4.6 or 5.0

[JoeJacob]

New to the scene. I have thought of getting into a FFR Cobra for a while. Question is: what would be the preferable donor car? A 4.6 or the 5.0? For hop up parts and such. I am going to look at a low mileage 98, for around $6K. I would like to bring the engine up to 350hp at a later date.
Would there be any other considerations when choosing a donor car?
Thanks

[CdnCobraGuy]

Joe

In my opinion the 302/351 engines are the better choice. I say this for the following reasons.

1 - Better low end torque. The pushrod engines pull much better at low RPMs than do the OHC mudular engines. In the real world torque is acceleration and horsepower is speed and on the street what you want is acceleration rather than top end.

2 - Responsiveness to Mod's. A 302 can be brought up to 275-290 HP with external mods only and for my money provide a much better return for your preformance dollar than does a modular engine. For instance a bigger throttle body, larger injectors, a K&N air Filter, a good set of headers, and underdrive pulleys will see you a long way up the power scale and all done without opening up the engine.

3 - Cost - Performance parts are way more available and far less expensive for the 302/351's than for the 4.6 engines.

4 - More original looking engine in the Cobra engine bay.

5 - Potantially less expensive aquisition cost. These are older engines so you MAY save money by being able to buy an older doner.

FWIW those are my thoughts

[MPTech]

Also allows more room in the engine bay and footboxes, the wiring is also much simpler.

[riptide motorsport]

Id say 5.0 also......steven