1995 Cobra 351w Swap

[Carl The Cobra]

So I bought my 1995 Cobra back in November of last year it started off by having oil leaks and tons of issues car was bought from dealership with 45k miles and multiple owners meaning I had no build sheet and no idea of what was done from what you could see on the outside it was basic heads intake supercharger car was definitely beaten on as it was installed with line lock which I later figured out also had forged piston the original start to this swap basically was just supposed to be pull apart motor install new gaskets put motor back together as I was happy with the power vortech v-1 making 11lbs boost with old dyno sheets showing 400 rwhp till I found a hole in the block I have done quite a lot of research before landing my final decision here stroking out a 351w roller block only as my engine builder has specifically said plan of action is basically a full power train swap as I originally thought I wanted an ls swap I stupidly sold off a lot of good parts, but so be it plan is as I stated 351w stroked to 408 keeping motor NA with a goal of boasting hp to roughly 600 crank and pair said motor with a t56 trans or tko600 if I find one for a good price as I have never done this before I am seeking advice from you veteran swappers so I know I will need oil pan engine trans upgraded heads clutch swap headers intake not sure on what else is needed please let me know I am also mixed feeling with current stand alone ecu setup as I have a MSPNP2 ecu and am debating making the swap to Holley sniper on a victor jr single plane as it seems the self tunability of the sniper efi is much better for a noob another question I have for those who may know is do I have to run a Holley standalone to run the sniper if so that idea will be thrown out the window by no means will I plan to use a mega squirt with the Holley system but rather my old stock ecu with the sniper is that possible I know I am continuing to ramble so I will end this short basically looking for good advice and the no go's to the swap

 

[ttocs]

welcome to the forum. There is lots of good info here. If I can make one comment to open, punctuation is our friend.

 

[RAU03MACH]

Welcome and pictures please
You came to the right place
The guys here have all kinds of war stories on swapping

 

[Carl The Cobra]

welcome to the forum. There is lots of good info here. If I can make one comment to open, punctuation is our friend.

Lol, that’s my bad was quickly typing to get it all started.

 

[Carl The Cobra]

Welcome and pictures please
You came to the right place
The guys here have all kinds of war stories on swapping

I will have some photos coming soon. Mine were shot on my camera as I do photography so file was to large.

 

[Carl The Cobra]

Here’s a couple photos of him aka Carl. He is a gutted roller currently for obvious reasons. While it’s a roller we plan to clean up the engine bay and make it pretty, as you can see these cars look like spaghetti without a motor. So I am hoping to eliminate some of the spaghetti!

 

[RAU03MACH]

Not bad at all
The engine out and complete

 

[Carl The Cobra]

Not bad at all
The engine out and complete

Yes the engine, trans, and several other items are out most being sold. The only parts I have left are accessories, mega squirt ecu and stock ecu. As well as long tubes, distributor, coil and wires which are for sale.


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[evilcw311]

I’m having a hard time sorting through that long sentence myself. [emoji38]

Welcome. A 408w will be a solid bottom end if built correctly. What heads are you planning on running and what kind of a cam setup?

Hopefully you still have the original motor as you will need the front accessories off of it. They will bolt right onto the Windsor.

Either stick with the megasquirt pnp you have now or go full Holley. A few here have already gone full Holley and a few of us are in process. It’s shown to be a very capable system with tons of room to grow.


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[Carl The Cobra]

Lol it is rough I won't lie. Thank you, yea I think the 408w would be a good move possibly with a stock block but forged internals. I also have seen kits to bring it to a 427 I believe which is compelling. Heads I am open to recommendations obviously a large head, since the Windsor bored out struggles to breathe so 200cc plus. Cam something aggressive and choppy got to do more research once again something that will have longer duration for more flow. I have all accessories where I went wrong was selling brackets, but plan is to pull the motor from a junk yard car so I will just use those brackets instead. Now onto the tricky part tun-ability I like the Megasquirt because I already own it no extra expense that route. On the other hand the ease and tunabillity of sniper efi is tempting, but there is an issue I was on Holley's site it seems to be they are not E-85 compatible if so is true I will not be swapping, As a flex fuel tune is part of this build.

 

[evilcw311]

Lol it is rough I won't lie. Thank you, yea I think the 408w would be a good move possibly with a stock block but forged internals. I also have seen kits to bring it to a 427 I believe which is compelling. Heads I am open to recommendations obviously a large head, since the Windsor bored out struggles to breathe so 200cc plus. Cam something aggressive and choppy got to do more research once again something that will have longer duration for more flow. I have all accessories where I went wrong was selling brackets, but plan is to pull the motor from a junk yard car so I will just use those brackets instead. Now onto the tricky part tun-ability I like the Megasquirt because I already own it no extra expense that route. On the other hand the ease and tunabillity of sniper efi is tempting, but there is an issue I was on Holley's site it seems to be they are not E-85 compatible if so is true I will not be swapping, As a flex fuel tune is part of this build.

Yeah you’ll need those brackets off of a 94-95 gt 302 for sure. Obviously the water pump needs to be the same as well since our cars run a reversed pump.

As far as heads go you will mainly see trickflow or AFR. Trickflow makes great heads but messes with the spark plug location which can be problematic depending on your headers. Afr makes great heads and have many options. I’m currently looking at the AFR 225’s for my 418w build.

Be carefully of going 427 on a factory ford block. Some have had luck but many have had cooling issues above 408. I’m gonna be pushing my luck at 418 with a hot turbo under the hood.

I’m not sure about the sniper but I know the Holley standalones that others are using here are very capable of using e85 and you can run the ethanol sensors and have it run blended times in the event you need to fill up with regular at any time.


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[Carl The Cobra]

Yeah you’ll need those brackets off of a 94-95 gt 302 for sure. Obviously the water pump needs to be the same as well since our cars run a reversed pump.

As far as heads go you will mainly see trickflow or AFR. Trickflow makes great heads but messes with the spark plug location which can be problematic depending on your headers. Afr makes great heads and have many options. I’m currently looking at the AFR 225’s for my 418w build.

Be carefully of going 427 on a factory ford block. Some have had luck but many have had cooling issues above 408. I’m gonna be pushing my luck at 418 with a hot turbo under the hood.

I’m not sure about the sniper but I know the Holley standalones that others are using here are very capable of using e85 and you can run the ethanol sensors and have it run blended times in the event you need to fill up with regular at any time.


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So bracket wise I cannot use 351 brackets for 302 accessories, but can use 302 bracket and accessories on 351 just to clarify. With the water pump does that mean I need a swap water pump or a 302 water pump instead of 351? Trickflow is one of the companies I was looking at for heads. Spark plugs wise I plan to use swap long tubes, but may eventually put a turbo on this car will that worsen the issue, if so i'm assuming stick to afr to avoid it completely. Good to know I will most likely stick to 408 I think it will be plenty of power. I also need to contact Holley to get an answer on that because if so for budget wise will keep my ecu. Trying to pull off the build without reach 10k is that do-able or realistic?

 

[evilcw311]

So bracket wise I cannot use 351 brackets for 302 accessories, but can use 302 bracket and accessories on 351 just to clarify. With the water pump does that mean I need a swap water pump or a 302 water pump instead of 351? Trickflow is one of the companies I was looking at for heads. Spark plugs wise I plan to use swap long tubes, but may eventually put a turbo on this car will that worsen the issue, if so i'm assuming stick to afr to avoid it completely. Good to know I will most likely stick to 408 I think it will be plenty of power. I also need to contact Holley to get an answer on that because if so for budget wise will keep my ecu. Trying to pull off the build without reach 10k is that do-able or realistic?

The mustang uses different brackets and water pumps then anything else that used either a 302 or 351. So you wanna use the brackets that came in the 94-95 mustang gt. They will all fully bolt up to the 351 and make your swap a million times easier.

If going long tubes or turbo you need to make sure they work with the TF heads. Otherwise you’ll have issues. The AFR heads are easier to line headers up with. $10k might be doable but you need to really do some bargain shopping. The t56 kits are typically around $4-5k alone after taxes and shipping and you’ll easily have over $5k in the motor. Good heads are gonna be around $2k, forged stroker kits around $1,500-2,000, all the machine work and assembly around another $1,500-2,000.

This doesn’t include a bigger fuel system or any electronics.


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[Carl The Cobra]

The mustang uses different brackets and water pumps then anything else that used either a 302 or 351. So you wanna use the brackets that came in the 94-95 mustang gt. They will all fully bolt up to the 351 and make your swap a million times easier.

If going long tubes or turbo you need to make sure they work with the TF heads. Otherwise you’ll have issues. The AFR heads are easier to line headers up with. $10k might be doable but you need to really do some bargain shopping. The t56 kits are typically around $4-5k alone after taxes and shipping and you’ll easily have over $5k in the motor. Good heads are gonna be around $2k, forged stroker kits around $1,500-2,000, all the machine work and assembly around another $1,500-2,000.

This doesn’t include a bigger fuel system or any electronics.


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Good to know I will most likely stick to AFR to avoid the headache. I guess I should also list the Fact that I sold previous setup for around $3,500 so 13-14k total isn't a huge deal just will take time.

 

[Carl The Cobra]

So as I do more and more research I came across these. Thoughts on gt40 heads for a stroked 408 seems like a good kit for a good price?

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[evilcw311]

So as I do more and more research I came across these. Thoughts on gt40 heads for a stroked 408 seems like a good kit for a good price?

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Gt40 heads will choke a 408w badly. They’re nowhere near as big as you need unless you like stock 302 power form a custom built big cubic in Windsor.


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[evilcw311]

eBay is the last place to look for info or good reliable parts.

Fast ain’t cheap and cheap ain’t fast


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[50HSN95]

If you are going to spend money anywhere, spend it on cylinder heads and a cam that is matched to your needs. What ever the future plans are, make sure the n/a version of the motor flows as efficiently as possible. Building a budget low flowing motor and throwing a turbo on will be a waste of potential.

Like Evil said, a 408 with GT40 type heads, don't do it. It will only make a good low RPM truck / towing motor. I'm using RHS Pro Action 180cc heads (2.02 and 1.60) on my 347. Very happy so far with them, but looking back wish I would have gone with the 200's or even the 215's. Here is some good reading on RHS:

https://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2006/04/RHSHeads/index.php

That being said, RHS is a viable option. RHS 215's or AFR 225's would be more appropriate. Trick Flow 225 11R's would be very good, but not cheap. There is Dart in various configurations also, very good cylinder head.

Not everyone agrees with everything this guy says, but here is some good info on choosing a decent cylinder head:

I'm also using the Holley Sniper, if you are interested in details check out my build log here. I love it, but have different goals than most for the car.

 

[Carl The Cobra]

Gt40 heads will choke a 408w badly. They’re nowhere near as big as you need unless you like stock 302 power form a custom built big cubic in Windsor.


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Ok good to know, I know for 302 they were good was curious to know if it was the same on 351.


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[Carl The Cobra]

eBay is the last place to look for info or good reliable parts.

Fast ain’t cheap and cheap ain’t fast


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Lol, true!


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