1993 Cobra Engine Rebuild Questions

[Dan93SVT]

I'm planning on an engine rebuild for my 1993 Cobra that I've had for about 15 years, it was my daily driver long ago but since lives in the garage and only cruised on the weekends and nice days. Anyways although the engine runs fine with no problems I do have over 200,000 on the odometer and would like to do a rebuild.

My goal for it is to build an engine that Ford should of offered as an option in 93 and being a Cobra model I'm not looking to deviate far from stock or build a race car I'd buy a 93 notch for that so my plan is to reuse the stock bottom end, get a rebuild kit with pistons, use my Cobra intake, replace the GT40 iron heads with GT40x aluminum heads and install a Ford cam.

My question is which cam would be best with my combo the B cam or E cam and why? Thanks!

 

[mikestang63]

 

[deathb4dismount]

Custom grind or ots cam from TFS, Comp, or AFM. And, oh yah TFS 170s or AFR 165s.

 

[90sickfox]

If I had to choose between those 2....it would be the e cam all the way. I ran that can for years without issues. It is temperamental but my cars idled well with it. It did give a noticeable " seat of the pants feel ".

Now, that was many years ago. The E can lacks exhaust valve lift. The " trick " with them was to put 1.7 rockers on the exhaust side and 1.6 on the intake.

People caught on to the fact that Ford restricted the crap out of the exhaust side. The cams ( some of them ) now days are split so the exhaust stays open further over more duration.

I say all that to say....if I had to choose...the e cam would win, but the newer cams offer way more than that e cam produces on its own.

Disclaimer; I'm no camshaft expert...

 

[revhead347]

My friend and I literally just did this with his 95 Cobra. And by "just did this" I mean we have been working on it for 3 years, which is recent for an old man like me. We did the GT40x heads, and a Tmoss ported stock upper. The service from Tmoss was excellent, highly recommend them. I don't have the grind number in front of me, but it was a Comp Cams grind with .544 lift. I would recommend the cam, but the car currently has idle problems. It's honestly a problem with the tune though. The engine builder I use has a good relationship with Comp and Crane, and has always been able to match up a cam pretty well for me. This one was pretty good, the engine runs real strong. I would recommend staying away from the letter cams. They aren't as good as the aftermarket stuff. I understand you are trying to stick with Ford parts, but it's giving up a lot of power and driveability for a part nobody can see. Keep in mind, the X heads weren't available in 1993, only the Y heads. So you are deviating from what "should have been" an option in the car at the time. Definitely don't use Y heads though, they suck. I used the X heads even though they weren't available in 95' and just called it artistic expression.

I am pretty close to shoring up this Cobra. It is as close to a Ford looking motor as we can get it. We took a 70mm BBK throttle body, and milled the BBK logo off of it. We repainted the stock valve covers and got replacement original stickers for them. We were able to chop up a stock air filter box to fit a 75mm PMAS meter in it. We even went out and bought a new distributor condom for it.

Hopefully we will be able to shore up the last few issues on the car soon. It's either getting too much or too little air at idle, and the RPM hunts all over the place. Might be able to tinker with it on Monday.

Kurt

 

[Grn92LX]

Rebuild the short block using the oem parts but use a good forged piston and arp rod bolts and arp main cap studs. Use a trick flow TW head and a custom cam. Don't cheap out $100 on a cam with 90's technology. Have the cobra lower intake ported.

 

[Dan93SVT]

Thanks for the replies I originally was gonna go wild on it and I bought a Boss block from ford racing and was gonna purchase a forged 331 kit and AFR heads but I shelved the project and bought a 79 F-100 short bed and focused on the 393 Cleveland 4v build for that, sold my Boss block but now I'm ready to focus on my Cobra. I will start looking at aftermarket cams, sucks I just sold a comp 270xe a couple months ago, I was hoping to the E cam would be mild and have great drivability with my 5spd I will be sticking with 1.7 rockers which should increase lift, I'm hoping to find a cam that does not need computer modifications. I'm gonna give comp site a look

 

[Mustang5L5]

With over 200k on the bottom end, I'd suggest factoring in rebuilding that.

Do you have a hard budget for this project?

 

[Dan93SVT]

I'm definitely gonna get the bottom end rebuilt that's the whole point of my build and I don't have a hard budget just a goal in mind of a mild rebuild while keeping my original parts so I have the option to bring the car back to stock if I choose one day, I just wanna do a bottom end rebuild, heads, cam, trans, gears and upgrades where needed the car already has shorties, x pipe, after cat exhaust, short throw shifter, high torque mini starter and Ford king cobra clutch.
I wish I hadn't sold my comp XE270HR because I would of used that, I gotta do some research on the cam I want and speaking of gears I'm trying to decide on 3.31 vs 3.55

 

[revhead347]

Gear is a preference thing. I would go 3.55:1, but that's just me.

I'm going to go against the grain and say forged pistons aren't a must. A good set of cast pistons are fine on an N/A 302. OEM cars are coming out now with over 500hp on cast pistons, it's not going to kill you on mild 302 build. We put forged pistons in the Cobra because we were able to score employee pricing on Mahle's. If it weren't for that it would have gotten a set of Speedpro cast pistons. There have been plenty of examples where boost was forced into a 302, and the block split before the OEM pistons failed.

Kurt

 

[revhead347]

Fixed the idle problem today by the way. TPS has slipped, idles like a champ.

Kurt

 

[revhead347]

Found the grind on the cam. Comp Cams part #: 35-328-8. Not going to lie, it has a little rumble at idle. It makes good power throughout the rev range though.

Kurt

 

[QuietOne]

I'm planning on an engine rebuild for my 1993 Cobra that I've had for about 15 years, it was my daily driver long ago but since lives in the garage and only cruised on the weekends and nice days. Anyways although the engine runs fine with no problems I do have over 200,000 on the odometer and would like to do a rebuild.

My goal for it is to build an engine that Ford should of offered as an option in 93 and being a Cobra model I'm not looking to deviate far from stock or build a race car I'd buy a 93 notch for that so my plan is to reuse the stock bottom end, get a rebuild kit with pistons, use my Cobra intake, replace the GT40 iron heads with GT40x aluminum heads and install a Ford cam.

My question is which cam would be best with my combo the B cam or E cam and why? Thanks!

Dan,

So I'm kinda in the same boat your are in a lot of ways. I have a bone stock 92 LX 68k miles that I really don't want to throw the aftermarket at but it needs updates.

Since you are going with a full motor rebuild and base on my past experience this is what I'd do:

Block: it just needs freshened up the only parts that going to need replacing are bearings, freeze plugs, etc. more than likely your hard parts pistons, crank, rods, are going to be in good shape. You may want to spring for some forged pistons that are 30 over and have the block bored to match.

Heads: literally for almost the same price as gt40x you could pick up a set of AFR 165s and make a little over 300hp. I had a 306 with comp cam, gt40x, Holley intake, it made a whopping 255hp300tq to the tires. I swapped them for a set of AFR 165s, retuned, and made 310hp/330tq.

Cam: figure out the rest of the motor and call Comp cams. Tell them what you want and what you want to do. They are experts at this and will let you know what valve train will work best. They can also custom grind you a cam that IMO is the best option.

Edit: compression, you'll never see me running anything less than 10:1 compression ratio, regardless of setup. Back in the day if you were going to run forced induction you never went over 9:1. Today stock cars are running 11:1 with blowers and turbos.

Now with all that said and getting back to your original post. I'm considering the Bcam as an option. I do not want to remove or crack open my stock motor at this point. I'm thinking of running a vortech v3 base kit, Bcam, Holley systemax, TB etc etc. At this point I'm not wanting to get crazy with my car, I just want something cool, clean and reliable to drive around. I want to set it up mildly, build my final motor on side for the day that my current motor quits. All of this won't happen until after a full suspension, rear end, wheels and some attention to the body.

 

[2000xp8]

If I had a 93 cobra today, I would do an all ford parts build.
Gt40x heads, an e cam, gt40 tubular intake or extrude honed cobra.
Have the heads valve jobbed which will bring the power level up to around box stock tw's.
You already have the 65mm TB and the 24's.