To a certain extent, yes. Understand that the AC Cobra is a TINY car to start with. Wheelbase is 90" with very little room inside. (Cars in this class size are the MGA, Triumph Spitfire, Alfa-Romeo Spider, etc.) There'* damn little room for much of anything.

Of the Cobra'* I've seen, they have been equipped with everything from a Ford FE motor (copying the original Shelby 427'*), SB Ford Windsor motors (carb and FI), even SB Chevy motors. The fellow in Georgia who got me motivated back down this road had a 289 powered one, with single carb. Very simple stuff.

The problem of putting modded motors in them is the ability to completely over-power the suspension. There'* a number of crash video'* on the web featuring kit car cobras. In nearly all of them, the driver overpowers the rear tires and the car swaps ends. The original cars were powered by a straight six Bristol that put out about 150hp and were capable of speeds in the 120mph range.

At 200hp, the car is "over-powered"...at 300hp, the car is massively over-powered...tack a blower on in and take aim at 400hp, and, well, you get the picture

What I would like my project to end up looking like is along these lines... though this is a 1961 AC Ace model. Though British Racing Green would be my color of choice (I don't care if it'* technically a Jaguar color)

I was gonna ask you what color scheme you were going for...B.R.G. is a nice choice. That used to be my favorite color

Now I like White


Looks like its coming along nicely!

The project is moving forward. The UPS man should show up tomorrow with the cam and oiling system. Again, nothing really fancy.. Ford Racing E303 roller cam and 1-piece fuel pump eccentric (whacky setup Ford...GM has it right by putting the fuel pump drive on the camshaft) Cloyes double-roller timing chain set, and a Melling std oil pump.

The distributor issues are giving me nightmares. I know nothing about Ford'* EFI distributors, or the Dura-Spark ones used right after points. I'm going to try something different first.... A GM HEI distributor in a Ford housing. If this works, I'll have my favorite dizzy to get all warm and fuzzy feelings, and not have to deal with Ford ignition systems. One cheap one is on the way from an E-bay seller (it may be junk, but if the housing and shaft are in decent shape, I can fix anything else that might be screwed up...providing it fits the block and manifold.)

Plan B: I've been told from various sources that the ONLY Ford distributor that will work in my application is the 1985 Mustang 5.0L Roller Cam, Manual Trans, Carb model. They are no longer made by Ford, so sourceing one of those will be the trick.

Plan C: MSD Distributor and an external ignition box. I don't like this option, since it'* about $400 ish. This will be the path of last resort.

See how these projects can spin outta control ?

Why not go with the older Ford points distributor modified with a Pertronix kit? Electronics are all self-contained in the housing, and only 3 wires I think run from it.

Fords DuraSpark isn't all that bad of a setup, but it does have too many wires for my liking. The setup I would like to see on there (but its probably least likely yours) is coil-on-plug...I think there are a few MSD controllers that can do that sort of thing.

Ok, the cheap HEI for Ford distributor showed up. As cheap as it was, I wasn't expecting much. But, at first inspection before going to dinner, it looks right and made well enough to pass muster. I'll have the chance to test all the parts by swapping them over to the Camaro and run them a little while to see what happens. The housing is aluminum and looks to be machined from a block (no casting tell-tales showing, every surface is machined) Gear is steel, so after test patterning them on the cam, we'll see how it goes.

Most surprising of all... damn thing fits! Somebody should have started doing this years ago.

I'd like to see pics of this engine bay...
http://www.racingjunk.com/post/94253...I-BB-FORD.html

Little update on the project. Cam, timing chain, water pump, oil pump, fuel pump, and oil pan in place.




I can understand why these blue-oval motors have such a following. It is a surprisingly compact little package. The short deck height of the block, giving it a narrow intake manifold and keeps the total width down. It just seems smaller than the SBC.

A little cross-pollination going on too...beyond the HEI distributor, the motor also picked up an GM oil pressure sensor/switch..which just works as a better fitting package to what the Ford had.

Nice choice on valve covers. I bought the same ones for my '66 Mustang. Only difference is I went full polish on mine.

eBay...$50 plus shipping I kept getting outbid by snipers who wait for the last minute to throw a bid in. There was a nice set of tall ones from a circle-track engine builder in Concord N.C. that I though would look good, but wound up with this pair instead. I just need to clean them up up and polish out the raised fins. I didn't want anything that said "Cobra" on it...while that is the goal, the motor may end up in something else if I can't finish the car for some reason.

I'm still debating on which cylinder heads to put on the motor. AFR 165 heads, or Edelbrock Performer RPM heads. I have to stick with the 1.9" valves, since I didn't get pistons with larger valve reliefs in the crowns. Cam isn't rediculous either (I went with a Ford E303 cam) so I may pass on the AFR heads just because the extra money would be wasted if the cam can't take advantage of the extra airflow.

Just outta curiosity, what sort of rockers did you put on the '66 ? I'm just curious if atermarket rockers will fit under these covers. (trying to think ahead and not make very many mistakes in the process.)