cobra Intake install' how hard?

The fittings you need for the cobra upper should be on the bottom of your stock upper; just remove and reuse those. Pulling the distributor would make your life a heck of a lot easier, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary. For the lower intake gasket, many will just use a thick bead of RTV in place of the front and rear short gaskets that connect the longer gaskets that mate to the heads; it's far less prone to leaks. When installing the lower intake, be sure to carefully set it STRAIGHT DOWN as to not move the gaskets. Take your time, and you will be fine. Also, be sure to follow the proper bolt torque sequence, and to not overtorque them.....should be around 15-18 ft./lbs. I believe.

A tiny little drop of silicone sealer will help hold the head/intake gaskets in place while you align and place the lower intake, just make sure you use very little so that it doesn't ooze out into the air passages (ports). Those fel-Pro rubber gaskets are a million times better than the cork gaskets of old, I say give 'em a shot, I did. Just do what the directions call for. Dig this link, its for an Exploder intake install, but its really the same exact thing. It has some excellent info.

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/Detailed/614.shtml

NikwoaC said:

A tiny little drop of silicone sealer will help hold the head/intake gaskets in place while you align and place the lower intake, just make sure you use very little so that it doesn't ooze out into the air passages (ports). Those fel-Pro rubber gaskets are a million times better than the cork gaskets of old, I say give 'em a shot, I did. Just do what the directions call for. Dig this link, its for an Exploder intake install, but its really the same exact thing. It has some excellent info.

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/Detailed/614.shtml

Click to expand...

+1. Good link. I should also mention, when doing the RTV 'end gasket', make sure to lay a nice THICK bead of the stuff on there. Let it set for a few minutes before placing the intake on it.

Also get some lower intake bolts at least 2.5" long and cut the heads off them to use at all 4 corners. This helps align the intake so it doesn't move around on you.
As for RTV...go to Advance /Autozone and get a can of "The Right Stuff". This stuff is argueably the best RTV since sliced bread.

BYRDPE said:

Also get some lower intake bolts at least 2.5" long and cut the heads off them to use at all 4 corners. This helps align the intake so it doesn't move around on you.
As for RTV...go to Advance /Autozone and get a can of "The Right Stuff". This stuff is argueably the best RTV since sliced bread.

Click to expand...

I agree with everything here 100%

another useful link in case u want bigger pics ...

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/techarticles/headcamintakeswap.pdf

Vacuum line connections:
One large vacuum line from the upper front goes to the carbon canister

One large vacuum line from the rear goes to the vacuum tree.

One small line in the front feeds the Smog pump solenoid control valves on the rear of the passenger side wheel well..

One small line in the rear goes to the fuel pressure regulator.

One small line in the rear goes to the EGR suction regulator.

One large line in the rear goes to the PVC valve.

Cap or plug the remaining lines since they aren't needed.

Here's some tips...

Tools: a good torque wrench is a must have item. A razor blade scraper that holds a single edge razor blade from Home Depot or Ace hardware is another handy thing. Get a Chilton or Haynes shop manual - you'll need it for the bolt torques and patterns. The intake manifold has an especially odd pattern. You'll need access to a timing light to set the timing after you re-stab the distributor. Look in the A/C repair section for the fuel line tools. They look like little plastic top hats. You will need the 1/2" & 5/8" ones. The hat shaped section goes on facing the large part of the coupling. Then you press hard on the brim until it forces the sleeve into the coupling and releases the spring. You may need someone to pull on the line while you press on the coupling. Put some motor oil on them when you put the line back together.

The A/C Compressor comes off with lines still connected. Mark all the electrical, smog and vacuum lines with tags to help you remember where to re-connect them. If you have a digital camera, take several pictures.

Whatever you do, don't skimp on cleaning the gasket surfaces. New gaskets need to seat against bare metal and not the residue left from the old gaskets in order to seal leak free. This is the most time consuming and tiresome part of the job. Look for little things that need to be replaced like the short hose from the thermostat hosing to the water pump, damaged vacuum lines and hose clamps that are rusted or broken.

Plan on cutting the thermostat to water pump hose, or removing the thermostat housing. Also plan on removing the distributor to get clearance to remove the intake manifold. Remove #1 spark plug, stick your finger in the spark plug hole and crank. When your finger gets air moving past it, stop cranking. Turn the engine until the timing marks line up with the pointer. Now you can pull the distributor out.

My favorite trick that saves time and effort is the stay in place gasket. Be sure that you scrape (don't use a wire brush) all the old gasket material off, then clean all the surfaces with acetone or MEK.

When the surfaces are clean, use weather strip adhesive on the head to manifold surface, and on the side of the gasket that mates to the head. Follow the instructions on the tube or can and when it gets tacky, press the gasket down on the head.

Clean the area where the rubber rails mount to the block in front and in the rear with more acetone or MEK and do the same trick with the weather strip adhesive that you did to the heads.

Coat the rubber seals and the gasket area around the water passages with lots of Blue Silicone gasket sealer and put it together.  no leaks, and no gaskets that shifted out of place.

If you reuse the injectors from your old setup, a repair kit is available from most auto parts stores if needed. Coat the injector body "O" rings with oil before you use them and everything will slide back together. Take the other advice you got here and run with it.

Fuel injector seal kits with 2 O rings and a pintle cap (Borg-Warner P/N 274081) are available at Pep Boys auto parts. Cost is about $2.74 per kit. The following are listed at the Borg-Warner site ( http://www.borg-warner.com ) as being resellers of Borg-Warner parts:

http://www.partsplus.com/ or http://www.autovalue.com/ or http://www.pepboys.com/ or http://www.federatedautoparts.com/

Most of the links above have store locators for find a store in your area.

Use motor oil on the O rings when you re-assemble them & everything will slide into place. The gasoline will wash away any excess oil that gets in the wrong places and it will burn up in the combustion chamber.

Consumable items:
Upper manifold gasket
Fel Pro 1250 or equal lower manifold gasket set.
Short formed hose between thermostat hosing and intake manifold
6 ft 7/64" or 1/8" vacuum hose
2 ft 1/2" heater hose
1 1/2 ft 5/8" heater hose
Blue Silicone sealer
ARP antiseize or equal for the bolts
4 each 3/4" hose clamps (spare item in case the old ones are bad)
4 each 1/2" hose clamps (spare item)

Getting the intake back on is by far the worst part. This is a fairly simple thing to do mang

for me the worst part is when to two front bolts snap off and are impossible to remove because the corrosion has almost welded them to the head. its interesting almost no one brings this up in a 'how-to' even though it happens often.

5.0TailPipeHump said:

What do i do with the coolent hoses going through the stock intake spacer' i dont think the cobra intake had this' could i mate them up together?

Click to expand...

Either that or cap them off. They are not used on the Cobra intake.

Don't use thread locker on the intake bolts, use anti-seize on the lower intake bolts and as mentioned don't over torque anything. It is a pretty easy swap if you take your time and make sure to double check everything. A trick that works for me when removing the lower intake bolts is to take a punch and tap the 4 corner bolts before trying to break them loose, these bolts have a bad habit of seizing into the heads and breaking off when you loosen them.