Bought the most neglected Cobra ever

[foofinator]

So it's been two years. The PCM-fuse blowing problem I was never able to diagnose; the car still does that crap. Given that the previous owner wired stuff with lamp cord sections and stuffed aluminum foil under the coil covers, something bad happened to the engine bay wiring harness I suspect. I just haven't had the time to figure it out. The motor is also tired, so at the decision point re: whether to swap the 4.6L for a Coyote or find someone to build the existing one, which is harder and harder to do. She still sits in the garage--after all that work, I'm not going to let her deteriorate unnecessarily.

In the meantime, I did join the darkside. Love this thing, lol.

 

[CobraBob]

Very nice upgrade!! Beautiful ZL1. So do you intend to keep the Cobra forever? Or will you maybe sell it? Sounds like you're keeping it as an "ongoing" future project.

 

[speeddemon2000]

I think you made the right choice.

 

[foofinator]

Thanks, fellas. And love to see some other old members still hanging around!

I'll keep the '01 at least until it's finally completely fixed! Frankly, I think the answer is a Coyote swap, but I hate deleting the mod motor lol. I have a soft spot for them. After all, still have three mod motor cars in the garage, including the 01.

 

[offroadkarter]

Thanks, fellas. And love to see some other old members still hanging around!

I'll keep the '01 at least until it's finally completely fixed! Frankly, I think the answer is a Coyote swap, but I hate deleting the mod motor lol. I have a soft spot for them. After all, still have three mod motor cars in the garage, including the 01.

have you thought about doing a stand alone like a holley terminator X? Think it deletes the factory wiring harness. It'd be the shotgun blast approach to fixing your problem but it'd probably fix it!

 

[foofinator]

Yeah, thought about it.

At the end of the day, it needs a motor rebuild or replacement anyway, which would dictate the wiring. Wife (yeah, now wife, I said girlfriend earlier) approved a motor. But finding someone to competently build an old mod motor is tougher and tougher (the folks who built my 04's mile engine are done, and Fox Lake, who did the heads, well, he retired), and I'd like the heads and shortblock refreshed. So then it was let's run a coyote motor, but I just traded my coyote car (2015 GT--newest car I ever traded) for the ZL1 because in addition to the ridiculous number of recalls, it started ticking like a typewriter, as some of them do.

Some comments I was late responding to and/or takeaways that might help a future member include:

(1) I would not do MM coilovers, they pop and what not like mad, made me feel like the car was a POS. The Feal's are silent and ride excellent. I suspect MM's coil over problem was in the hat's objectively Mickey-Mouse needle bearings. Feal was a %1,000 improvement--real coilovers. I'm a little concerned I went with MM for the IRS rebuild instead of FTB, which is what I used on the 04. The relatively cost-effective UPR k-member, on the other hand, is excellent. Just make sure to get an oil-filter relocation kit.

(2) The TMI seats look good, but they stain from your clothes (?) and the plastic harness pass-throughs separated while the car was sitting in my garage. So the quality strikes me as exceptionally poor. Within 1k miles of use (or a couple years of sitting), I will have to get I guess some epoxy and some furniture clamps to fix that issue. It's a bit embarrassing.

 

[offroadkarter]

Yeah, thought about it.

At the end of the day, it needs a motor rebuild or replacement anyway, which would dictate the wiring. Wife (yeah, now wife, I said girlfriend earlier) approved a motor. But finding someone to competently build an old mod motor is tougher and tougher (the folks who built my 04's mile engine are done, and Fox Lake, who did the heads, well, he retired), and I'd like the heads and shortblock refreshed. So then it was let's run a coyote motor, but I just traded my coyote car (2015 GT--newest car I ever traded) for the ZL1 because in addition to the ridiculous number of recalls, it started ticking like a typewriter, as some of them do.

I think L&M is still doing mod motor stuff but I know from a friend who recently had them refresh a coyote, they have a major wait period right now (to say business is booming is an understatement.) They're one of the best in the business but that's reflected in the price as well. Livernois is still building mod motor short blocks and porting heads. MMR.... exists, that's about all I'll say there. If you want just a stock style nothing crazy mod motor setup you could always look for a decent 03-05 aviator motor to drop in, that is what I did years back when I bought a 03 Marauder with a spun rod bearing.


Coyote would certainly give it a big performance boost. I know the ticking is discomforting but I've yet to hear a coyote fail from that noise.

 

[mustangmike02]

awesome seeing a 99-01 saved. so many have got stripped and parted, and the shells are normally too expensive or too rough to try to save.