Hey guys, I had a question I was hoping you guys could answer. I have a 96 gt, but have recently been looking at a cobra, specifically a 94 or 95. I think when done right, it is the best looking Mustang. My question is, how good and reliable is the old 302 motor? Are there any common issues with these year mustang? Such as intake manifold like in the 4.6. How well do these cars handle boost? Or is building the motor such as heads, pistons and intake enough? I'm looking for about 300 hp rw. What would that take and a rough estimate. Any information would be appreciated. I have attached a picture of what I'm looking for a finished product. Thank you.
5.0 Cobra Help
- Thread starter stangrulez
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WhiteCobra95
Mod Dude
- May 2, 2006
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The car in the picture has '96-'98 tail lights and bumper cover, and some sort of aftermarket spoiler with what look like '03/'04 Terminator wheels.
'94/'95 Cobras used the V6 bumper which says "Mustang" and they have the horizontal tail lights.
302s in stock form are extremely durable engines. If you start to build them, they're as good as the quality of your parts, machining, and assembly. Like any displacement limited engine, at a certain point you'll have to either rev it or boost it to make big power numbers, and both of these can take a toll on durability if it doesn't have the right supporting internals. The factory HO blocks do have an upper power limit where they can come apart, but the exact number where this happens can vary depending on how you get there.
'94/'95 Cobras used the V6 bumper which says "Mustang" and they have the horizontal tail lights.
302s in stock form are extremely durable engines. If you start to build them, they're as good as the quality of your parts, machining, and assembly. Like any displacement limited engine, at a certain point you'll have to either rev it or boost it to make big power numbers, and both of these can take a toll on durability if it doesn't have the right supporting internals. The factory HO blocks do have an upper power limit where they can come apart, but the exact number where this happens can vary depending on how you get there.
My dad bought the 95 with the 302 I'm workin on now in late 95 or early 96. He put over 300k mi on it without any major issues. It's since been rebuilt and running strong.
I was thinking about used Cobra's the other day and why they shouldn't be sought after vs the GT . It seems to me the only reason a guy should buy a cobra is if he was planning on doing a stock rebuild and hanging on to it for 100 yrs. If you plan on modifying you're changing what sets it apart from the gt. For example, if guy 'a' has a gt and he puts the trick flow topend kit on it and guy 'b' has a cobra and he puts the same trick flow topend on his they are essentially the same now. Guy 'a' got there a little cheaper and guy 'b' is probably going to lose a little at auction 100 years from now.
If you plan on modifying why not a tastefully done gt? Oh and no "Fobra's", super whack.
If you plan on modifying why not a tastefully done gt? Oh and no "Fobra's", super whack.
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Agreed, if you're looking to tear the motor apart and do your own custom build, a GT would be a cheaper car to start with. Of course, having those snakes on the fender and the other Cobra parts are just as nice. 
Now, if you want to just put a supercharger on the engine and be done with it, you'll tend to get more power out of a Cobra engine. All depends on what you're looking to do.
Now, if you want to just put a supercharger on the engine and be done with it, you'll tend to get more power out of a Cobra engine. All depends on what you're looking to do.
Cody_94Cobra
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- Mar 17, 2014
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I own a 94 cobra. I bought it stock and put a BBK shorties off road h-pipe magnaflow cat back underdrive pillows a tb and a cai and the car went to 262,000 miles and still wasn't smoking or making noise when I took the engine out. I built a 331 stroker with gt-40x heads and a .498/.510 ford g303 cam with a trick flow intake an made 316 rwhp 342 torque on a mustang dyno. Dyno jet was around 345 rwhp. And i know for a fact I have the same if not less money than a boosted setup if everything was bought new like mine was and I find it to be more reliable n/a with my a/c PowerSteering etc.
It's all personal preference. I'm not so sure the 5.0 Cobras will ever be that valuable. Ford made to many of them. There isn't much difference in price between the two these days. A good GT goes for as high as about $5k-$6k, and a good Cobra goes for about $8k. The big difference between the two is the brakes. The brakes on the Cobra are amazing compared to the GT.
Kurt
Kurt
jozsefsz
15 Year Member
The 302 loves boost. I've had no issue running 10psi (~400hp) for the last 5 years. Countless full-throttle runs in that time. But going over 450-500 hp is risking the block. The 4.6 may have made similar horsepower numbers, but for a street-driven car, the 302 ran circles around the 4.6 in torque.
jozsefsz
15 Year Member
That is impressive. Mind if I ask what kind of power-adder you were using? I don't hear of FI folks breaking blocks nearly as often as those who run big cams. Most of the splits I've seen start in the valley, so it's my own private theory (without much to back it up) that the vibrations and stresses from the cam and high-revving is more to blame than purely power.
There is a lot of truth in that, and that is the reason no one has a firm number on when the block will crack. Power magnified with high rpm will do it in faster. There is also a total power figure that people ignore. In your average N/A piston engine the flywheel hp is somewhere around 33% of the crank power. That is to say if you have 400 fwhp, the power going through the crank is around 1200hp. The engine needs 800hp to run itself. Power adders augment that number by making the engine more efficient. A 400hp supercharged engine may only have 1000hp going through the crank, and a high pressure turbocharger setup may only have 900hp going through the crank for the same flywheel output.
I ran a 347 with a medium cam, and a little bit of nitrous to get close to 500 rwhp with a manual transmission. The engine did finally fail after 10 years. It actualy wore out the thrust bearing after 10 years of heavy clutches. The block cracked the number 2 main webbing, but that was more likely due to the fact the crank was floating back and forth 1/4" more than actual power.
Kurt
I ran a 347 with a medium cam, and a little bit of nitrous to get close to 500 rwhp with a manual transmission. The engine did finally fail after 10 years. It actualy wore out the thrust bearing after 10 years of heavy clutches. The block cracked the number 2 main webbing, but that was more likely due to the fact the crank was floating back and forth 1/4" more than actual power.
Kurt
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