Cobrarguy Says Hi!

[cobraRguy]

Hi All,

I've been a member for a few years but have not posted anything to the forums until today.
A little about myself, I bought my first Mustang in high school, a '70 Mach1 with a 2bbl 351W and an FMX automatic. It was a good car but eventually ended up catching fire. Later I bought a '76 Mustang II Mach1 with the V6 and a 4 speed. Another good car but not too exciting.
After selling that I bought another'70 Mach1 with a 351C and a top loader 4-speed, 9 inch rear end with a Detroit Locker differential. That was a much more exciting car but it was stolen. Fast forward a few years I bought a '96 Mystic Cobra which sure looked cool but was not fast enough for my liking. I had a chance to buy a '95 Cobra R (#242/250) so I did. I ended up selling the Mystic Cobra.
As a member of the NorCal Shelby Club I was able to take the R car to Laguna Seca for a weekend event which was a lot of fun. I was hooked. Afterwards I put the car up on jack stands and noticed that the tires had been rubbing on the tailpipes on both sides. There is about 3 inches of clearance on both sides which means the rear axle had been moving back and forth laterally at least 6 inches! I made a phone call to Bruce Griggs who enlightened me about the shortcomings of the stock front and rear suspension of the SN95 cars. I brought the car to his shop at Sears Point and left it there for 8 months while they installed their full World Challenge frame and suspension systems.
While this was going on I was also building up a 429 CID aluminium 4-bolt 351 stroker as the stock cast iron 351W was just too weak.
So now the car handles like a dream, sticks like glue, brakes on a dime, etc. Needless to say I am very proud of it.
Over the years I have also owned a '99 Viper GTS ACR, an 03 Lancer Evo VIII, a 455 4-speed TransAm as well as a few other fun cars.
I'm pleased to be a member here. Thanks for reading my post.

Perry (CobraRGuy)

P.S. I also owned the Jason Priestly '95 Cobra R #191/250 for a few years which I sold to Ron Bramlett of Mustangs Plus.
If anyone wants to know more about my Cobra R please let me know.

 

[General karthief]

Well it's about time, I knew someone was lurking in the background, now go over to the fox forums, post some pics and makes some friends. The rest of us will have to be jealous.
Welcome to stangnet.

 

[Noobz347]

I've been a member for a few years but have not posted anything to the forums until today.

 

[cobraRguy]

OK, OK, OK... So here's some pictures...

Sorry I just don't have many good pictures of this car. There's one of the #46 Priestley car as well. The one with the pickup truck behind it was taken right after I got the car and had no modifications yet. The one with the factory race Viper behind it was taken at Thunderhill Raceway. The #46 car is me in the Priestley car at Laguna Seca. The engine compartment pics were taken as the car was being finished (yes, it's carbureted now) . The last one was taken at the San Jose International Car Show. I know I have more pictures somewhere, I just need to find them.

Thanks, CobraRGuy

 

[General karthief]

Why the carb swap?

 

[cobraRguy]

Hi karthief,

Kinda a long story. I tried and tried to get the stock EFI to work, even with custom tuning. At first I tried having the stock manifold extrude honed and it worked OK, but if you think about it, that upper manifold was designed for a 240hp 302 motor with a new lower for the 351. It just couldn't flow the kind of air a 600hp 429 needs. I tried an Edelbrock Victor EFI manifold with a Fox body throttle body without the elbow adapter (I used a rubber elbow to connect to the MAF sensor and air cleaner). By that time I already had the custom 1-7/8" long tube equal length headers on it which placed the O2 sensor too far from the exhaust valves (in the merge collectors) so they were always too cold which the computer interpreted as a rich condition. Whenever the throttle body was at anything but WOT it ran way too lean. The gas pedal was like a light switch. Once the computer transitioned from closed circuit to open loop it went like a bat out of hell.
I finally decided to put a Victor Junior carb manifold and an 830 CFM Holley 4150HP Race carb on it and it has run great right out of the box ever since with no jetting changes. The only change I made was to put a bigger accelerator pump cam on it to resolve a lean just off idle stumbling issue.
I would like to fuel inject it again, but that will be a while since it runs pretty good the way it is, but without a choke it is very cold blooded. If I do I'll use a Victor Junior carb manifold with injector bungs or maybe one of those 4150 style throttle body 8 injector thingies. The great thing about the carb is that it works good and makes lots of power (because the engine now gets plenty of fuel and air).
I would very much prefer to NOT have to modify my headers to add an O2 sensor bung up closer to the exhaust valves. They are a bear to take on and off and I just had them re-coated by Jet Hot with their polished finish. The entire exhaust system was done by SPD in Rancho Cordova, CA. It took 8 months and a $14K check to have it built but man is it beautiful! The headers are 1-7/8" stepped to 2 inch into 4-into-1 3 inch merge collectors, an X all the way back to the side exit mini boom tubes. This is all stainless steel hand built and every weld is absolute perfection. It is truly a thing of beauty with all V-band clamps connecting everything up. I have both 3 inch cats or straight pipes I can put in and the mufflers are 3 inch stainless Edelbrock RPM series. At full song it sounds really wicked with a raspy deceleration and a beautiful banshee wail at WOT. SPD does excellent work, the best exhaust people in the country bar none but they don't come cheap.
This car has been a massive and expensive project and still is. The Ford Racing Z351 aluminum block did not come with good instructions. The engine consumed water and not just a little. I downloaded the Dart 351 aluminum block instructions and it states very clearly that you must use thread sealer on the head studs and a bead of silicone sealant around the base of each head stud and around every water passage on both sides of the head gasket or you will have water problems. It would have been nice if Ford had made this clear. I'm just getting ready to put the heads back on now.
I used a Borg Warner Viper T-56 tranny, a kevlar clutch from Superior Friction (the best clutch I've ever used), a 4 inch aluminum drive shaft and a Torsen T-2R 31-spline diff with Moser CrMo axles. I put Alcon 14 inch brakes up front and 13 inch PBR brakes in back. Eventually I will have Griggs modify the rear axle housing to use 9 inch bearing retained axles so I can change the rear brakes out to radial mounted fixed calipers.
I've put a ton of time, effort and money into this car and it's still not done.

Perry

 

[General karthief]

Sounds like a great ride,
And are they ever done?

 

[Noobz347]

Holy not-readin-that. Please carry on.