UPDATE (9/13): 03 Cobra Full Build + MORE (Posi Port w/ 100 Shot)
Myself and another member have been working on my Cobra for about the last 2 weeks and I decided to start a build thread to document everything just in case anyone was doing a similar project and had any questions. It's a fairly large build so anyone interested should subscribe, she should eventually make good power !
First off, a little background information:
I bought the car almost 3 years ago with 34K miles on it and didn't sink a penny into it (besides some good rubber and a MGW shifter). I was happy with what it was the way it was. When I bought it, it came with a 2.8 Upper, SLP headers, Bassani catted x and catback. All I really did was put it on the dyno to make sure the tune was good (A/F) and it made 458/464 on a MD.
Here's the pull:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8QX_fZB7SU"]YouTube - 03 Cobra Dyno[/nomedia]
About 2 years ago we had gone to an event at Englishtown, NJ where I got a chance to run the car. Full weight with the spare in the trunk on 18" CCW's wrapped with Nitto DR's the fastest she ran was 11.9 @ 121.
The car ran great for a very long time, all I did was change the oil every 3,000 miles. No problems at all besides a bad alternator which is common. She still runs on the stock battery.
A few weeks ago we went to the National Ford Event @ Englishtown as well where the best run I could manage was a 12.6 @ 110 ... That's when it pretty much all started. I got home put the car away and it sat there for a week in the garage. Then a buddy of mine came by and I had the car out of the garage because I had my motorcycle out the previous night and before I knew it without any plans or forethought the blower and half the car was apart and sitting in my garage. I literally have absolutely no idea how it happened LoL
Here are some of the first pictures I took:
We started working on a game plan as to what should be bought and which route I was going to go with. I had about 5K to play with and the car basically stock with a really hurt clutch.
None of us knew what they hell we were doing so I googled the project:
JK LMFAO
Here is what we finally decided the next month and a half of work would bring and created a shopping list (in no specific order):
Posi Ported Eaton w/ Stock Plenum & Throttle Body Ported
Dynotune 100 Dry Shot w/ Bottle Warmer & Purge
Dynotune 2 Channel Window Switch
4# Lower Pulley Kit
60LB Fuel Injectors
Ford GT Twin Fuel Pumps
SCT 2400 MAF
EV6 2 EV1 Adapters
Fidanza Aluminum Flywheel
Spec 3+ Clutch
D&D 26 Spline Input Shaft
McLeod Retainer
Ford TOB & Pilot Bearing
LDC Head Cooling Mod
Reische Performance 170 Degree Thermostat
LFP Intercooler Tank
NGK TR7IX Plugs
SLP Line Lock
EGR Delete
Bear Decella Rotors
Russell SS Lines
Hawk Pads
Kenny Brown Subframe Connectors
PCV Prefilter
JLT RAI
SCT XCAL
MM Caster Camber Plates
G2 Red Fire Caliper Paint
Some of the minor less significant items $ was spent on:
All new gaskets from Ford
3 gallons of Ford coolant
Flywheel bolts
Stock fuel filter
15+ Bottles of brake cleaner
And most important of all
A sh*t load of cursing and frustration was in order during the install LoL
In the next few days the blower was packed and shipped to Posi and we continued taking the car apart:
Fuel tank removed
Transmission removed
Then finally some of the parts started arriving:
The following day and night we managed to get some more work done:
MM caster camber plates were now installed.
4# lower pulley kit installed
We basically didn't run into any headaches installing the lower pulley kit. The transmission was not in the car so if we tried loosening the crank pulley it would turn the motor over. A crowbar jammed in between the reinstalled stock flywheel and k member temporarily did the trick. Pulley came off in about 30 minutes total time.
While we had the lower pulley off and basically the whole front of the motor disassembled we figured this was a great time to change the inner accessory belt.
Since the pulley bridge was off, we took it apart, completed the Billet Flow idle pulley set (There were only 2 RR idlers installed when I purchased the car) and hit it with some VHT wrinkle paint. (More on this during blower reinstall)
Here is a picture of the pulley bridge black:
We then installed the head cooling mod without any issues as well.
We also installed the line lock since the brakes were being redone with new SS lines they would have to be bled anyways. Without the transmission and EGR in the way the install went very smoothly. We spent about 2-3 hours on the line lock and it was done.
New flywheel installed, followed by the clutch and bell housing:
Now let me pause here for a minute:
Anyone that has done a new flywheel and replaced the pilot bearing knows what a royal PIA it can be. If you've tried to use the grease bread or playdoh method to get this done and couldn't get it to work, TRY AGAIN !
We used the bread method to get the pilot bearing out and put the new bearing in the freezer during the removal and it came out and went in within 10 minutes from start to finish.
Uploaded this just for you guys cause I thought it was so funny:
Here is the bearing being pulled out after about 5 minutes of a little TLC with the hammer. (We used 1 STOP & SHOP Brand Hamburger Bun, they seem to work the best based on our experience)
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53MWc_dIR-s"]YouTube - Pilot Bearing Removal Using Bread[/nomedia]
Eventually the garage started looking like this:
The following night we worked on getting the plumbing for the nitrous done so that we could get the fuel tank back in with the new pumps already installed as well.
I got the blower back yesterday from POSI looking nice and fresh and decided that a coat of VHT wrinkle black was in order for the blower as well, so we spent an hour or so masking it off and hit it with some rattle can paint which btw seems to be extremely durable and strong.
I tried to get a good shot for you guys to see the way the paint wrinkles:
There was also an entire day (~6-8 Hours) worth of cleaning the engine bay in preparation for the returning blower. It made an absolute huge difference. No one would ever guess the car has over 49K miles on it. It can get frustrating and is a PIA but it's also nice to work on the car without getting crap and grease all over you.
The plan for today is to put the blower back on, get the EGR capped off and vacuum lines rerouted and start the car with the stock MAF and intake on the car to check for coolant leaks from the head cooling mod.
I have locked in Oct. 2nd with Jon Lund at Evolution Performance to tune the car. We are going with a regular street tune, and a street tune w/ nos with plans of adding a little race gas in the mix to prevent any catastrophes hopefully.
Total hours in this project so far as of this post is nearing 50 if not over that and that's with the help of a fellow member on here who has done this countless times and knows exactly what he's doing. Anyone who hasn't done this so far is easily looking at 75+ hours due to headaches etc... which luckily we haven't encountered yet. Although my buddy did get his ass handed to him the other day by the head cooling mod (I'm sure he'll post a comment to this LoL) all went very smoothly.
I will keep this thread up to date and anyone with any questions feel free to ask.
If anyone is interested here is a video we made of last seasons racing. Lot's of good stuff in there and some seriously fast cars. WATCH IT !
**************************
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPapdG4ztnI"]YouTube - Starr Racing 2009 Tribute[/nomedia]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Vette/Whipple Cobras/Nitrous Camaro/Police/Drag Racing/Burnouts/Street Racing/Bikes etc...
FLAME ON :burn:
Myself and another member have been working on my Cobra for about the last 2 weeks and I decided to start a build thread to document everything just in case anyone was doing a similar project and had any questions. It's a fairly large build so anyone interested should subscribe, she should eventually make good power !
First off, a little background information:
I bought the car almost 3 years ago with 34K miles on it and didn't sink a penny into it (besides some good rubber and a MGW shifter). I was happy with what it was the way it was. When I bought it, it came with a 2.8 Upper, SLP headers, Bassani catted x and catback. All I really did was put it on the dyno to make sure the tune was good (A/F) and it made 458/464 on a MD.
Here's the pull:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8QX_fZB7SU"]YouTube - 03 Cobra Dyno[/nomedia]
About 2 years ago we had gone to an event at Englishtown, NJ where I got a chance to run the car. Full weight with the spare in the trunk on 18" CCW's wrapped with Nitto DR's the fastest she ran was 11.9 @ 121.
The car ran great for a very long time, all I did was change the oil every 3,000 miles. No problems at all besides a bad alternator which is common. She still runs on the stock battery.
A few weeks ago we went to the National Ford Event @ Englishtown as well where the best run I could manage was a 12.6 @ 110 ... That's when it pretty much all started. I got home put the car away and it sat there for a week in the garage. Then a buddy of mine came by and I had the car out of the garage because I had my motorcycle out the previous night and before I knew it without any plans or forethought the blower and half the car was apart and sitting in my garage. I literally have absolutely no idea how it happened LoL
Here are some of the first pictures I took:
We started working on a game plan as to what should be bought and which route I was going to go with. I had about 5K to play with and the car basically stock with a really hurt clutch.
None of us knew what they hell we were doing so I googled the project:
JK LMFAO
Here is what we finally decided the next month and a half of work would bring and created a shopping list (in no specific order):
Posi Ported Eaton w/ Stock Plenum & Throttle Body Ported
Dynotune 100 Dry Shot w/ Bottle Warmer & Purge
Dynotune 2 Channel Window Switch
4# Lower Pulley Kit
60LB Fuel Injectors
Ford GT Twin Fuel Pumps
SCT 2400 MAF
EV6 2 EV1 Adapters
Fidanza Aluminum Flywheel
Spec 3+ Clutch
D&D 26 Spline Input Shaft
McLeod Retainer
Ford TOB & Pilot Bearing
LDC Head Cooling Mod
Reische Performance 170 Degree Thermostat
LFP Intercooler Tank
NGK TR7IX Plugs
SLP Line Lock
EGR Delete
Bear Decella Rotors
Russell SS Lines
Hawk Pads
Kenny Brown Subframe Connectors
PCV Prefilter
JLT RAI
SCT XCAL
MM Caster Camber Plates
G2 Red Fire Caliper Paint
Some of the minor less significant items $ was spent on:
All new gaskets from Ford
3 gallons of Ford coolant
Flywheel bolts
Stock fuel filter
15+ Bottles of brake cleaner
And most important of all
A sh*t load of cursing and frustration was in order during the install LoL
In the next few days the blower was packed and shipped to Posi and we continued taking the car apart:
Fuel tank removed
Transmission removed
Then finally some of the parts started arriving:
The following day and night we managed to get some more work done:
MM caster camber plates were now installed.
4# lower pulley kit installed
We basically didn't run into any headaches installing the lower pulley kit. The transmission was not in the car so if we tried loosening the crank pulley it would turn the motor over. A crowbar jammed in between the reinstalled stock flywheel and k member temporarily did the trick. Pulley came off in about 30 minutes total time.
While we had the lower pulley off and basically the whole front of the motor disassembled we figured this was a great time to change the inner accessory belt.
Since the pulley bridge was off, we took it apart, completed the Billet Flow idle pulley set (There were only 2 RR idlers installed when I purchased the car) and hit it with some VHT wrinkle paint. (More on this during blower reinstall)
Here is a picture of the pulley bridge black:
We then installed the head cooling mod without any issues as well.
We also installed the line lock since the brakes were being redone with new SS lines they would have to be bled anyways. Without the transmission and EGR in the way the install went very smoothly. We spent about 2-3 hours on the line lock and it was done.
New flywheel installed, followed by the clutch and bell housing:
Now let me pause here for a minute:
Anyone that has done a new flywheel and replaced the pilot bearing knows what a royal PIA it can be. If you've tried to use the grease bread or playdoh method to get this done and couldn't get it to work, TRY AGAIN !
We used the bread method to get the pilot bearing out and put the new bearing in the freezer during the removal and it came out and went in within 10 minutes from start to finish.
Uploaded this just for you guys cause I thought it was so funny:
Here is the bearing being pulled out after about 5 minutes of a little TLC with the hammer. (We used 1 STOP & SHOP Brand Hamburger Bun, they seem to work the best based on our experience)
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53MWc_dIR-s"]YouTube - Pilot Bearing Removal Using Bread[/nomedia]
Eventually the garage started looking like this:
The following night we worked on getting the plumbing for the nitrous done so that we could get the fuel tank back in with the new pumps already installed as well.
I got the blower back yesterday from POSI looking nice and fresh and decided that a coat of VHT wrinkle black was in order for the blower as well, so we spent an hour or so masking it off and hit it with some rattle can paint which btw seems to be extremely durable and strong.
I tried to get a good shot for you guys to see the way the paint wrinkles:
There was also an entire day (~6-8 Hours) worth of cleaning the engine bay in preparation for the returning blower. It made an absolute huge difference. No one would ever guess the car has over 49K miles on it. It can get frustrating and is a PIA but it's also nice to work on the car without getting crap and grease all over you.
The plan for today is to put the blower back on, get the EGR capped off and vacuum lines rerouted and start the car with the stock MAF and intake on the car to check for coolant leaks from the head cooling mod.
I have locked in Oct. 2nd with Jon Lund at Evolution Performance to tune the car. We are going with a regular street tune, and a street tune w/ nos with plans of adding a little race gas in the mix to prevent any catastrophes hopefully.
Total hours in this project so far as of this post is nearing 50 if not over that and that's with the help of a fellow member on here who has done this countless times and knows exactly what he's doing. Anyone who hasn't done this so far is easily looking at 75+ hours due to headaches etc... which luckily we haven't encountered yet. Although my buddy did get his ass handed to him the other day by the head cooling mod (I'm sure he'll post a comment to this LoL) all went very smoothly.
I will keep this thread up to date and anyone with any questions feel free to ask.
If anyone is interested here is a video we made of last seasons racing. Lot's of good stuff in there and some seriously fast cars. WATCH IT !
**************************
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPapdG4ztnI"]YouTube - Starr Racing 2009 Tribute[/nomedia]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Vette/Whipple Cobras/Nitrous Camaro/Police/Drag Racing/Burnouts/Street Racing/Bikes etc...
FLAME ON :burn:
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