SN95 Cobra - Motor build ideas and opinions

dragracingfreak

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Thought this might me a good idea to start for people, such as myself, to add their ideas and opinions to build ideas. Asking questions whether building a car a certain way is a good idea or not, pros and cons to builds, and actual results of a build. Let's try to make this a thing, might be a cool way to see build ideas in one thread and to keep up with them. I myself have an idea and was wondering what you all think of it. So here it goes.

I have a 96 Cobra that I would like to make a fun/semi fast street car. I do go to the strip 5 times a year or So. So far it has 4.30 gears, stock manifolds, Mac h pipe, flowmasters, mgw shifter, mm starter suspension kit, jlt true cai, j&m tubular upper and lower rca's. Built 8.8, Moser 31 spline axles, new posi unit, Moser diff cover, arp studs on the caps and welded tubes. Car made 270 rwhp at cinci speed about 3-4 years ago.

My build plan:
Shortblock
- stock forged crank that it has
- Manley h beam forged rods
- forged pistons 10.8:1 - 11:1 compression (stock is 9.85:1) don't know what brand to really go with
- arp head studs and main studs
- other necessary stuff such as rings and bearings

Cylinder heads:
- either stock b heads or change to 99-01 c heads, unworked either way
- stock valvesprings if I can
- shm stage 2 reground cams

Intake:
- short runner intake for either head I go with, b or c. Will use b upper to c lower adapter if I go with c's.

Exhaust:
- longtubes, x pipe, borlas or magnaflows

Transmission:
- built t45, billet shift forks, carbon syncros, and new bearings and seals. Basically completely gone through.

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but that's it for the big stuff, what do you guys think? In this kinda set up, how much would c heads help over b heads?

Let's get this thread going, i would like to hear opinions and see others build plans and builds also.
c65359175572e4765f03c1e3caa2124e.jpg


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dragracingfreak

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I also forgot to mention my best times at the strip.
13.25 @ 100-105, can't remember mph
8.50s @ 80mph, can't remember mph either exactly.
1.80 60fts for the most part, have had a best of 1.79.
Launching around 4-4500 rpm.
Shifting at 6500, that's most I can power shift at.

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cbr repsol

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That's basically what I'm going to do.
I was making a ton of extra money but I have child support even with having my kids 50/50
So now I lower my income so I don't have to pay as much, so it has slowed my car stuff down.
Right now I'm just happy to have a running cobra that I can enjoy and mod as I go. It sounds like your kinda doing things like me..some stuff then you will get to the other stuff.

I plan on road course for my car so I'm planning on a possible irs swap to take advantage of the corners.
 

dragracingfreak

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It sounds you like you have done a lot to get your Cobra ready for the next level of power. Do you have any comments about your MM Starter Box, such as ride quality, how it feels in corner carving, etc?
Yea it's got a decent but done, motor is stock other than cai, rear end has some good stuff done to it. I didn't put the suspension on, it was on when I bought the car. But I do like how it handles, nice and stiff, but not super stiff, handles curves well, I don't push it very hard in curves but does good to me.

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dragracingfreak

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Yea it's got a decent but done, motor is stock other than cai, rear end has some good stuff done to it. I didn't put the suspension on, it was on when I bought the car. But I do like how it handles, nice and stiff, but not super stiff, handles curves well, I don't push it very hard in curves but does good to me.

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Decent amount done to it, not sure how it said "decent but", lol

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dragracingfreak

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What are your goals power wise?


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Around 400hp or so to the crank. If more then great lol. That would be around 100 more than stock. Low to mid 12s in the quarter would be nice. 11s would be nice all motor, lol. One day I would like to boost it and get it to 550-600. More into making it run good at the strip than making a dyno queen, lol.

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Deceptive

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I'd go C Head swap the car, use the stock B Head cams, BTR valve springs, stock crank, Manley SVT rods, 10:1CR, MAC Ceramic LTs, Vortech V1 Si blower, Treadstone Intercooler (1235 or 1245).


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Recon

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If I get the Cobra I'm looking at I plan on swapping the intake to an FR500C and 5.4 heads.


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dragracingfreak

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If I get the Cobra I'm looking at I plan on swapping the intake to an FR500C and 5.4 heads.


Sent from somewhere in the Twilight Zone.
Is that intake the correct width for the 5.4 heads? I seen where a guy split a b head intake and widened it I think 1 5/8" to make fit 5.4 heads.

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dragracingfreak

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I'd go C Head swap the car, use the stock B Head cams, BTR valve springs, stock crank, Manley SVT rods, 10:1CR, MAC Ceramic LTs, Vortech V1 Si blower, Treadstone Intercooler (1235 or 1245).


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Blower would be last, if get the motor running good and drive it a while till I could afford to buy boost.

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bumsoil

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those are my plans as well.
i plan on using boss rods and getting a set of cams with as high of compression as i can get out of flat tops. then boost down the road.
 

Recon

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Is that intake the correct width for the 5.4 heads? I seen where a guy split a b head intake and widened it I think 1 5/8" to make fit 5.4 heads.

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The FR500C used 5.4 heads off the FGT along with that intake. I believe it made 420hp or higher.


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Nightmare302

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The FR-500C uses FGT or GT-500 heads on a 4.6 engine. It's an incredibly expensive option and I would only recommend sourcing one and running GT heads on a max effort large cam all out build if NA.
 

dragracingfreak

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The FR-500C uses FGT or GT-500 heads on a 4.6 engine. It's an incredibly expensive option and I would only recommend sourcing one and running GT heads on a max effort large cam all out build if NA.
I figured it was expensive, I wasn't planning on doing anything like that, don't have that much moolah, lol

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Nightmare302

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Stock C heads just a valve job and the ID opened up is what I would run. Get custom cams instead of re-grinds (otherwise you will have to mess with shims) I'd also get a set of BTR springs they are cheap and let you run a larger cam. Run a stock intake for now, the intake is easy to bolt on and off so get the cams/lower end built.

Manley H beams if you plan to go boost, otherwise boss or late coyote rods (same part number) will work perfect in to 600-700rwhp.

I'd run flat tops with an intake valve relief.

With longtubes you could make over 350-360rwhp easily with a very very streetable setup and strong power band.
 

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