Engine build

I'm looking for ideas, and was wondering if anyone might be interested in sharing their build ideas. Broad question I know so for a bit of direction this is what I'm working with.

I did some horse trading recently,  and in on the trade was a 5.0 out of a 93 f150. I  initially thought I'd just ultimately trade or sell it. I've since decided I'd go ahead and do a build.

 I've got it torn down and on the stand. Block looks clean and judging by the lack of too much RTV and mismatched bolts I'm going to say I'm the first one In it.

What I do know is this.

I'm staying with the AOD transmission  currently in the truck.

I want to go carburated.

Even though it's not, for conversation sake let's say it's a daily driver.

I want to be able to stomp on the gogo pedal and it get up and go!

So what I'm looking for is,
What cam? What intake? What carb? What head work? Anything that someone has actually put into practice and has seen good results with I'd be interested in hearing.  

If there's a thread for a mild built 302 that someone has already written,  I couldn't find it, but if anyone knows of one please direct me to it.

Thanks yall!

well, you were correct in saying that it's a broad question. let's just say for conversation sake that it is a daily driver. let's also say that this daily driver is 4000 lbs. what do you mean by get up and go? this is a case of "purpose-built engine". what are you expecting? etc.
 i build these on a regular basis and do repair jobs along the way also and im often trying something new. the 5.0w is a great "all purpose " platform. although not the best in torque. now i have four in the garage now that i built and they are each different. my 93 flareside has a 5.0 with some simple basics done. but it is efi. it is my best mpg vehicle and it is no slouch when needing to move but i built the whole drivetrain to work together not just the engine.
 my bronco 2 has a carbureted 5.0 that is .060 over with a cam in the mid 400s in lift, dual plane aluminum intake with a holley 80457 4 barrel on gt40p heads pushing through an aod/ 13-56 transfer case to 4.10 gears. this setup may be close towhat you are thinking give or take the transfer case/ 4wd. this is far more power than this lifted custom can handle, meaning when you get on it you dont stay too long or it becomes a handful. it is almost as wide as it is longbut the engine is stellar in operation and being well matched to the drivetrain.
  there is another build that i am doing currently in another thread but i have not posted on it in a while. took a little hiatus to move. on that one i have not talked much about the engine but it too is a 5.0 carbed with an aod. the engine is a proven engine (tested for 5k miles or more)it is a stock bottom end but with forged pistons and a lightly decked block and has the one year e6se heads. much maligned for limited flow but a little port work and a little milling and they are great for torque and mpg ( this engine got 18 mpg with efi) this is why i chose to use it in "lefty" the truck. i also matched it with a modified aod and a trac loc 8.8 with 3.31 gear. it is now wearing an edelbrock performer intake with a four corner idle holley from a 5.8 ho. im excited to get it running.
excuse the long read but it is just to explain that there is much that can be done, and many others could tell their successes also.   keep the discussion going

First thing you have to do is decide what is the purpose of this truck.  This will determine which way to go for the engine.  Like for example if you want to keep your rpm that will require one build vs one you dont mind spinning at 2,000 rpm in the city.

Second thing you have to do is decide on how much you are wanting to spend.

My build is more of a daily driver build custom tailored to my driving style.  Engine is built for 1,400 - 5,400 power band with a 6,000 rpm redline.  Cam is a off the shelf roller cam from Crane under their TruckMax line.  AFR 165 Renegade heads with 9.44:1 compression and 0.040" quench.  D.U.I. distributor with a 24* mechanical advance. 870 cfm Holley 4150 Sniper Stealth.  My goal was 300 hp which would be over double the power output of the stock 302 our trucks had rated around 120 hp.  Realistically Blueprint has a similar build with a slightly larger cam but lower flowing blueprint heads that the AFR heads I have and theirs is rated at 380 hp.  DD2000 estimates my build at 383 hp @ 5,500 rpm and 406 trq @ 4,000 rpm.

My build is also currently sitting at $10,500 and I still have more to buy so the engine will actually run.  Its why my second recommendation is to decide on how much you want to spend cause you can easily go from a $2,500 engine build to $20,500 without even realizing it.

Hey, great information,  and perspective. So what I've got that this engine will ultimately end up in is a 1984 f150 2wd short bed.

I bought the truck last February and spent the spring and summer reworking the body, doing enough to the tired 300 to get it going dependably and and a whole host of wiring issues and things that go along with a vehicle that's sat up for several years.

I don't know Fords, this is my only one I own, I've lived in a jeep world for the last several years, more specifically xj and wj jeeps, and even more specifically 4.0l jeep motors, so admittedly I lean heavily on advice of others with what the best ways to go on pretty much anything to do with the ford.

So to narrow my question,  when I say "build" with regards to this engine in my mind I'm thinking everything off the shelf mild build. Really not targeting a certain horsepower or really any major power gains, I'm thinking more along the lines of stock plus a little. I probably should have said "budget build" or something along those lines,  I'm definitely not looking to drop a lot of coin, I've got more tied up in old rigs as it is then my wife likes:)

 This will definitely be a learning experience for me I'm way closer to retirement than I was 30 years ago, but surely an old dog can learn a new trick here or there.

I think what people are getting at is, will you use this like a truck and tow and haul things with it, or will you use it more like a sports car and do stop light drags with it?

The answer to that question dictates what you want to look for in a camshaft profile. And the camshaft profile dictates pretty much what everything around it should look like. This includes converter stall speed (or flywheel weight), single plane vs dual plane intake, valve size, piston compression ratio, carburetor CFM, and so on.

If you are going to use it more like a truck, then smaller camshaft profiles (below, say about 220 duration @ 050). 1000-1400 stall on the converter, or a heavier flywheel. Dual plane intake. Stock-ish valve sizes with stock-ish compression ratios (below 9:1 or so). 650-ish CFM on the carb.

If more like a sports car, then go bigger numbers on all that stuff.

Mark wrote

So to narrow my question,  when I say "build" with regards to this engine in my mind I'm thinking everything off the shelf mild build. Really not targeting a certain horsepower or really any major power gains, I'm thinking more along the lines of stock plus a little. I probably should have said "budget build" or something along those lines,  I'm definitely not looking to drop a lot of coin, I've got more tied up in old rigs as it is then my wife likes:)

I've had a few 5.0's, and have spent a bunch of money building them up...the second last one I had dyno-tuned and all. It worked really nicely in my little 1984 F150 Flareside. I can say that the 5.0 is one of my favorite engines for sure...and they sound great when built, even mildly. Most of the big power gains in a 5.0 are in the 3000+ RPM range, which is fine if that's where you're planning to operate it.

I just finished building a 5.0 for my 1952 pickup, and I decided to do a budget build...but not really for budget purposes if that makes any sense. This truck is just going to be a cruiser, and will never be above 3000 RPM, and rarely even above 2500 RPM, so there was no sense in me building it up for higher RPM HP that I'd never use. I have the engine installed with an AODE-W transmission (4R70W), so it will cruise highway speeds with ease.

I specifically went with a 5.0 out of a 1996 F150 because I wanted the 1994-up F4TZ roller cam. In 1994 the 5.0 got the F4TZ cam with the H.O. firing order (351w), and it was probably the best stock cam to get low end power out of the 5.0.

Other than that, it's a stock '96 5.0 roller block bored 0.030 over, with rebuilt stock E7 heads.
I installed a cheap aluminum 4bbl intake from a 1984 Mustang 5.0 GT, and a Summit 500CFM 4bbl carb with annular boosters. I also went with a new DSII distributor from a roller block Mustang GT. I'll probably have it custom curved later on. I went with a set of cheap Ebay block hugger headers for fitment purposes. It's about as budget as a 5.0 can get. It will probably be a 180-200HP engine, but I don't really care about that.

I just wanted a nice little 5.0 cruiser with the AODE that sounds good and runs along nicely on the highway when I want to travel with it. I went with black this time for a change.


 

I know you are wanting to go with a carb, but I wouldn't rule out a Holley Sniper EFI especially if it's going to be a daily driver unless you are dead set on a carb

Rembrandt that's pretty much exactly what I was looking  for. "Cruiser" that would come as close to what this Truck will be more than anything else I can think of. I won't be drag racing it, there really isn't a specific purpose on this rig other than to drive it the 8 miles I travel to work every now and then and maybe into town here and there. I did drive it to a "cruise in" recently,  and it got lots of attention, but i drove that hour drive because i really liked the restaurant that was hosting the cruise night lol.

A build like what you did is pretty much what I am after. Being that I've never worked on this setup before what I am specifically after is "hey I used this cam, intake, headers" etc. This engine has the E7 heads. They are going to the machine shop when I take the block.

I appreciate the info.

Definitely not opposed to a sniper EFI if I'm being honest 1, I'm cheap and wont come off the funds needed to purchase the unit. 2, and this is really just a personal deal, but I like the idea of a basic simple carb.  I mentioned above I work on jeeps primarily,  so I've spent so much time fooling with fuel injection,  and playing swaptronics with elctrodigital stuff for so long now ,  that having something that's just basic and simple just seems like a good idea to me.