Progress Thread 95 2-Top Cobra Build Thread- Never ending

Essn95 · May 10, 2023

First thing Lamotta wanted to know was if I had the stock distributor which was unfortunately destroyed as it was stuck in the block as you guys might remember. Took channel locks, Kroil, and a few hours to get it out

WhiteCobra95 · May 10, 2023

Late to the party, but if you have an oscilloscope or a high speed ADC to record the signals during cranking:

Essn95 · May 15, 2023

Got an update from Lamotta:
The car is running now but very poorly. What they found was a break in the wiring harness in the passenger wheel well. It could have been nicked when I cut the hole for the power pipe, or more likely, I think the wheel might've been rubbing the harness/powerpipe at full compression or lock and over time, it broke the wire harness which would explain the slow degradation in the car until it completely would not start. It was very tight in there with the wider wheels up front and power pipe. They are now working on why the car is not running well. Could it be the Moates QH dropped the tune file with sitting so long with the battery disconnected?

Cheapskate207 · May 15, 2023

Glad to see you’re making progress!

If I remember right the quarter house had a battery to keep the tune. Idk about the QH, but we use similar batteries at work and they last 5+ years

Essn95 · May 15, 2023

Hope I can help someone out here and save them lots and lots of money ‍. Here’s the official diagnosis

rednotch · May 15, 2023

Majority of the time on these its wiring these days.. The distutor bit cracks me up, must be one of the new China replacements every one sells. The one I took apart for a fox body I only us a tester to swap in and out, to see if a pip or tfi failed, not something I would trust running to redline. At least the ford pip isn't obsolete for that style yet like it is for the fox body.

Essn95 · May 16, 2023

rednotch said:
Majority of the time on these its wiring these days.. The distutor bit cracks me up, must be one of the new China replacements every one sells. The one I took apart for a fox body I only us a tester to swap in and out, to see if a pip or tfi failed, not something I would trust running to redline. At least the ford pip isn't obsolete for that style yet like it is for the fox body.

Yeah I’m going to try and pickup one of those Motorcraft pickup sensors and replace it on my OEM distributor along with new plastic housing and cap/rotor to eliminate that possible point of failure

Essn95 · May 24, 2023

Autozone distributor failed fast and failed hard. I thought I would at least have a week to source an OEM

rednotch · May 24, 2023

Told ya pot metal roll pins, hope it was the trans pro junk electronics that went.

AeroCoupe · May 24, 2023

Well that sucks.

90sickfox · May 25, 2023

Damn that was quick.

Noobz347 · May 25, 2023

Chinese Lightning Whirler

Essn95 · May 25, 2023

New warrantied piece is in, good enough to get it up the driveway back home. Will order the cap adapter as well as a new cap and rotor to reinstall the OEM dizzy.

WhiteCobra95 · May 30, 2023

Have you checked out these guys?
Performance Distributors

They've been around for a long time. I haven't run one personally since I could always find Motorcraft, but my friends running GM engines have used their HEI distributors without any issues. This was the only other non-OEM replacement that I have considered.

Essn95 · May 30, 2023

WhiteCobra95 said:
Have you checked out these guys?
Performance Distributors

They've been around for a long time. I haven't run one personally since I could always find Motorcraft, but my friends running GM engines have used their HEI distributors without any issues. This was the only other non-OEM replacement that I have considered.

I will definitely look into them as I will need a (newer) solution to the stock piece. Definitely will not be going back to a parts store piece.

Essn95 · May 30, 2023

Installed a new distributor cap adapter, cap and rotor all from the warrantied autozone distributor onto my OEM (28yr old) distributor and stabbed that back in. Only driven about 20 miles on it, but so far so good! Crazy that the old stock stuff works better than new

Essn95 · Jul 24, 2023

Latest issue is having some suspected spark blow out above 5k rpm. I am first going to reset base timing as I believe it is a little retarded from 10deg from when reinstalling the OEM distributor. At the same time I will also pull some plugs to inspect and regap if needed down to 0.028 as recommended by the tuner. I am currently running NGK Tr6 iridiums @ 0.034

Essn95 · Aug 2, 2023

Okay this car really stumps me. Pulled the #1 plug, brought to compression stroke TDC and verified timing pointer was at 10° and the rotor was pointing at #1 on cap. Put everything back together and car wouldn’t start. Tried moving the dizzy a little but no luck. This was last week and haven’t had time to touch it again but what gives? Going to try base at 0° and restab the dizzy and see this weekend, and then go to crank but no start. Any help is appreciated

manicmechanic007 · Aug 2, 2023

Go over the big 3 again?
(fuel, spark and compression)
Take a fuel sample and verify no water and the stuff is volatile as hell
Double check the compression just in case your cam gear chunked.
Check the spark with a spark checker or a plug with the negative electrode cut off
(So, you can verify it will jump a 1/4-inch gap) (40 KV or better)
Good luck
You tried flood clear right?

Essn95 · Aug 2, 2023

manicmechanic007 said:
Go over the big 3 again?
(fuel, spark and compression)
Take a fuel sample and verify no water and the stuff is volatile as hell
Double check the compression just in case your cam gear chunked.
Check the spark with a spark checker or a plug with the negative electrode cut off
(So, you can verify it will jump a 1/4-inch gap) (40 KV or better)
Good luck
You tried flood clear right?

I will have to go back to the basics for sure. I verified fuel is getting to the rails and the fuel is only two weeks old. The car ran one day before all this so that’s why I’m pretty confident it’s narrowed to the distributor, anything is possible however. I did try a flood clear to no avail. Going to start with base timing again and then make sure I’m getting spark

Progress Thread 95 2-Top Cobra Build Thread- Never ending

Essn95

WhiteCobra95

Essn95

Cheapskate207

The left one hangs a little lower

Essn95

rednotch

I'd like to remain having one chocolate starfish

Essn95

Essn95

rednotch

I'd like to remain having one chocolate starfish

AeroCoupe

lube between the nut and the face. I know my lubes

90sickfox

Wasn't a pretty sight...and I've got big hands

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Essn95

WhiteCobra95

Essn95

Essn95

Essn95

Essn95

manicmechanic007

Essn95

Similar threads

Progress Thread 95 2-Top Cobra Build Thread- Never ending

The left one hangs a little lower

I'd like to remain having one chocolate starfish

I'd like to remain having one chocolate starfish

lube between the nut and the face. I know my lubes

Wasn't a pretty sight...and I've got big hands

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency