Finally have my plans together

westgastang5.0Coyote

15 Year Member
Sep 24, 2008
192
4
18
Temple,Ga
I finally know what i'm going to do with my car. I plan on slapping a blower on it, but I have a few questions for the experienced on here. I was going to go with the pi swap but since i'm getting blown i'll just stick with my npi heads for compression reasons. I'm thinking i'll upgrade the rods and pistons and port my npi heads and add some cams. Would it be cool to add pi cams or would I need something more aggressive? My goal is for it to continue to be my dd and I want to make 400 to 475 or possibly 500 at a maximum at the rear wheels. I know i'm going to need fuel injectors, 90mm maf, fuel pump, upgraded clutch. If i'm leaving anything out let me know. THis is going to be a progress so it's probably going to take possibly a year with me having a family. Thanks for any input guys.
 
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hey i have a 97 cobra with a kenne bell twin screw blower running on E85 and iam making 425 rear wheel horse power now iam running a stock block since you have a gt its a lot cheaper for you some nice cams are comp supercharger cams the best bang for your buck. the mass air is a must you got that down for internals any forged steal crank rod and piston assembly will do since you are not going over 500 you can run 400 0n stock internals but its a risk if you are using pump gas unless you are intercolled the clutch is a must got to get the power to the ground get a set of gertals for the rear the 8.8 will hold but its something for the cash to conciser. i am also a huge fan of the ford racing aluminum drive shaft it has not let me down yet and for under 250 cant beat it also up grade to the trick flow intake if you have the money its a hell of a good part and biggest part of all have a dam good tuner that will make or break you if you have any more questions feel free to ask epically if you want to do a E85 tune all the parts needed to do that is a larger fuel pump injectors and the tune don't let the stuff scare you i have had no problems with it and all ford vehicles since 1986 were made more alcohol tolerant well good luck and aim to take down the competition
 
Manley Performance - Niche Market - Ford

for the rods pricey but what they use in the 03 04 cobras they also have pistons but i am going to use this combo the manley rods and eagle pistons

Eagle Specialty Products, Inc. - Home

these are the only two company's that have proven them selves to be reliable and will hold up to what they say they will

you can also check out ::SHM:: Mustang GT/SVT Cobra, Lightning, 3V Performance Parts these guys are pricey but have nice stuff and a lot of ideas you could use but you can always find cheaper but you want something that you know when you put the money up and the work is done that you can trust every thing is going to be ok and if ford puts the manley equipment in all of the ford gt and gt 500's that its good stuff i have never seen one of those engines blow except when nitrous is involved lol

the only reason i can back that stuff is cause i worked for ford for two years and have 12 certifications from ford and a 2 year degree in automotive technology so i would not try to steer you the wrong way i am going to check all of the threads i answer too every day so if ya need any more help or part numbers, prices, ect. ill be glad to help
 
I'm also wondering if it would be ok to install a pi intake and would it be sufficient to provide the necessary airflow to say a vortech or paxton? Also would the pi cams be helpful? And i'm also thinking of getting a 99-04 complete engine and upgrading the bottom end. Give me your guys thoughts.
 
If E85 is common in your area and you can run it, then definately do the PI swap. I'm putting my 2.3 back together now for a high boost, 10.1:1 CR combination and expect to be a bit quicker at the track.
 
If you are going blower and changing the pistons then go PI head. To fix the NPI exhaust port takes a lot of work. For big blower NPI heads I even install larger seats to fit a mega exhaust valve and get it flowing what a regular PI head port job does.
 
Thicker head gaskets are a terrible way to reduce the compression ratio. Thicker head gaskets increase the quench distance, which makes your quench area less effective. The better your quench, the more detonation resistant your engine combination will be.

Thus, with a thicker head gasket, you are reducing the compression ratio for better detonation resistance, but the less effective quench area increases the chance of detonation. My point: don't bother using thicker head gaskets. You'd be better off tuning it for a higher compression ratio and doing other tricks to increase detonation resistance... like meth injection, a nice front mount intercooler, higher octane fuel, ect.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, I'm just saying that using a thicker head gasket is like taking one step forward and two steps back.

If you want to keep the stock comp. ratio cometic can make you a set of head gaskets with a thickness of 0.074. I have thousands of miles with this setup with 10-11 lbs.
 
Well, I just listed 3 things that would help earlier: A nice front mount intercooler, meth/water injection or higher octane fuel.

Ported NPI heads flow as much or more than PI heads when fully ported.

For 450-500rwhp, as the OP was talking about, would require better rods than what ford gave us, so it would be easy to put in dish pistons when you build it for higher power levels.
 
^ plus a tune, is a big SOTP diff from all stock.. that plus 4.10's will go 13's pretty easily..

I wasnt a big believer in vortech 4.6 cars until the other day when a guy brought his to me with a miss, turned out to be plugs, i put a plenum and tb on it, and went and romped on it pretty hard for bout an hour, and now i want his same setup lol 4.10's + 11psi= haul ass!! so now after i get my new motor in im going to HAVE to boost it..