94 Cobra engine into an 88 GT...

[Mustank]

I'm going to be doing this swap within the next couple of months and would love to hear everyone's opinions on what I might possibly need to make it work.
My car (engine) is bone-stock, speed density. I'm going to be taking the computer, fuel injectors and MAF along with the engine from a 94 Cobra. I'm going to reuse the oil pan from my current engine and I'll buy a new intake (or at least a 93 Cobra upper intake).

Is there anything else that I might need to change to make this fit? Will I have to swap oil pumps/pickup tubes? Will I need to use my current smog equipment? Will I need to use the 94 Cobra wiring harness or just use a MAF conversion harness?

I don't want to get stuck in the middle of this and find out I need to order more parts. I'm in Germany right now - I can't buy any Mustang parts over here nd everything takes at least a week to get here from the States.

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

The engine will drop in no problem. The issue you're going to have is using the Cobra's EEC. It's not a plug and play swap, some repinning of the EEC harness will be necessary to make it work, and I'm not sure it's even that simple. I know it takes some work to do the A9x swap into the 94-95, but I don't know the exact differences between the two harnesses to tell you what you need to know. You'd be better off picking up the 89-93 EEC and doing a MAF swap. You can use the Cobra MAF, but it'll only work with 19lb injectors, unless you have a tune, since the Cobra and GT shared the same MAF, with the tuning for injectors done in the EEC.

 

[Mustang5L5]

The engine is more similar than you think.

To make things easier, convert your car to mass air using the Cobras MAF, injectors and computer BEFORE chaning the engine. It will help you get everything setup correctly first. All you would need is a MAF conversion harness from IST for $35. The reason i say do this first is because you will need to swap a few pins and run some wires and if not done right you'll be pulling your hair out trying to figure out what is wrong.

As for the engine...other than the front accessories and upper intake, it's pretty much the same thing. Unless your engine is junk, it might be easier to just swap the heads and intake and call it a day. To be honest, the cobra engine isn't anything fancy. The camshaft is junk. Dont use it, just buy a performance cam. Sell the upper intake and buy a Fox style Explorer/cobra/GT-4o and things will be much easier. The TB is stock sized 60mm, so toss it in the trash and get a larger 65 or 70mm tb.

Only reason i would use the entire engine is if it has lower milage. The pistons are the hyper variety and the forged ones in your '88 are better. Lower end is a simply drop in, just use the accessories and water pump off your '88.

 

[Mustank]

Thanks for the input.

The more I think about this, the more I think I should just wait and buy a better HCI for my current block. The only reason I'm considering it is because I need to do the MAF conversion anyway, and the Cobra engine only has 70K miles on it, I know it's in good shape, I can get the whole thing with MAF, Harness and computer for $1200 - and it's already here in Germany. It would cost me a couple hundred bucks just to ship new heads from the States - So I'd end up spending more than $2k just for new heads.

But.... my engine doesn't have much more mileage on it, still runs well and has forged pistons. I'd have to swap intakes and probably cam anyway.....so it's really starting to seem like it's not worth the headache.

I'd probably be better off just getting an A9L and MAF conversion harness, use the Cobra heads and get an aftermaket cam and intake....

Any more info/opinions?

 

[ninety15.0]

This really depends on your power goals for the car. While the cobra motor is a great upgrade it will really only net you about 260rwhp...maybe a little more if you swap out the stock cam. For 2500 bucks you could just drop a trickflow kit onto your current shortblock and make an easy 300rwhp with the right supporting mods.

I think your first step in any case is to swap to Mass Air. Good luck man