[aumoore]

Chip
I am a little confused as you list a 1983 Unique with a 390. If you plan on putting a 302 into that car you will have to spend a lot of money as nothing will work like flywheel. bellhousing, motor mounts and headers.

If you are just swapping out a small block like a 289 or 302 then you can just go to a local boneyard and find a nice 5.0 out of a explorer/mountaineer and take a few parts off your current motor to make it work in the cobra.

I started with a Mountaineer motor out of one of FoMoCo's test fleet that had been sent to a Ford owned salvage yard. I got the motor for $1,000 and it only had about 12 miles on it(truck still had plastic on the seats). I swapped out the cam, sold the F.I. system and bought a edelbrock intake and Holley carb. I never even took the heads off the motor. This combo put out 267 rear wheel hp on a chassis dyno at the first Reptile Roundup. Not to bad for a junk yard motor. The explorers and mountaineers have the good GT-40 heads(1996 and earlier) or GT-40p heads(1997 and later). I have a 1997 motor.

It will move the little cobra pretty good and several big motor cobras have not exactly blew me away at Gainesville.

p.s. it is a ford and pretty reliable.