Better than Christmas

[331 cobra]

Yesterday, while I was at work my Lunati Pro Billet Superlight rods were delivered, along with a set of used Cobra head lights. Meanwhile at my home, my Trickflow 4340 non-twist forged crank with nitrided journals was delivered.

After I finished up with work, I checked everything with my dial calipers and it all looks good. The only thing I was not able to measure was the stroke of the crank, but it is stamped 325, so I'm pretty sure it's a 3.25" stroke which is what I ordered. Also, the headlights look almost perfect, lots better than the faded headlights that I was going to polish.

Today I went to the Goodguys hot rod show and bought a bunch of good tools, including 5 6" carbide burrs of different shapes. Those are the tools you need for porting cast iron heads.

Now I'm off to freemont to buy a cobra bumper from VPR_KLR.

It's all starting to come together, except for the block.

World told me that the WindsorR is being delayed untill fall or later because their aluminum motown block is taking up all of their production capability. Also, instead of $1400-1700 that was quoted in the magazines, it will be $2400-2500. Add to that the price of a custom oil pan to clear the four bolt front and rear caps and it gets really expensive.

The Dart's are not much better than that.

So I'm going to do more research on the Sportsman and R302.

Hopefully I'll be able to find an abandoned project at a bargain price, but it's not looking good.

 

[Joes95GT]

The parts sound sweet. Did you get them balanced or are you going to just put 'em in? About the block, what do you mean that a Dart isn't much better? I wouldn't skimp on the block, especially if your going to run a power adder. I'm not sure if I would run the Sportsman block. I've seen them last thousands and thousands of miles with 800 horsepower and I've heard of them cracking with 450 horsepower. The R302 is a quality piece. They are said to have cooling problems that Dart blocks don't due to their siamese design.

Joe

 

[331 cobra]

I am not planning on a power adder. If I go with a big bore and my 331 crank, I'll have about 350 in^3, and I'll spin it as high as hydraulic roller technology will allow. However, both my rods and my crank are rated for 1,000 hp, so I might have to add a fogger kit to realize my potential.

It will be ballenced, in fact, my engine guy is a porsche specialist, but he will tackle almost anything, he's doing an Audi A8 engine right now.

The Dart is expensive. I think they start at about $2300. I think they might start making a sportsman version that will save a little by using nodular iron main caps and two bolt caps front and rear. I think that both of those things are perfectly good up untill you start talking about over 1,000 hp.

I'm reluctant to get a ford sportsman block, because who know if it will last, and a big bore is not an option. If I step up with another $1500, I can get a big bore dart, but that's a lot of money and it's really overkill. The R302 may end up as expensive as a dart after all of the machine work, and also, some of the SVO blocks are known to have voids in the castings that get uncovered when you bore them out over 4.125".

I don't want a block that does not have at least one rebuild left in it. I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. So far everything I have got has been 1/2 price or less. Paying full price just hurts.

 

[331 cobra]

It's still holiday time. I just spent half of the day removing the front clip from a '96 that I found at pick-n-pull. I paid about $70 for the radiator support, both aprons, and the hood latch.

That's an incredible deal, but I also had to spend about $200 on a cordless sawsall, blades and extra batteries.

Now I just need a bumper and the foam, then grind, grind, grind, weld and paint.

I'm getting dangerously close to getting my Cobra back on the road, then stuffing it full of a wild stroker.