Cobra engine is tired. Need advice.

I got a 96 mystic cobra for a song. The problem is it needs a rebuild. It has nearly 80,000 miles on it.

The problem I have is that not too many people have info for the early cobras
on the net.

I checked ford racing parts, and there are three different heads, a supercharger that I can't find a single review on.

The ford improved heads, worth it? Or just have the ones on the engine ported?

Is the ford supercharger crap?

People are telling me an out of car top to bottom rebuild will cost me as much as a built engine. But I'd like to keep matching parts in the car if possible.

So far it's got long tubes, mac x, borla stainless cat back, king cobra,
larger airflow / cold air, pulleys, pro 5.0 short shift.

The previous owner seems to have chipped the car, I haven't looked at it yet, all I can say is that the car has no rev limiter and I have to watch it or else it can get well north of 7k rpms.
One of my problems is I have no idea what was done.

All I know is that the engine is well north of the normal 320HP, I drove a stock cobra from the same year. I also only get about 12mpg.

I figured I can do all the suspension upgrades that will make the car oh so much more fun to drive, and worry about the engine later, but it's getting to the point where I want to do some cams and tuning on it.

Given I am on a budget, I don't know what I could realistically do with $3000.

Kevin

The engine burns about a quart every three weeks.

The local guy said to run a compression test on it, and if it's fine just throw a
supercharger on it.

50% of the people I talk to say just put the SC on, the other 50% say
I have to do rods/ pistons.

I'll put it to you this way,

If you were looking at a stock 96 cobra engine and were
looking to make some serious power, what would you do?

Can anyone suggest someone NJ /NY area?

I just checked the oil and it's gone through about three quarts in the last two months alone.

I drive it about 800 miles a month, if not more.