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

WhiteCobra95 said:

Oh man! I sincerely hope that distributor does the trick for you. If that one doesn't do it, I don't know what I'm going do when I need one!

One other option: Have you looked for a DU50 replacement PIP? I think that was the official Motorcraft part number, but I'm not 100% sure. If they haven't gone all Chinese on those, you might be able to pick one up and swap the Ford PIP into one of your failed distributors to get going again.

Thanks for the updates and best of luck!

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WhiteCobra95 said:

Thanks for posting the pictures of the new distributor. It's always good to see a high(er) dollar part like that in person instead of just the website photos. That looks like a quality part. Hopefully the electronics will live up to it's appearance and reputation. I especially like that they provide what looks like their own lower cap along with it.

I really hope this does the trick for you so that you can move on to bigger / better things on your car (like smaller pulleys).

I've been through a similar experience with parts store electronics, and I'm about done taking chances with their garbage. I wish I would have stocked up on more original Ford or Motorcraft parts when they were cheap. (I've already used up all of the 351 roller cam distributors that I had stocked up on for friends' conversions, and now I don't have any spares left for myself if I ever go that route in the future!)

The engine compartment looks really good. I see how you located the MSD in the original air box spot. Very clean! It's not easy to find extra space in SN95 engine compartments.

One suggestion I can make for long term durability would be to replace the spade terminals with something like a weather-pack connector and get some wire loom around those wires. The only down-side to weather-pack connectors is that you need good crimping irons to get the terminals on correctly.

Are you still running the factory TFI module along with the MDS? I need to read up on the newer digital MSD boxes to see how they get wired.

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WhiteCobra95 said:

Holy cow! 14 psi is pretty stout - that's awesome!

Thanks for the info on the MSD setup. I will definitely consider that when I finally get into my big engine upgrades.

How do you fit the FL1A filter? I've been running the shorter FL300 due to the factory oil-to-water cooler. I've never tried an FL1A to see if it fits, but it seems really tight with the space the heat exchanger takes up.

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WhiteCobra95 said:

The stereo upgrade looks really good! The addition of the backup camera really brings it into this current decade!

I've been considering doing something similar, mainly to add hands-free cell phone capability while crusiing due to a new law in MI where you can't even touch a cell phone when driving.

What speakers did you go with and are you running the stock amps? I've looked into speaker upgrades before and it seems pretty tricky with the strange specs used from the factory for the Mach460.

I swapped my head unit a long time ago to add MP3 capability, but I'm still running the stock amps and speakers. The head unit was a great upgrade over factory radio in terms of functionality, cleanliness, and a boost in audio quality. The stock components in my system still work, but you can definitely tell the speaker's age based on the lack of fidelity and sub-par sound quality by today's standards. Even if I keep my current head-unit, I need to do something to improve the sound. This is where I'm not sure if I'm better off upgrading the speakers alone with the stock amps, or just ripping everything out and doing it all from scratch. Even if I switch to aftermarket amps and speakers, it would be nice to maintain the factory wiring to each speaker (in case I ever want to convert back to stock), but I'm not sure if that's possible based on some of the funky things that were done from the factory with this system. I haven't found any good resources online for setting up aftermarket components with the factory wiring. Metra sells some amp bypass harnesses which could work, but they are specified to cover so many different Ford vehicles and model years that I'm doubtful they will actually work for March460 wiring which really seems to be a one-off setup. I might have to just remove the factory amps and try to pin it all out manually to see if it's possible. This is another area where I'm hoping for a plug-and-play solution for simplicity. Even if I have to drop in external power lines to aftermarket amps, retaining the factory speaker wiring and amp on/off wires would make it whole lot easier.

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