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The best thing to do is to read MM&FF or 5.0 magazine to get better aqauinted with the 5.0. Ford says the stock 5.0 block is good for about 450 hp, the mags say about 600 hp. If you get a 5.0 with fordged pistons, they'll hold up resonably well. Heck a lot of them run in the 10's and a few in the 9's with a completely stock bottom end....but for how long?
My brother use to know the 5.0 racer, Graig Radovich. Graig told my brother that he was running a stock block with a big supercharger in the 9's. He blew a head gasket and replaced it. He raced the factory shortblock for the rest of the season. During the winter, when he pulled the motor to freshen it up, he found that he'd actually hydrauliced the engine and bent a rod, but the engine lasted the rest of the season!
The stock blocks when they fail, start to give warnings by loss of oil pressure. The blocks have a habbit of cracking longitudely, quite litterally splitting in half along the crank and cam centerlines.
The improvements to these blocks are girdles and good fasteners.
My brother use to know the 5.0 racer, Graig Radovich. Graig told my brother that he was running a stock block with a big supercharger in the 9's. He blew a head gasket and replaced it. He raced the factory shortblock for the rest of the season. During the winter, when he pulled the motor to freshen it up, he found that he'd actually hydrauliced the engine and bent a rod, but the engine lasted the rest of the season!
The stock blocks when they fail, start to give warnings by loss of oil pressure. The blocks have a habbit of cracking longitudely, quite litterally splitting in half along the crank and cam centerlines.
The improvements to these blocks are girdles and good fasteners.