Lt Mac Mac the cobra is a roughly 2,200-2,500 pound car. You are building a torque motor. IF you where putting this motor into a dump truck, 40 pounds would be the correct application. If racing, a titlon is about 12 pounds with a double or triple disc setup.Not good for street use. A couple of guys are running them. You have not come up with a clutch you are looking to run? 3 finger, diapham, dual disc setup? 11.5" 11.0" or smaller? You have not said which trans mission ratios you have for both 1st gear and 5th gear. This will also help in finding the correct weight for the flywheel. A 20-24 pounder would be a good weight for all around use and abuse.
Tires? what wear rating and who's? If you do alot of showing off, you may want to look at a soft clutch setup. Better to burn out the clutch, than blow a trans apart with power shifting. Clutch about $350.00, Trans about $1,800.00.
Dampener for motor. If you are only going to abuse the car to a minimum, a new stock one should last a long time. If the abuse factor is large thatn getting and SEFI certified is the only way to go. IF you go with a fluid dampener, there is a issue with letting the motor run for a couple of minutes to allow the internal weight to start moving around to balance the motor when running. Down side is some times motor has bad vibration on startup. Damage done, I have found none in either motor with 452 or 482. Super dampener is what I have been running. Down side unless they changed is that the pulleys you install on them have to be BBC bolt pattern. FE will not work unless you drill them out. They need to be centered or you will get a vibration with the motor running. Side note here, DON'T run under drive pulleys. Make sure the waterpump and crankshaft pulley are the same diameter. Overheating is a problem. We can talk about this on another thread. Have fix for this too. Make sure the coolant passages are opened up on the intake.
I believe in buying the best parts I can afford. Have had only a couple of breakdowns over the years. Poor design of shelby heads and not having deep time serts, and
oil returns need to be opened to get max return.
If you goggle FE motor buildups and there are about 10-15 now, they all have a trick or 2 to help improve power and extend the life on a motor.
If you have the stroker kit, buy the flywheel and dampener and give them to your machinist for a complete balancing. Need to index the flywheel on some cranks, others are 1 way only. The whole thing should balance out to "0".
Barry'S book as alot of good info too.
Talking about clutches, What setup are you looking at? Cable, master/slave hydro to a fork, hydro throw out bearing? Something else you need to look at? More info needed. Rick L.