Shortblock question?

[blown86lx]

What years of 5.0 came with factory forged internals and what would the code be one the side of the block? And were the later model explorers with the gt40 top end did they have a forged shortblock?

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Technically they don't have forged internals, just forged pistons. The crank and rods are all cast. I'm not exactly sure when they started but i know the first year for a roller cam forged piston engine was '85, and i always forget which year they switched to hyperutectic...something like 92 i think. So, '85 to say '90 should be safe. Anything after '93 for absolute sure doesn't have forged pistons regardless of what it came out of as they stopped making production blocks with forged pistons. Another random tidbit is that most people call them flat top pistons when in fact they're slightly dished. I actually argued that they were flat tops and i was wrong. The '86 had true flat top pistons but they also didn't have any valve reliefs. If you have the tools to cut valve reliefs, the '86 pistons are worth having because they'll bump compression a bit..but only if you're going through the trouble of notching pistons anyways, otherwise just stick with '85/'87 to whenever they switched to hypers.

[STREETRODZ1]

93 is the first year of hyperutectic so 92 and back your all set, 87 to 92 is the good ones, cause 86 had the flat tops with no valve reliefs, and some turbo swirl heads.and yes, its just forged pistons.