The 5.0 Fist Fight

302 Ford vs. 305 Chevy! Part 2: Bolt-On Upgrades

- Richard Holdener

If you missed Part 1 of Car Craft’s 5.0 Fistfight, we pitted these two 5.0L heroes of yesteryear against one another in stock trim. The 5.0L H.O. Ford, with its 4-inch bore and 3-inch stroke, was sent into battle with the LB9 5.0L TPI Chevy. The Chevy offered 3 extra inches of displacement (despite the identical 5.0L designation) and a bore and stroke of 3.736x3.48 inches. Despite a sizable difference in bore and stroke, the two engines produced very similar power numbers. In fact, the difference can be attributed more to the mileage and overall condition of the motors than the actual components. The high-mileage 5.0L Ford was at somewhat of a disadvantage compared with the factory-fresh 305, which had been pulled from the assembly line back in the early 1990s for use by the Chevy race shop. The little 305 was stuck in a corner and never used, eventually finding a home at Westech Performance. Upon disassembly, the engine was found to be in pristine condition, with all the factory gaskets, sealer, and even crosshatch. It might be the lowest-actual-mileage TPI 305 in the country—or even the world. What we won’t do for our readers!

To demonstrate how well the respective 5.0Ls responded to performance upgrades, we decided to treat the pair to new heads, cams, and intakes. We opted to keep things as even as possible by selecting a comparable trio of performance components. Obviously, there are endless combinations that can be created, but we selected parts based on a combination of power potential, drive ability, and visual appeal.