cobra stamping on engine - FFCars.com : Factory Five Racing Discussion Forum

Jimmy James · 11-15-2005, 10:04 PM

I have a 302 from a Mustang GT. At the top rear of the block where the vin derivative number is stamped, "cobra" is also stamped above it. The motor does not have a Cobra intake or heads and appears to be a typical Mustang GT motor. Does anyone know the significance of the "cobra" stamping?

mrmustang · 11-15-2005, 10:10 PM

Can't say I've ever seen or heard of that before. Any chance you could take a picture of it and post it?

Bill S.

Gordon Levy · 11-16-2005, 09:38 PM

I'm with Bill.

Jimmy James · 11-17-2005, 01:44 PM

I do have a photo so I'll dig that out and post it some time soon.

Jimmy James · 11-18-2005, 02:40 AM

Not sure if this worked or not but these are pictures of the top rear of the engine block showing COBRA stamped on it. Above it is part of the vin derivative and to the left of the word COBRA is F5.

tomhorn1913 · 11-18-2005, 04:36 AM

Just a WAG,

But it looks as though someone "enhanced" their block for a FFR build, or possibly (but this is a stretch) someone at a DMV office wanted to tie the block to the vehicle it was being registered in. Is this your build, or did you buy an assembled FFR? I have heard that Ford had a Cobra model Mustang in Canada in the late 80s - do you know if your Mustang was an US model?

Interesting mystery,
Matt

Jimmy James · 11-18-2005, 03:46 PM

Tom, I got the motor from a donor car in which all numbers match. What is visible of the vin derivative on the block matches the i.d. number for the car itself. To my knowledge, the car was a U.S. car. I had a complete donor car that I took apart for its usable components: engine, trans, rear end, etc and all of the related numbers on these items appear to be a correct match. The donor car was a GT in all appearances and I wouldn't have had the impression from the car that someone had put that stamping on the block to enhance its value or appearance.

tomhorn1913 · 11-19-2005, 04:17 AM

Jimmy,

Well then I'm right back at being clueless... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Best,
Matt

fiscalsloth · 01-15-2006, 05:38 AM

Just a random hypothesis: Ford makes, as we all know, more than a couple engines per year. On such a large scale and with so many different models it may be that your block is from a production run intended for Cobra models and therefor different (most likely strengthened ala the "Sportsman" block that FRP offers). The scale of over or under runs with so many produced makes it possible that your block was uneeded to produce the intended number of Cobras and so was diverted into GT production as necessary.

Again, only a theory.