Ok so I am new here and been asking a lot of questions lately. I was contemplating over a lift kit but now decided that my 1's will serve me fine. I would like to have any info on an engine build for my 351w out of my 94 f150 and achieve 400 hp at the crank staying FI and stock bottom end. What do you guys think will get me there. I am hoping heads cam and intake will put me there.

I really don't have much to inform you on with a small block build, but I do have to ask...Why no bottom end mods? Seems to me, that a stroker kit would be about the best way to achieve what you want.

lack of funds

Yeah ya wont get 400 out of cam heads and intake ya need to do a stroker in order to get that kinda power or a big block.

i believe with good heads, intake, and cam i can achieve 300 hp to the wheels. But i may be wrong

The only thing you can do to help you get more HP and not touching the bottom end is heads and cam after market ignition system and still you may not be able to get any were near 400.
Your best bet to get the power you want is to do a small stroker kit and you would be able to keep your stock FI and ignition system for the most part.

Whats your stock rating on that motor.

i believe 215

Well usually in order to make 200 horsepower it takes some screwin around with the bottom end wether it be bore or strokin it out to a 408 or somethin like that. What kind of heads are ya thinkin of usin.

You can stroke it out only to a 357 and gain all the way up to 500 HP, you don't need to stroke a engine all to hell and gone to get great power.

http://www.rpmmachine.com/scat-strokerkit-fordsb-351wto357-500hp.html

No I agree ya dont but to get the kind of power he wants it would be the cheapest way I looked at some heads for small blocks and they want 1500 a head. BTW them guys are from out here. Bout 60 miles away.

You need Bordix heads to have a strong engine, just a worked set of gt head be all you need.
For a truck heads really don't come in to play you need heads when you have more a racing engine where power is being made at 7k RPMs
for a low turning tq engine a good set of iron heads that have the ports "massaged" a bit.
Heck look at Tonys Rig he's pushing nearly 500 I would bet and he's running Iron heads.

First of all Tex...I gotta disagree that heads 'don't really come into play.' However, I have heard reworking GT heads can do some wonders. I still don't think head work, cam and intake will do the job though. As far as I'm concerned, you'd need to buy new heads, and they still won't necessarily achieve what you want, and are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more expensive than a cheap stroker kit. JMHO, again I am by no means a small block guy, but I still say you should go with a stroker kit because it's cheaper than new heads, and then get a cam.

I've never really been clear on when it comes to polishing and porting heads and then I started getting engine masters magazine and it really cleared some things up for me when it comes to head work.
It seems allot of people think you need hard work and that's not true I read a 8 page article on heads and were big ported heads really came in to play was with high turning engines, when a low turning they don't really come in to play as much it helps don't get me wrong but most of the time a good set of Iron heads like GTs are all you need for a truck unless you want a racer but for hauling and towing climb its really not needed..

I gotcha...I thought you were saying new heads or head work wouldn't help at all. But I hear ya now.

400HP or there abouts from a 5.8EFI is no problem, but it won't be cheap. It takes a good set of heads(none of the stock castings are big enough.. ported or not), cam, and intake, and while the bottom end doesn't need to be touched this will also require bigger injectors, fuel pump, a MAF conversion if the truck doesn't have that already, and a tuner if you what it to run properly.

The stock 5.8 is factory rated at 210hp but it's absolutely strangled by the exhaust and cam, upgrade those parts alone and it'll make about 280 crank HP.

As an example here's a prediction of the combo I'm building...

conanski said:

400HP or there abouts from a 5.8EFI is no problem, but it won't be cheap. It takes a good set of heads(none of the stock castings are big enough.. ported or not), cam, and intake, and while the bottom end doesn't need to be touched this will also require bigger injectors, fuel pump, a MAF conversion if the truck doesn't have that already, and a tuner if you what it to run properly.[/IMG]

Click to expand...

After all of that wouldn't it be cheaper to just get a stroker kit..... The heads alone will be double the cost of a stroker kit..

Big HP requires big airflow, so it really doesn't matter how much displacement the engine has, without much better than stock heads the motor won't get there. I paid $1350 for my Dart heads delivered last summer.