Engine rebuild help

Hello everyone it’s been awhile but I’m about ready to embark on rebuilding my 03 cobras motor. After a night out I came home and noticed a slight misfire and smoking at idle. Found cylinder 7 had like 30lbs of compression and after shooting some oil down the cylinder and retesting it jumped up to about 90lbs which leads me to believe the rings are toasted. My question is do I have the motor taken out, torn down and redone or should I explore getting a short block. I’ve noticed MMR isn’t taking orders, DSS website shows nothing and the only place I can find a short block is ModMax Racing.

I’ll be honest the car made 660 to the tire with a 2.9 whipple and supporting mods and I’m good with that. The car once back together will be driven maybe on weekends with both my kids in it. I’m not looking to race or beat the balls off it so I don’t need a raced out setup. The way the car sits now I’d need to go e85 to make more power and I don’t want to deal with that. I’m in New York (Long Island) and I’m looking to explore options weather I have someone pull the motor out and fix it, or just get a completed short block. I’m like like have the heads done because the valve seals need to be replaced. Any input is appreciated


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blwn89gt said:

Hello everyone it’s been awhile but I’m about ready to embark on rebuilding my 03 cobras motor. After a night out I came home and noticed a slight misfire and smoking at idle. Found cylinder 7 had like 30lbs of compression and after shooting some oil down the cylinder and retesting it jumped up to about 90lbs which leads me to believe the rings are toasted. My question is do I have the motor taken out, torn down and redone or should I explore getting a short block. I’ve noticed MMR isn’t taking orders, DSS website shows nothing and the only place I can find a short block is ModMax Racing.

I’ll be honest the car made 660 to the tire with a 2.9 whipple and supporting mods and I’m good with that. The car once back together will be driven maybe on weekends with both my kids in it. I’m not looking to race or beat the balls off it so I don’t need a raced out setup. The way the car sits now I’d need to go e85 to make more power and I don’t want to deal with that. I’m in New York (Long Island) and I’m looking to explore options weather I have someone pull the motor out and fix it, or just get a completed short block. I’m like like have the heads done because the valve seals need to be replaced. Any input is appreciated


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PCHS is good if you have time and deep pockets, I think one of their employees is on here. I would not go the MMR route, kind of a bitch to work with and if you have an issue they want it sent back to Cali. ACE Crank is hit or miss, went through some changes (pm for the whole story). I think Merkel will do Mod engines SOMETIMES, sometimes they don't want be bothered. Just opinions based on experience with local LI shops. Mustang Magic uses ACE, Realspeed used to use PCHS but their lead time was a year out at one point so I think was using Merkal. Might be worth emailing Dan at Realspeed and see who he is using these days. He is usually open to talk tech and give you straight info, not really trying to sell you.

Plan on swapping your self?

Black02GT said:

PCHS is good if you have time and deep pockets, i think one of their employees is on here. I would not go the MMR route. ACE Crank is hit or miss. I think Merkel will do Mod engine SOMETIMES, sometimes they don't want be bothered. Just options on local LI shops. Mustang Magic uses ACE, Realspeed used to use PCHS but their lead time was a year out at one point. Might be worth emailing Dan at Realspeed and see who he is using these days. He is usually open to talk tech and give you straight info, not really trying to sell you.

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I don’t have deep pockets lmao but I want it done right and like I said I don’t want some 1000 horsepower monster motor. If I could find a ford crate motor I would have just gotten that. I’ve gotten some recommendations for some out of state places also. I don’t have the time or means anymore with work or I’d do it myself. At this point I’ve kinda heard what you told me and I might just have to figure out getting the motor out and maybe torn down and sent to someone out of state. This sucks lol


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I was talking to someone at Oak Beach a few years ago about "Nicky Notch". Said he's THE mod motor guy on Long Island.

I'm not on Facebook but I believe he's there & on Instagram so you may be able to connect with him there.

If it works out, I'd love to hear the results in case I need engine work (knocking on wood).

Hope that helps.

Found it...

Nicky “Notch” Mancuso

NMRacing (Nicky Notch) · Bohemia, NY · 631-433-6764 · [email protected].

facebook.com/nick.notch78




Hope that helps.

prs97 said:

Found it...

Nicky “Notch” Mancuso

NMRacing (Nicky Notch) · Bohemia, NY · 631-433-6764 · [email protected].

facebook.com/nick.notch78




Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Thank you


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blwn89gt said:

Thank you


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If you were going to do a ford crate engine you could call a shop like Livernois or JDM or another reputable ford shop. Because you said you might need head work you could always do a complete long block and then you’ll have your original to keep or sell. Less down time with a complete long block.
I personally like to stay local on big projects like this but would want someone knowledgeable with these motors.
Should be a fun project on a car you intend to keep.
Good luck.
-J

Yeah I’m gonna call around a bit and see what I can come up with.


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blwn89gt said:

Yeah I’m gonna call around a bit and see what I can come up with.


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Also my brother has been debating selling or building his ‘04 Cobra motor for the same reasons you are. If you’re interested or if that helps your options shoot me a message. I’m near Detroit area where I know 3 excellent engine guys.
-J

biminiLX said:

Also my brother has been debating selling or building his ‘04 Cobra motor for the same reasons you are. If you’re interested or if that helps your options shoot me a message. I’m near Detroit area where I know 3 excellent engine guys.
-J

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I reached out to a few places and I’m gonna wait to see what they all say. I decided against the short block from mod max since I read a bunch of people complaining about dealing with them.


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Keith Rhea of Wonder Racing in PA is one of the best 4v engine builders in the country. And Wicked Motorsports is right around the corner from you…..one of the best 4v tuners out there. They should be able to square you away.

DCguy said:

Keith Rhea of Wonder Racing in PA is one of the best 4v engine builders in the country. And Wicked Motorsports is right around the corner from you…..one of the best 4v tuners out there. They should be able to square you away.

Click to expand...

I totally forgot about wicked, thanks for the reminder. The cars been sitting for a bit so I’m out of touch lol.


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I wouldn't hesitate to let jdm build my motor being local-ish to them. I would go with the following companies and not worry about anything. Jdm, l&m, wonder racing, and modular headshop. Anything you ever see from those companies is top notch.

Your best bet dollars wise is you and a few buddies pull the motor and disassemble. This would be a good time to move to an aluminum block and drop 85lbs. Find a good one that just needs a minor hone to clean it up and you will order a custom piston then. You will be able to reuse your crank and rods. While the heads are off, have the exhaust seats done with new hardened seats. See if there are any engine shops in your area that have built mod motors and know them. I am not a huge proponent of these big mail order shops, I use local whenever I can.

Think I’m going with L&M in PA. I have to just figure out getting the motor out of the car and to them.


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Bump
Please keep us posted.

Something to think about.

I've had a couple drivers heads go bad.

Original dropped cylinder 5 valve seat
2nd design head ,dropped cylinder 6 seat ,had repaired, Than
Crack cylinder 7. Caused low compression and miss and water out exhaust

Doing compression test cylinder 7 had 140 psi.and oil added raised it

These issues happened still being stock ,

Each issues was about 60k miles apart ,last head installed has over 200k and no issues

Makes me wonder about alot of guys doing block work when it may have only been a head issue ,

I did do the head replacement over fender, long days work but doable

I would drop it out the bottom, pretty easy and way easier to work on. It might need more than headwork once you get it apart too

So I wound up staying local because I have zero time with my job to do this or get the motor dropped off out of state. The motor is out and on its way to the machine shop and they are going to pull off the heads and we’re gonna re asses things there instead of just jumping to conclusions on what we think it may be. Hopefully I’ll have more info later this week. I’ve been just so busy at work.


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Hope it works out.

Just curious- who did you end up going with here locally?