Just bought my first 5.0 Fox...Know nothing about them, where to start

cjmatt

cjmatt

Club Member
Just picked up a 92 Calypso LX convertible this week, bone stock except for magnaflows, longtubes, and deleted cats. I am pretty dumb when it comes to mustangs.

Where do I start with the modding? Its just kind of a turd, sounds good, but I always thought 5.0s were a lil faster. I wanna make sure that everything is in correct working order before I go messin with it. Are there any quick fixes, deletes, or whatever that I can do to get this thing running sweet?

Its an auto btw.
 
cjmatt said:
Just picked up a 92 Calypso LX convertible this week, bone stock except for magnaflows, longtubes, and deleted cats. I am pretty dumb when it comes to mustangs.

Where do I start with the modding? Its just kind of a turd, sounds good, but I always thought 5.0s were a lil faster. I wanna make sure that everything is in correct working order before I go messin with it. Are there any quick fixes, deletes, or whatever that I can do to get this thing running sweet?

Its an auto btw.
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Change out the gear...
 
A 4.10 gear and a converter first. It won't feel so sluggish anymore. A good set of aftermarket heads, intake, 24lb injectors, bigger mass air sensor, and a 65 mm throttle body can get you in the 12's with decent traction. Leaving the stock cam in can be stealthy, and still make good power. Throw a Vortech on it with an easy 8 psi and you can run mid 11's pretty easily and still be quite driveable. Keep tweaking on it after that and it will go high 10's.

Easy free things are to advance the timing to about 14 degrees BTDC. Then check the passenger inner fender to see if the air silencer is still there. Yank it if it is there. I'd probably save it though. So many have been thrown away over the years that they might be somewhat sought after soon from collectors.

A panel type replacement K&N will do well, but a cold air kit might flow a little better. Underdriven pulleys are also good for 10 horsepower.

If your LX is stock with the headers and exhaust and a stock AOD, it probably goes high 14's at best. Low 15's are more likely. With a gear, converter, advanced timing, K&N, pulleys, mass air sensor, and some sticky tires it should run high 13's around 100 mph. The cylinder heads are the key to make good power though. A good set of AFR's, Edelbrocks, or Trick Flow's will turn it into a different animal.
 
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Werd on the pics. I always wanted to pick up a stock 5.0L and go though all this again. The 90's were a lot of fun. :)
 
the AOD is definately the weak link. Gear, Convertor will make it feel better. You can remove the smog pump if its still on there. U/D pullies. Next would be a H/C/I swap. That really wakes them up
 
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Exgmguy said:
Nice. What kind of performance do you want to get out of the car?
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wheelies!

I put it up for sale as I really dont need it. I basically traded it for my roller plus cash as the roller wasnt going to sell in this economy due to lack of drivetrain, but I actually really like driving this vert. these stock 5.0s are sooo slow though. Im guessing a 5 speed probably feels totally different, but these things barely get out of their own way as is. Id honestly like to drop in a fordstrokers.com 408 with a nice set of heads and swap it to a t-56 or something. then get the interior redyed as the sun has faded it somewhat.
Get the body work done, its got a soft spot about 3"x1" in the floor where the water hits, plus the door striker sheet metal is broken and it kinda wiggles. is that common on foxes? rest of the body is rock solid though. Im also gonna have Reiters put in a set of subframe connectors too to stiffen it up a bit and prevent any future flexing
 
cjmatt said:
wheelies!

I put it up for sale as I really dont need it. I basically traded it for my roller plus cash as the roller wasnt going to sell in this economy due to lack of drivetrain, but I actually really like driving this vert. these stock 5.0s are sooo slow though. Im guessing a 5 speed probably feels totally different, but these things barely get out of their own way as is. Id honestly like to drop in a fordstrokers.com 408 with a nice set of heads and swap it to a t-56 or something. then get the interior redyed as the sun has faded it somewhat.
Get the body work done, its got a soft spot about 3"x1" in the floor where the water hits, plus the door striker sheet metal is broken and it kinda wiggles. is that common on foxes? rest of the body is rock solid though. Im also gonna have Reiters put in a set of subframe connectors too to stiffen it up a bit and prevent any future flexing
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yeah with the auto it is a turd. my brother went through all this with his vert and is now swaping to a t5. he had converter, gears, shift kit, h/c/i, etc and still needs the 5 speed. a 408 w/ t56 would be awesome!
 
car looks good. like others have said the aod is your weak link and makes it a turd. that and the verts have some more weight to lug around. i would do a gear change, go c4/t5 which ever you prefer, intake u/l with 24# inj. and just little shit and you would be sup. take the smog off if its still there. bump the timing aswell. it cant be THAT big of a turd as it sits though. if you want to feel slow hop in a camaro :)
 
cjmatt said:
Just picked up a 92 Calypso LX convertible this week, bone stock except for magnaflows, longtubes, and deleted cats. I am pretty dumb when it comes to mustangs.

Where do I start with the modding? Its just kind of a turd, sounds good, but I always thought 5.0s were a lil faster. I wanna make sure that everything is in correct working order before I go messin with it. Are there any quick fixes, deletes, or whatever that I can do to get this thing running sweet?

Its an auto btw.
Click to expand...
4.30's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
86_notch said:
car looks good. like others have said the aod is your weak link and makes it a turd. that and the verts have some more weight to lug around. i would do a gear change, go c4/t5 which ever you prefer, intake u/l with 24# inj. and just little shit and you would be sup. take the smog off if its still there. bump the timing aswell. it cant be THAT big of a turd as it sits though. if you want to feel slow hop in a camaro :)
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intake u/l? what kinda gears? Do guys retune with 24lbers or just adjust fuel pressure?

never mind, you meant upper/lower intake. I forgot 5.0s were 2 piece
 
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24# injectors require a mass air meter calibrated for those injectors. 4.10's are good for an AOD car. the stock injectors are fine until you change the heads though.
 
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