crazycracker
+1y
Hi, I'm working on a SBF swap as well. My engine is an '85 5.0 from a Mercury Cougar, I believe everything is the same or very similar to your '95 5.0 block. I used my existing motor mount brackets and original replacement parts store motor mounts (just so as to have "fresh" motor mounts instead of reusing the 30 year old ones) and re-drilled the holes for where the motor mount connects to the bracket. Much easier to show instead of explain, but I did not take pictures (very sorry!). This basically allows the motor mounts to sit farther back by about 3/4 inch, so that I didn't have to beat the firewall or destroy the speedometer cable (where that speedo cable exits the firewall is right by the cylinder head).
Doing that allowed my engine to sit in place but it was basically resting on that crossmember. To alleviate that I put 1 inch spacers between the motor mount brackets and the engine block, so as to raise the entire engine by 1 inch. This worked well; too well in fact, as it caused me some hood clearance issues with distributor and air cleaner. If I was doing it over, I would use 1/2 inch spacers (you may think the 1/2 inch difference is not much, but because the engine is on a slight incline and the motor mounts are now a little bit further back, that 1/2 inch at the motor mount corresponds to about an inch & a half at the front of the engine).
If you have the ability to modify your crossmember then you could skip that whole rigamarole of raising the engine up and have all the clearance you need up top.