Club Cobra - Hoping to get advice re: "shorter" carb

I have a bit of a problem and will post it here as well as on the Small Block board...I am running into a hood interference problem and hope to gain some good advice.

Here's the deal...I would like to go with a better intake manifold (really prefer the Air Gap RPM) on my SBF engine, but at present there is not enough room for everything under the hood scoop.

Originally this engine had a 780 Holley on it...WAAAAY too much carb for what I believe to be a box-stock 1989 Ford 5.0HO engine which has been fitted for carb rather than EFI. It was changed to an Edelbrock Thunder carb which seems to be quite well suited to the engine. The intake is an Edelbrock Performer (not even the Performer RPM model) and at present there's probably only about 1/4" between the top of the air cleaner and the underside of the hood SCOOP, inside which the air cleaner resides.

I've looked into all sorts of ideas on how to get more room for a better intake without having to have the frame horns cut off and welded on lower. I thought about buying the Air-Gap manifold and having the carb base on the manifold machined...have searched for motor mounts that would lower the engine (and was told on one of the Mustang forums that motor mounts for a convertible GT would drop the engine between 1/2" and 3/4")...even tried to use the base off of an older Mr. Gasket 9" air cleaner (which didn't work well due to sealing issues at the carb flange). Right now I am back to using the nicely radiused air cleaner base that came with the 9" K&N X-Stream Filtercharger kit, but with an air filter that is only 2 1/4" tall rather than the 3" filter that came with the kit.

At this point I've been happy with what I have, think it is running better than it has ever run, but I'd like to pursue moving the RPM range up higher and I think that's going to take a better intake manifold.

So....requests for suggestions! I am hoping that there is a carb out there that is "shorter" than this Edelbrock (AFB) style carb. Perhaps between getting a shorter carb and going to a shorter air cleaner (on the X-Stream Filtercharger the top also has filtration material and I have read that the capacity of just that part is at 500 CFM) I could fit not only the fine K&N air cleaner base as well as a taller manifold and move the power band up higher in the RPM range (not to mention the other benefits of the Air-Gap manifold).

I don't mind going to a specialty/custom carb if that's what it will take...have always planned on getting a custom built Quick-Fuel from Brent Lykins.

Once I find out if there's any chance to improve the intake manifold situation I can then move on to chosing heads and a cam to better take advantage of the upper RPM range for this motor.

Does anyone have any suggestions? A drop-base air cleaner isn't really going to do any good for me because the only reason I can get an air cleaner on it at all is due to it sitting up into the hood scoop. I could go with one of Bernica's Holley plate bases, but then I lose that nicely radiused K&N base, which single-handedly seems to have added 5 HP to the "seat of the pants" feel.

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice!

Cheers!

Dugly :cool: