Project Slow and Steady - turbo 98 cobra

[98cobra#1222]

I took the car into an exhaust shop to have the exhaust fitted to the car. They did an outstanding job so now there are a couple of small stuff to take care of but overall the car is finished. As of yesterday I have put a whopping 10 miles on the car so 490 to go before I can have it tuned. I decided to go with Lee Blankenship as it's closer to me then Kurgan up in Chicago, plus I am not sure when Kurgan will be back up here. Downside is Lee is 8 weeks out so my tune appointment is scheduled for July 13th. Should give me more than enough time to put the miles on it and iron out any issues.

 

[cobralvr01]

Now that you're able to drive it, what do you think of that sweet ass IRS? Night and day, huh. :rockon:

I want to get my pipes polished as well. Here's mine right now:


That's my next step is to get the windows tinted and get some beefier wheels on there. I would love to have the 01 Cobra's widened to 10.5's. I'm just working on selling some items right now.
Meaty tires and and IRS on our sn95's is, IMO, the best look for any mustang.

BTW, the Level 5's are up for sale in the Terminator classified section.

 

[98cobra#1222]

Now that you're able to drive it, what do you think of that sweet ass IRS? Night and day, huh. :rockon:

I want to get my pipes polished as well. Here's mine right now:

That's my next step is to get the windows tinted and get some beefier wheels on there. I would love to have the 01 Cobra's widened to 10.5's. I'm just working on selling some items right now.
Meaty tires and and IRS on our sn95's is, IMO, the best look for any mustang.

BTW, the Level 5's are up for sale in the Terminator classified section.

It's certainly a lot smoother and feels more planted. I haven't been able to push it hard at all yet but so far it's much better than I remember the SRA being. Wide tires for sure look great but man it's a pain getting them to fit with the IRS subframe bracket/bolt all, but once you get it all fitting they look great. You should post up some more pictures of your car, looks nice from what I can tell. I saw the level 5's for sale but unfortunately my budget has taken a couple unexpected hits lately so it's just not in the cards right now.

 

[cobralvr01]

I was fortunate to push it the weekend after getting everything in by going to a Mustang meet up by Prescott Valley coming from Phoenix. I was able to keep up with the new S550's (I have stock power) on the twisties and we were able to leave the live axles in the dust. The turn-in feel is much more responsive since the weight distribution is more balanced. I was extremely happy with what it was capable of. My only restriction was my tires. I have tires that, from what the meet attendees told me, are so old they discontinued them years ago. I can't wait to get some Nitto 555's on and see what it can really do.

 

[alaskablkmach]

You should have asked I would of sold ypu my toyo dr's for cheap....I hope they work for you since your turbo...they didn't for my pd.

 

[98cobra#1222]

I was fortunate to push it the weekend after getting everything in by going to a Mustang meet up by Prescott Valley coming from Phoenix. I was able to keep up with the new S550's (I have stock power) on the twisties and we were able to leave the live axles in the dust. The turn-in feel is much more responsive since the weight distribution is more balanced. I was extremely happy with what it was capable of. My only restriction was my tires. I have tires that, from what the meet attendees told me, are so old they discontinued them years ago. I can't wait to get some Nitto 555's on and see what it can really do.

I had Nitto 555's on before I got the Saleens. They were great tires. Traction was decent but road noise and tread wear were amazing.

You should have asked I would of sold ypu my toyo dr's for cheap....I hope they work for you since your turbo...they didn't for my pd.

I didn't even think about you going with different tires to ask about your old ones... I'm not entirely sure how they'll do, hopefully hold well enough but I would really rather them not dead hook or anything as the IRS probably won't take that kind of abuse. Car will likely be driven closer to the 1/2 and 1 mile event cars where they really ease into it at the start.

 

[F8L BYT]

I took the car into an exhaust shop to have the exhaust fitted to the car. They did an outstanding job so now there are a couple of small stuff to take care of but overall the car is finished. As of yesterday I have put a whopping 10 miles on the car so 490 to go before I can have it tuned. I decided to go with Lee Blankenship as it's closer to me then Kurgan up in Chicago, plus I am not sure when Kurgan will be back up here. Downside is Lee is 8 weeks out so my tune appointment is scheduled for July 13th. Should give me more than enough time to put the miles on it and iron out any issues.

You will not be disappointed man! Lee is the man around the area. Only issue is, how far out he always is. But that alone says how good of a tuner he is! Can't wait to see how it does and hopefully get to see it in person sometime! Congrats on finishing it up!

 

[98cobra#1222]

You will not be disappointed man! Lee is the man around the area. Only issue is, how far out he always is. But that alone says how good of a tuner he is! Can't wait to see how it does and hopefully get to see it in person sometime! Congrats on finishing it up!

Yea I have heard nothing but good things about Lee's tunes. Hopefully the car doesn't disappoint when it's finally tuned.! I'm sure we will run into each other sometime, I'd really like to check out your coyote swap in person.

 

[F8L BYT]

Yea I have heard nothing but good things about Lee's tunes. Hopefully the car doesn't disappoint when it's finally tuned.! I'm sure we will run into each other sometime, I'd really like to check out your coyote swap in person.

Oh yeah you made a good choice for sure! And yeah I'm sure we will at some point, but my car is down for most likely the rest of the year at least, Broke something in #7 cylinder haha my guess is a ringland, but I'll find out more when I decide to pull the engine out.

You at least need to bring it to NMRA in Bowling Green late Sep.

 

[98cobra#1222]

Oh yeah you made a good choice for sure! And yeah I'm sure we will at some point, but my car is down for most likely the rest of the year at least, Broke something in #7 cylinder haha my guess is a ringland, but I'll find out more when I decide to pull the engine out.

You at least need to bring it to NMRA in Bowling Green late Sep.

Oh man that sucks to hear. Are you going to build the motor back up or just swap in a different coyote.?

 

[F8L BYT]

Oh man that sucks to hear. Are you going to build the motor back up or just swap in a different coyote.?

haha yeah it sucked! Because it happened the day before SCT event. But I'm not mad. Part of the game ha. Honestly not making that decision until I pull it and see what happened, If it's something easy and I can throw in another piston I may do that so I can run it this year, but if not I'll build it which is most likely what will be happening.

 

[04DeadShort]

any dyno runs yet?

 

[98cobra#1222]

any dyno runs yet?

Not yet... It's been an eventful couple of months that doesn't seem to be over. Had my initial dyno appointment on the 13th of July which I made it to without issue until I started the car and Lee stated the car sounded low on compression. Talk about a punch in the gut after all the work over these 3 and a half years. So we ran a compression test and sure enough not only were some low there were 3 that were zero. So out came the engine to go back to the builder. He found there were a couple ( I think three) valves that were just long enough to hang open due to tolerance stack up with the lifter and follower. The valves are SS Manley valves that are apparently on the long side so that you can run a wider variety of cams, Idk this was all new to me as I assumed they would be in spec. Well my engine builder recut all the valves to hit the middle of spec and put the engine back together then leak-down tested it for be sure we fixed the issue and the leakdown numbers were 2-3% so the engine is good to go now.

So that brings me to today where the car is all back together with my new tune appointment being the 26th of this month. However I have a persistant drip out of my coolant crossover delete (one of the fittings) that I can't seem to fix. I've re-assembled the fitting, replaced it, checked everything and still it drips like one drip every 5-10 seconds when the cooling system is up to temp and has pressure on it. So now I need to call summit and try to get replacement fittings for the one that is leaking or rip all of it out and put new lines and fittings throughout. Which I would rather not due since those things are pricey lol...

Anyway sorry for the lack of updates on this thread, it's just been a roller coaster of a year with this car and my stress levels with it are about tapped out so I haven't spent much time on here.

 

[04DeadShort]

Wow that's brutal. Lol. I was just was looking through the forum and saw the thread. Was just curious.

 

[98cobra#1222]

Wow that's brutal. Lol. I was just was looking through the forum and saw the thread. Was just curious.

Brutal describes it perfectly haha. I'll be sure to keep it updated with how the tune goes, whether that be good news or bad. Anything new with your 98?

 

[Tabres]

So that brings me to today where the car is all back together with my new tune appointment being the 26th of this month. However I have a persistant drip out of my coolant crossover delete (one of the fittings) that I can't seem to fix. I've re-assembled the fitting, replaced it, checked everything and still it drips like one drip every 5-10 seconds when the cooling system is up to temp and has pressure on it. So now I need to call summit and try to get replacement fittings for the one that is leaking or rip all of it out and put new lines and fittings throughout. Which I would rather not due since those things are pricey lol...

Summit has replaced them for me before at no charge, no questions asked. They even upgraded me to a better brand/quality of fitting, no charge.

 

[98cobra#1222]

Summit has replaced them for me before at no charge, no questions asked. They even upgraded me to a better brand/quality of fitting, no charge.

Literally just got off the phone with summit and they are sending me an aeroquip fitting at no charge to replace the leaky fitting. If it doesn't fix the leak I will just buy three more aeroquip fittings and some of aeroquip's startlite hose and redo it all. Summit has secured all my future business for fittings and common parts for my car by how they handled this. Just really really need it to fix the leak so I can drive the car lol.

How do you like the series 8000 fragola fittings and hose? I was thinking of going with it on the cooling system to eliminate the possibility of the hose assembly part being my problem (which I don't think it is) but just running out of reasons to how my fittings are leaking.

 

[Tabres]

Literally just got off the phone with summit and they are sending me an aeroquip fitting at no charge to replace the leaky fitting. If it doesn't fix the leak I will just buy three more aeroquip fittings and some of aeroquip's startlite hose and redo it all. Summit has secured all my future business for fittings and common parts for my car by how they handled this. Just really really need it to fix the leak so I can drive the car lol.

How do you like the series 8000 fragola fittings and hose? I was thinking of going with it on the cooling system to eliminate the possibility of the hose assembly part being my problem (which I don't think it is) but just running out of reasons to how my fittings are leaking.

All of my series 8000 stuff is push-lok/push-lite/socketless-barb/whatever you want to call it, and to be honest it is a real pain to assemble. I know there lots of youtube videos and techniques out there that is supposed make it easy, but I've never found it to take anything less than a ridiculously unreasonable amount of effort to get the fittings and hose together properly. I've been buying all regular hose ends since my initial purchase because of it.

That said, though.. The quality of the components is nice. It's comparable to the Earl's and Aeroquip stuff I have on my car. They swivel well, the finish has held up really well for how many times I've had them off and on without proper AN wrenches (I just put electrical tape inside the jaws of a crescent wrench to protect the finish), and I have never had a leak from any of my cooling system or fuel system lines. And I've never had a vapor smell, either. I'd recommend it.

 

[98cobra#1222]

All of my series 8000 stuff is push-lok/push-lite/socketless-barb/whatever you want to call it, and to be honest it is a real pain to assemble. I know there lots of youtube videos and techniques out there that is supposed make it easy, but I've never found it to take anything less than a ridiculously unreasonable amount of effort to get the fittings and hose together properly. I've been buying all regular hose ends since my initial purchase because of it.

That said, though.. The quality of the components is nice. It's comparable to the Earl's and Aeroquip stuff I have on my car. They swivel well, the finish has held up really well for how many times I've had them off and on without proper AN wrenches (I just put electrical tape inside the jaws of a crescent wrench to protect the finish), and I have never had a leak from any of my cooling system or fuel system lines. And I've never had a vapor smell, either. I'd recommend it.

Right on, may have to consider it if this leak fails to go away and I can't find and cracks or anything obvious that would cause the leak. I actually have two fragola pushlock fittings and hose for my valve cover breathers. Eventually they will be plumbed to a catch can but I haven't gotten around to it. How do you assemble them? In a vise or what. I ask this because both fittings have a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of room between the fitting base and hose where I couldn't push it more. I put spray lubricant on the fitting and in the hose, heated the hose, put the fitting in the freezer and still couldn't get the hose to fully seat on the fitting. I eventually just gave up and said I would try again later since they are not used for fuel or coolant or anything important so if they leak a little it's not the end of the world. But if I go with more pushloc type hose I'd have to figure out how to get them assembled properly lol.

 

[Tabres]

Right on, may have to consider it if this leak fails to go away and I can't find and cracks or anything obvious that would cause the leak. I actually have two fragola pushlock fittings and hose for my valve cover breathers. Eventually they will be plumbed to a catch can but I haven't gotten around to it. How do you assemble them? In a vise or what. I ask this because both fittings have a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of room between the fitting base and hose where I couldn't push it more. I put spray lubricant on the fitting and in the hose, heated the hose, put the fitting in the freezer and still couldn't get the hose to fully seat on the fitting. I eventually just gave up and said I would try again later since they are not used for fuel or coolant or anything important so if they leak a little it's not the end of the world. But if I go with more pushloc type hose I'd have to figure out how to get them assembled properly lol.

I actually had a two man process going with my Dad helping me assemble them. He'd warm the end of the hose carefully with a heat gun to make the hose more pliable while I was retrieving the fitting from the freezer, putting them in a vice and then lube the barb portion and the leading edge of the hose. Then, we'd both push. The -10 stuff wasn't terrible, but smaller the size the harder it got. The -8 was a struggle and -6 was damn near impossible to seat all the way. The fuel return line on my car still has a 1/4 inch or so gap between the base of the fitting and the end of the hose but it hasn't leaked in 4 years and where it's plumbed isn't noticeable so I just don't worry about it.

If I had a money tree in my back yard I'd have the device that KoulTools makes for this. http://koultools.com/stop-fighting-with-those-push-lock-hoses/