There's one combination that works get on a budget. Find a 96-98 explorer with a 5.8 motor in it. Take the engine and 4r70w from said car for the maverick. For the 5.8 buy, E303 cam, roller rockers, air gap intake, old 302 timing cover, front sump oil pan. For the 4r70w get a full manual VB convertion kit plus aod cross member.(get a 5.0 mustang driveline and have it shortened 1 inch) In the end you'll have a 351w with a roller cam making about 350hps and the tranny good to 500hps. Later down the road add AFRs and get 50hps. Warning getting to HP can be a bottomless pit. Figure a budget and from there try to max out the horsepower. Just remember the more hp you make other things will need to be replaced. (tranny,rearend, exhaust, etc) Some believe the best place to start is from the rear forward. (9 inch, gears, exhaust, trans, then engine)
:16suspect That's the first time I've heard someone found a 5.8 in an Explorer There were a few that got aluminum heads on the 5.0, but a 5.8 ?
Order this book, and do some reading. (Like we use to in the old days) http://www.mre-books.com/smallblockfrd/ Or this one: http://www.mre-books.com/sa69/index.html Building an engine, isn`t really something you can learn from a few posts on the internet.
A couple of things you can do to free up some HP, change to an electric fan. Also you can change to manual steering. The engine not having to turn those parts will be benificial.
