my 03 cobra build

forcefedcobra

forcefedcobra

born 2 be blown
Last weekend Joe (oilwell1415) and I started on the cobra rebuild. Just about everything but the interior came out of the car and was upgraded. Of course Joe did the majority of the work and I cant thank him enough for all the help.:eek:ldtu: We still have a few things to sort out before it all goes back together but it wont be long before it is all done and better than ever!

here are some pics documenting the build to its current state. More pics will be added when more progress is made and hopefully some vids too. Special thanks to Joe for all the help. I couldnt have made it this far into the project without him and more than likely wont get it back together without him but that is another round of kissing butt before that gets done. And also to my neighbor Robert for helping with the irs rebuild and my father in law for the use of his shop and all the help. last but not least my wonderful wife for putting up with my constant *itching about the car being hurt and letting me take the time and money to not only fix it but upgrade everything so it hopefully wont happen again.

here is the s/c aluminator in the box getting ready to be put on the engine stand
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the irs came out to be rebuilt with all new aluminum/delrin/uhmw and whatever else bushings along with grease fittings.
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subframe bushings pulled
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completed with grease fittings
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the old mill pulled by the man Joe himself
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the aluminator getting some long tube love by yours truly
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the whipple with the previously used 60 lb injectors and upgraded fuel rails from Fore
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some modding had to be done in order to get the intake manifold to fit. we had to make and modify our own pcv fitting and also modify the use unknown boss on each side of the very shallow valley of the aluminum block compared to the factory cast iron block.
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the empty engine bay
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now with new tubular k member and coil over struts all done once again by the man himself Joe!
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the aluminator modified so the whipple will bolt on looking almost too nice to put back in.
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and the fore top hat with ford gt pumps being wired into the factor harness with single -8 output line and custom fuel filter for easy access (no more taking it to the jiffy lube to watch a little kid get soaked in fuel as he tries to get his tiny little are up through the hole in the irs to get at the stock fuel filter.
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plugs for the fuel pressure and nitrous fittings that come built into the fore fuel rails showed up and need to be put in. we are waiting on a new pilot bearing and 26 spline clutch allignment tool to show up and also check a few things on the harmonic balancer clearance with the timing cover due to some recent problems that some other people have had. Once all that checks out and I get enough time and enough help the motor, trans, and irs will go back in and the wideband 02 gauge can be installed. Then the car will be ready to fire and break in on the 15 psi tune for pump gas. then off to the dyno to check everything and revise the 15 psi street tune, 17 psi torco tune, and 19 psi race gas tune.

We hope to get deep into the 10's on my new 16x10 diamond racing wheels and 26x11.5x16 et streets this fall if possible or early spring.
 
joedpl said:
Looks great, when are you planning on having it done by?
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it just depends on what the crank endplay is on the new motor and if it has to be sent back to to an error and when I will have some time away from work and enough help to get it back together. I dont have another weekend off until Oct. 3,4,5 so it might have to wait until then that is if the endplay checks out.

maverick said:
Whats the story on the Triumph?... Spitfire early 70's maybe?
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73 I think with the hardtop vert and 4 speed. its a pretty rare car. There is also a 30's model plymoth pickup, 30's model knucklehead harley that started out as a motor found in a field and is now a chopper, WWII vaiwa case tractor that was used to tow planes and load bombs, and some old john deere's here and there too. My father in law has tons of cool old toys and is a mechanical wizard that can make just about anything.
 
hotrodn93l said:
yo brandon, do you think you can keep up with me now????:scared1:
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LOL! I could before with me running only in reverse. LOL!

Well its not running yet and might not be for a while. We have a few issues to work out that I wont go into detail about until I speak with people to see what they are going to do to resolve it.
 
The build should finish up this weekend. Long story short FRPP installed the crank shaft too far back in the block causing the preinstalled harmonic balancer and timing cover to be smashed together where the motor wouldnt even turn by hand. Luckily we found out about this right before putting the motor back in the car due to some other peoples misfortune of actually trying to fire it up and having to watch the harmonic balancer eat a hole in the timing cover resulting in the motor pissing oil out the front.

after a long fight with FRPP they have agreed to compensate me for having their motor fixed. An estimate for the repair cost has been sent and hopefully they will approve it and provide me something in writting stating the warranty will still be covered. Then we can move on to completing the fix and putting the motor back in this weekend. I'll post up more pictures and hopefully a nice video of the car being fired up for the first time Sunday evening!
 
joedpl said:
Sounds good, can we drag you out to the track on the 25th?
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Well I would love to but I dont think I will have enough break in miles to get it fully tuned by then and I think that is the same weekend as the SRT event at Heartland Park in Topeka that the wife wants to attend with her 08 srt caliber.
 
maverick said:
so would he be willing to part with it?
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Nope. Both his daughters and myself will be enjoying it for years to come. He does have another one out at the farm that is just sitting but needs work. He might be willing to part with it but the one in the pictures is a runner and will stay in the family.
 
Well Joe and I finished up the car. After we fixed FRPP's screw up of installing the crank all the way at the back of the block everything went back together pretty nicely. UPR also sent us the wrong LCA's for the tubular k member but they were a joy to deal with and promptly sent out the correct ones. I still have some gremlins to work out of the tune and another 250 break in miles to put on her before the fun will begin. Tomorrow I'll be heading to the shop to install the correct LCA's, redo the allignment, and try to resolve some tuning issues.

Here are some pics of the bottom end that we had to fix and also a pic of it installed with my new JLT HB CAI. The custom paint work came out great, however, the base color isnt quite a perfect match to the factory dsg paint. (has an odd green tint to it)......................My new wheels will be here next week. After that she will get a full detail and get to enjoy being beat on again. Too bad it all came together too late to try out the new set of slicks, more boost, and race gas. Look for some low times come spring.

full view of the bottom end
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rear of the motor
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here you can see the huge gap between the crank and main cap at the front of the motor
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every rod in the motor was darn near touching the backside of each piston due to FRPP's screw up but now they are sitting right in the center of the wrist pin like they should be.
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everything on the bottom end was looked over and was put back together with ARP hardware.

here is a shot of the dirty engine bay after all was finished. The LT's sound nasty just at part throttle. I cant wait to hear them at WOT!!!!

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the thunderbirds even showed up to celebrate the completion of the build

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well the baseline tune is done and we made 60+ more rwhp than the last time I was at the dyno. really the only mods that would change the power are the longtubes and the addition of a lower even though it is still at the same boost level as before. We still need to get some more miles on the car and then go back and tune for 17 psi on torco and 19 or 21 psi on race gas.

vids of the next dyno session to come!

updated pics of a clean engine bay and new wheels to come! (wheels should be here on the 30th and time permitting will be mounted up the following day)
 
new wheels are in. here are some teaser pics. I will hopefully get them mounted up tomorrow and will try to snap some new pics of them on the car.

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