i'm going to be doing a swap with a 5.0 ford carbed engine but i heard i need the oil pan from one out of a crown vic , plz let me know if that is correct or is that just true if i was to decide on using the 351w but if anyone has any feed back on wether or not there is one year better than another 5.0

 

you should be able to use the stock fox body stang oil pan, the crown vic one is for the 351w swaps

the good 5.0 motors are HO 86-92, they have forged pistons and roller lifters and cam. 230hp/300ftlb at the flywheel

I would suggest against the 351w unless you have a heavily built motor, it's a pain to mount and you need custom headers and you will have very little room for radiator and fan.

 

The 351W is the same length as the 302, so radiator and fan room is identical. the 351W has a 1 inch taller deck height, so teh heads sit a little wider and a little taller. there's a ton of room in the FC (which seems to be what he's building) so getting headers in there is EASY. In fact, even the 1 5/8 equal length "bundl of snakes" for the 5.0 would fit in the engine compartment on a 351W.

On the 302, there's about 3" of room from the header to the strut tower. with the 1" taller deck height, it would move the header outward by 1/2", leaving 2-2 1/2" of clearance per side. Lots of room. This is my 302 in my FC:



With the MAC 1 5/8" equal length headers. It's a carbed '74 302 with the later 5.0 firing order. if I hadn't had it available, I probably would have gone with the '88-93 5.0, myself.

 

here is my 357W in my FB, with 1 3/4" bbk long tubes



as you can see not much room, but the driver side head is about 1/8" off the firewall.

 

That's the FB, and you'd only save 1/2" with the 302. The overall length is the same, as they are otherwise the same block, and use teh same heads. but if his profile is accurate, then it looks like he's putting it in an FC, like mine, which has considerably more room.

Has no problem missing the steering, though I wish I had a better picture:



And actually, the bundle of snakes, equal length shorties I used might have more room simply due to not going down right off the head like your long tubes do. They stay next to the head until they get to the rear.

 

For me in the long run a rack swap would have been good to do in the beginning