[Rory McNeil]

I`ve been running my 85 Mustang LX hatchback in M&N/S for about 8 years now. As mentioned, it is a stick only combination, there were 5.0 automatic Mustangs available in 84 & 85, but they only came with the CFI throttle body setup, all the 4 barrel cars were sticks. The 85 was the only year that used the hyd. roller cam and a 4 barrel, the 84 does use the same intake manifold, and I believe the carb has the same dimensions. I think the 83&4 hyd flat tappet cam has similar lift to the 85, but I`m not positive. The 82-84 engines use the same crappy D8 heads as a 78 Fairmont 302 2 barrel, the 85`s E5 is identical, except they have notchs on the intake side to allow enough room to Re &Re the taller hyd. roller lifters. As bad as the heads are, the intake is the real bottleneck. The ports are tiny, much smaler than the heads, and quite flat. Last year, just for fun, I removed the stock intake manifold, and swapped on an Edelbrock Air Gap Performer I had laying around. With everything else the same, the car picked up 6 tenths.
I believe the fastest 85 5.0 has to be Gary Summers Mustang converts. He has one he runs in Stock, and another in S/S, Both his cars have held multiple records at the same time. My LX hatch is a natural L car, but my big gut won`t allow the car to get light enough for L. The 85 is a decent combination, but I think the 87-95 5.0 FI is better, especially the 94-95. Also, if one was so inclined, the 86-95 5.0 is available with an automatic or a stick. The 86 is an oddball, with 1 year only "high swirl" heads, and a smaller throttle body, but the 87-95 is virtually identical to each other.