China Cobra Intake Woes!

Igofaster13 · Feb 9, 2011

Well, I have had the bad luck with the china cobra intake.... Ordered a brand new one from "yates Performance" early January. Got the intake and started getting everything ready... Removed stocker.. cleaned all parts that go back on, and started installing the small things. First thing, the air charge sensor will not thread correctly/clean.. ends up binding/stripping half the threads and I stop in disgust. I try to send back for an exchange or refund, and its been 10 days since, no delivery yet! Its insured, and has delivery confirmation! I'm a ASE certified tech so yea... know whats up with proper install & what not. About to just purchase a used real (non china) cobra or an edelbrock. I see a few differences in the real and china intakes, one the ford racing symbol on the upper near the throttle body on the china, and a few small things here and there... DUDE.. this is turning out into an ordeal

wythors · Feb 9, 2011

You have no idea. That thing is a smoking pile of s***.

Igofaster13 · Feb 10, 2011

Um... Yea... compared to even the stock intake casting.. the stock piece was 100 times better as far as threads and even aluminum thickness. ****in china man... NEVER AGAIN!

oldfox · Feb 10, 2011

The China intake won't work with a Kenne Bell intake either.
The top sits back about 1/4 further than a real cobra intake. Just enough to keep the belt from lining up. Just think how many people have pulled there hair and lost money trying to use these intakes. That's a shame

citmov · Feb 10, 2011

That sucks! Sorry to hear. I have a stock 93 cobra oem one that I'm not using anymore if you're interested. PM me if you wanna buy it.

fiveohwblow · Feb 10, 2011

I too am rocking a stock OEM taken off a cobra... Thank God!

Thanks for the update, I was always worried about them. Now my worries are confirmed...

NIKwoaC · Feb 10, 2011

Unless you're getting a SMOKING deal on a GT40-style intake or you're just hung up on the looks/tradition of one, there are much better performing intakes out there for the money, never mind the super cheap quality of the Chinese Cobras.

stykthyn · Feb 10, 2011

When I do it over again I am getting a systemax intake.

Boss 351 · Feb 10, 2011

I bought a "Cobra" intake from FORD and it was stamped "China" on it... I was so pissed... But it worked for me

Igofaster13 · Feb 10, 2011

Boss 351 said:
I bought a "Cobra" intake from FORD and it was stamped "China" on it... I was so pissed... But it worked for me

Yea I thought it would work for me as well, & I had heard of the cheap china intakes before hand.. Should have listened to people! Anyways.. bought the real cobra intake from citmov, looks pretty in the pics! Should be able to get this project wrapped up soon! Will add some pics when all done... Bad thing is the china intake is still in limbo being sent back/refund status... Hopefully yatesperformace.com refunds me no prob... already shelled out $50 to send it back to them!

Mr. Rustypwnz · Feb 10, 2011

stykthyn said:
When I do it over again I am getting a systemax intake.

I will never buy anything BUT a single plane, or a tfs R. not worth the waste of rtv anymore swapping all that crap.

Cobra912 · Feb 11, 2011

I sold my performer II, cheap casting. bought a TFS R, so far so good

Noobz347 · Feb 11, 2011

Igofaster13 said:
Yea I thought it would work for me as well, & I had heard of the cheap china intakes before hand.. Should have listened to people! Anyways.. bought the real cobra intake from citmov, looks pretty in the pics! Should be able to get this project wrapped up soon! Will add some pics when all done... Bad thing is the china intake is still in limbo being sent back/refund status... Hopefully yatesperformace.com refunds me no prob... already shelled out $50 to send it back to them!

UPS thanks you and encourages your continued support of Chinese made products.

Mustang5L5 · Feb 11, 2011

oldfox said:
The China intake won't work with a Kenne Bell intake either.
The top sits back about 1/4 further than a real cobra intake. Just enough to keep the belt from lining up. Just think how many people have pulled there hair and lost money trying to use these intakes. That's a shame

Neither does the FRPP kit intake.

A lot of these OEM Cobra intakes are not true OEM. There were only 5000 Cobras made, so not a whole lot floating around.

The Ford Racing kit started using the F7/F8 Explorer lower intake around 1997. So before then, the kit used the F3 lower from 1993-1996. Not a big time span.

Everything from 1997 to 2003 used the Explorer lower, with the F3 Cobra upper. And a lot of guys mistake their "OEM Cobra" intake for these kits. If you don't have an F3 lower, you don't have an OEM intake.

The explorer intake is set back slightly, so it also will not work with the KB blower. You need an F3 lower...possibly F4/F5 will work

Igofaster13 · Feb 11, 2011

Looks like the picture of the lower I got from citmov has a RF-F87E on the lower, so its the 97-03 kit intake... Its cool though, as long as ford made it I'm good with that. What are the differences in the F3 to F8 lowers?

Mustang5L5 · Feb 11, 2011

Igofaster13 said:
Looks like the picture of the lower I got from citmov has a RF-F87E on the lower, so its the 97-03 kit intake... Its cool though, as long as ford made it I'm good with that. What are the differences in the F3 to F8 lowers?

Very minor differences,

There are at least 4 different lowers for the 302 gt40 I know of.

F3
F4
F8-BA
F8-BB

Iirc the 97-03 gt-40 and cobra kit come with a f7-BA intake with the act and rear water ports tapped....but the when this intake Is put on an explorer...they are not.

The f3 intake ports at the head are slightly larger as well. Also, the upper intake is slightly set forward and works with the kb roots blower while the f8 intake will not

Igofaster13 · Feb 11, 2011

The full part number on the lower is RF-F87E-9K461-BA, Upper has a RF-F3ZE-9425-CB... So what is it, the kit intake right?

Mustang5L5 · Feb 11, 2011

Yup...kit intake from ford.

Closest it's been to a real 1993 cobra would be if it hitched a ride home in the hatch of one

Igofaster13 · Feb 21, 2011

Finally done! Citmov's intake is on and installed great... The intake was packaged really good, bubble wrap and all.. thanks citmov. Get this though, delivery day comes by and the package was delivered 5 blocks down from my street, both street names had the same # address and a F starting the street name. Luckily I caught the UPS goof up, and picked it up myself with details from ups! Package had my address and all, guess the driver screwed up (late rainy delivery) Anyways, to the refund part. Yatesperformance (actually Blue Oval Industries) got the intake, and gave me a big problem over the phone about how it was my fault. He then tried to refund only $375 of the $405 total price. I was like "hell no", and escalated the case to ebay's buyer protection. Day or two later I got my full refund decided by ebay Anyways, here is some current pics... still some work to get done.. and my strut tower brace does not fit anymore!

fiveohwblow · Feb 21, 2011

China Cobra Intake Woes!

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