Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

Pretty sure the 92 up trucks all had stainless lines, all of mine have been. If the connections are the same could be worth the effort to get a set from a salvage yard. I sourced a set for my 85 F350 when I changed it over to fuel injection. The yard let me have them, but I pulled them and it wasn't pleasant.

With your motor being worn out an well built 302 will put a smile on our face.  Find a 5.0 Ford Explorer or Mercury Mountaineer motor (96 through early 2001) and start with that.  Typically about $500 to $1,000 and it should have GT40 iron heads on the 96 and the early 97 models from there they are GT40P heads.  Pull the motor apart and inspect the bearings, rings, and replace if necessary.  Re-ring the pistons, have a valve job done on the heads and replace the valve springs with the TFS kit (https://lmr.com/item/TFS-2500100/Trick-Flow-50l-302-Mustang-Valve-Springs-Upgrade-Kit).  Replace the oil pump, oil pump shaft, and timing chain for insurance reasons.  I would choose a good cam for the combo like the TFS Stage One or if you can swing it get an Ed Curtis setup (cam, springs, and timing chain).  So now you have a long block for about $2,000 if you bought the motor on the lower end of the scale and no machine work was needed.  Reused the upper and lower intakes and do the aire temp sensor relocation.  Again if you have the $$$ send the lower to TMoss (search the Corral for him) and have him port it to match the heads.  I think he used to charge $100 pluss shipping using your intake.  Reuse the Explorer 70mm thorttle body with the throttle linkage mod the has been dospoogeented all over the place.  So if all goes well you are into this motor for about $3,000 if you do most of the work yourself (no machine work like the heads) and you have about $3,500 left over to find a Mass Air harness, MAF, A9L, associated ducting, injectors (highly recommend 30lb/hr or 36lb/hr as my 306 hit a wall with my 24's), headers (BBK's will work), your accessory brackets and accessories, and maybe some elbow grease and paint.

I am sure I missed a few things but this has been done 100's of times on Mustangs so do a little research and you should have a good game plan.

I would definitely get a custom tune so plan on $500 for the chip and dyno time.  I have seen this combo hit well over 280 rwhp and if tuned right almost 300 rwhp.  My guess is your worn out motor is under 200 rwhp so this would be huge grin factor and it fits the budget.

I've heard that scat cranks balance a lot cheaper and need less machine work then eagle.

If it were me, I'd go 347 all the way. It costs the same, you can get the same rod ratio and you will make power at lower rpm's.

I'd also skip the afr165's unless you need emissions. Trickflow FAC are the same price or slightly cheaper, have more ptv clearance for a more radical can and can be cnc'd larger if you feel the need to upgrade in the future.