97 GT engine swap question

Coalhugger55 said:

Hello friends, I have a 97 mustang gt that was recently in a front end collision. My friend has a 96 cobra shell I can get for cheap if I wanted. My question is will my 2 valve 4.6 be a direct swap into the cobra chassis? What would I need to make it happen? Thanks in advance for the knowledge, I’m pretty mechanically inclined and have done swaps before, just never in a Ford

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It's doable, and @tsemmett has given you sound advice, but my question would be why?

The 2v is a significant (nearly 100 horsepower) downgrade over the original 4v engine for the Cobra, and those can be found for next-to-nothing at salvage yards in Lincoln Mark VIIIs (we're talking under $300) and then the correct Cobra intake manifold (if desired) is a common Ebay item (also $300 or so). You could sell your 2v GT engine to offset a chunk of the purchase price and come out with the full 305 horsepower of the Cobra instead of having a 215 horsepower "Cobra with a GT engine downgrade" and it'll be a bolt-in-and-go (or close to it, there may be oil pan differences between the Mark and the Cobra) fit. If your local yard doesn't have a Mark VIII, a Lincoln Aviator engine would be a similar option, but with a little more work (not that much more if you're good at wiring.