If i were to sya purchase a new short block, what kind should i get? Is there any way to make more power with a better shortblock? I know nothing of this detail stuff so a simple answer woud be awesome.

 

Call up Tim at Modular Powerhouse, he can help you. http://www.modularpowerhouse.com

 

you have many options, livernois, VT, MPH, DSS, You wont really make more power with just a replacement shortblock, but you can by stroking it ( bigger crank) to make it inot a 302, or you can big bore it bigger pistons, or both....I would recomend geting everything FORGED while your at it

 

Yeah get a stroked mod 302 shortblock and you will get HP and mad TQ, i like DSS alot, and that's who i would buy from, and definitley get forged internals.
Also ported heads and cams to top it off....

 

check out modularmustangracing.com MMR has good prices, good blocks, and good customer service from what I ahve heard.

 

5.4L's of fury mang. Otherwise a short block won't gain you anything but a fresh bottom end. Cobra's already run pretty high compression so boosting that is pretty well out. If you get it forged and maybe a little valvetrain work you can spin more RPM and make more power that way.

 

i dont think i will be doing a whole lot of work, what would i need if i got a stroked 302? i know nothing about this. Would i need knew heads etc???any websites i could learn more on? i would like to educate myself a little more in the options before i go spending alll my money, what setup could i go with for less than 3,500?

 

you dont need anything if you get the rotating asembly or stroker short block

here are some prices from www.livernoismotorsports.com

Stroker rotating assembly- 1800+ 200 to get balanced
assembled stroker shortblock with the forged goodies- 3800

Plus the install, you should have enough money if your block was ok and you did the first thing, to educate yourself just keep searching this stuff and ask as many questions you can, trust me by the time your done with this you will know a heck of a lot more than you did

 

a 302 is a pushrod motor... you can stroke and bore your 4.6(281) to 302 but it doesn't usually net the kind of gains that you'd expect from a 5000 dollar mod.

why are you even considering a new bottom end? is there something wrong with the one you have?

 

there could be we arent sure yet. long story short it may need to be replaced. like i said i know very little, its my dad who is telling me this

 

what is he basing the conclusion on?

 

Well the engine was running bone dry oil wise after 1,000 mile oil change. It also was making the noise that he describes as a spun bearing. So we just got done taking the trrany and driveshaft etc out to get to the oil pan and he says he sees nothing wrong with it, no metal shavings in the pan or anything else bad granted we spent opnly fifteen minutes looking at it. what could be the problem?
Also a friend of mine had a 99 cobra and the same happened to him and he said he "threw a rod" and it was making a certain spinning ticking noise. Is this common among the 99-01 motors?
My dad mentioned needing a new shortblock before we cracked it open thus the thread title

 

k... throwing a rod is a pretty serious occurrance. Usually you end up with a dripping noise caused by the broken rod smashing holes in the block and oil pan. I think your friend probably galled a wrist pin or had a bearing failure of some sort. If you get a steadily increasing claking sound as the RPMs climb then it's either in the valvetrain or in the bottom end. You probably won't see metal in the pan until the problem is at new engine severity.

Pull the plugs and manually turn the engine over with a breaker bar on the balancer bolt. if you hear kind of a low grade clunk once every revolution then it's usually in the wrist pins or in the rod bearings. You'll be able to tell if you have someone under the crank listening since they won't hear any valvetrain noise very well from down there.

Once you find out that it's a bearing, you can just remove the crank and all the bearings and have the crank checked and polished or turned if needed. After that, have it put back together. No sense in replacing parts that don't need it.

Mod motors that see a lot of abuse will see more bearing failures than those that are treated more nicely. Nonetheless, it's not exactly common but it does happen. I have 3 motors in my garage that have bearing failures in the bottom end of one sort or another. Proper clearances in bearings and torque settings on fasteners is critical to bearing life in these things. If it's eating oil like that though, that says to me you have a bad ring or a similar issue... or a really obvious leak.

I would default to guessing that it is a spun or failed rod bearing which is good enough reason to rebuild the short block with forged parts. It's not cheap but it's definitely worth it. Getting another short block may be slightly cheaper.

 

thanks some was helpful, we are going to just take it all apart and have a budy look at it to tell us what we need. If it is a spun bearing then what do you think we will need to get?

 

You'll need a main and rod bearing set, rod bolts, main bolts, have the crank ground or polished (depends on how much damage).

If you catch it early enough you can sometimes get away with just replacing the bearings and bolts but I'd have the crank polished at minimum. Don't forget that the factory uses torque to yeild bolts which have to be replaced each time the engine is disassembled. You can buy some ARP studs and then you can re-use them if you ever have to take the motor apart again. A full set of ARP head and main studs is about 350 or so. Bearings are about 200 for main and rod bearings. Stock type TTY head bolts are about 3 bucks each (need 20), and main bolts are 6.95 for one of them and 1.25+ each for the remaining ones. (prices from SHM's catalog). Head gaskets are between 50 and 150 each (need 2, side specific).

Having said all that, if you're taking the motor apart, freshen it while you can. New pistons, rings and rods and a .010 or .020 over bore. It'll cost 4 times as much but you'll have the equivalent of a new motor. You can get HE or forged pistons and if you don't reuse your stock rods, you can get in on my GP for forged units at 265 a set while the chance is still there. Also have forged pistons for 447-495. Both will be mega stronger than your stock rotating kit.

Hope that's not overly confusing.

EDIT: Come to think of it... if you're goiing through that much oil... I'm thinking maybe a broken piston ring which means basically a full rebuild. Don't forget to have that checked... don't want to spend all kinds of money and not fix the problem.