I had an 87 GT in like 2000. It had something like 180k on it. I bought the car for parts and ended up striping the Motor down to the Shortblock.. It was so loose that you could rotate the Motor by had just by spinning the Crank Pulley.. :grin2:

It ran good tho. I did dusty burnouts for about a week until I parted it out.. It was a total rust bucket tho.. When I bought it, I took it for a test drive and it broke the right rear Coil Spring on the 1st acceleration..LOL

 

I bolted on a Vortech S trim kit at 140k miles.
It now has 223k miles.

Other than maintenance items, my only problems have been the PIP, worn timing chain, rear main seal, and leaking coolant from the timing cover.

Give it s compression check and send it!

 

My car is almost 160K. You can see my numbers below. Just do your maint

 

>205,000 miles on my shortblock. Last time I had the heads off everything looked good. Uses a quart of oil every 2,000 miles, but still runs great.

 

The engines will last as long as the quality of the past owner's care.

A manual trans car will be abused more than an auto car. I bought a used 88 GT engine to swap into my old 85 Crown Vic P71 car. It smoked a little all the time, came from a manual Mustang.

My old 91 Lincoln LSC engine still had cross hatch marks in the cylinders, at 114k miles after I wrecked it. One piston had a crack in it, who knows what from. I reused seven of the pistons and sold it rebuilt to a friend for a 95 Cobra(he lost the balancer). He loved the engine with its Edelbrock heads and intake... until he put too much NO2 through it.

Figure out if your 160k engine was well cared for, if it was then it doesn't need a new oil pump, but do the timing chain set at that mileage.

My current 98 302 Explorer had 158k when I got it two years ago. It's used oil since I got it(neglected vehicle), but it's till running well at 201k now, with synthetic oil it still uses too much.

 

5.0 liter were very reliable. You treat them right and they live for almost ever!!!!

 

This is an Automatic car, and was driven by a woman out of college. I found an old ID of her from 1998 under the ash tray just last year! I assume this car was never abused.

 

I think you will get an idea of how well oil changes were kept up with when you pull the oil pan and valve covers.

.

 

The odometer in my car stopped a while ago. The owner told me 180,000 miles and I found paperwork with the car that showed 220,000+ miles. I had it baseline dynoed and the numbers are in my signature. Someone here mentioned the worn valve springs are probably the reason why it doesn't rev over 4000 rpm. I'm doing heads, cam and intake. If I break it, 302 Explorer engine or a 4.6 4V or Coyote swap.

 

I dig it. Do the Coyote swap, or any of the latest Mustang engines as you can find one.

I'll be base lining my 98 Explorer early on, before building and exhaust for it. Stock is supposedly 215hp, but nobody ever reports even 200 stock. Mine doesn't mind 5k every day, but it's high mileage, and the oil is transparent and not black. Take good care of it, hope for the best.

 

I'll be base lining my 98 Explorer early on, before building and exhaust for it. Stock is supposedly 215hp, but nobody ever reports even 200 stock.

That's because 215 would be the flywheel rating.
You lose 15-25% through the driveline, depending on many factors.
Rear wheel horsepower numbers will always be less.

 

220,XXX miles on a stock 94 cobra so far. Driven pretty hard. Replaced timing chain and water pump recently.

 

My ‘95 had close to 300k miles before it was driven to the shop for a rebuild.
It still has the oem high mile oil pump.
Most of its life it had Castrol gtx and a fram filter.

 

The only problems my engine has had were due to the pip and the nut behind the wheel.

The 5.0, especially in stock form, is pretty robust.

 

I’ve had to replace the pip and sensors and such too but the motor and transmsisson never broke.