would be the better of the 3 you're looking at but as a Dart dealer I have to recommend the iron eagle or pro 1 heads if you must have aluminum. Also theres nothing wrong with thumper heads for your intended use. As for cam again my insane recommendation would be use the stock cam. It will be a better street cam, make your SD computer happy and you, and unless you're looking to go 11.50's or better it works well because it will keep cylinder pressure up which is what makes power. A set of iron eagle heads, 1.7 rockers, stock cam plus basic bolt ons with your intake and a good chip will get you in or close to the 11 sec mark with good driving and the right susp. which means a fun ride for just a street car. If you need to have a cam that sounds good then get all your parts then base the cam around what you have, and a custom cam would be the best choice.