I am in the 400 to 500 rwhp group. 347NA
1) What was encountered during the build of the combo ... good & bad
It's been so long since I started doing my combo some of this may be a little hard to remember.
This was a project my father and I started about 6 years ago I think.
The original plan was to remove the stock cobra engine. Rebuild it, port the heads and toss some bolt-ons at it.
We ended up with a built 347
It just kinda snowballed on us.
As we built the car from day one we had problems with everything. I guess it was just a basic lack of knowledge of everything 5.0L. We had a guy who was an old carbed guy who had no knowledge of injected 5.0L and he was very set in his ways.
After a few years of tinkering the car grew to what it is now.
2) What was the outcome ... good & bad
I ended up with a mean street car that loves to break parts at the strip
I ended up with a NA Street car that runs low 11's in the 1/4 and still has all of it's factory options. AC/PS/PW/PL/power seat the works.
The bad part about building such an aggressive engine combo was the need for all the supporting mods to go with it. Trannys, clutches, rear ends, and suspension.
3) What it is like to drive it ... briefly describe it ... good & bad
You know ... how it performs in the categories of
power
drivability
reliability
it's crazy fun to drive!!!
This combo has tons of power. After a winter of not driving it and getting behind the wheel it will honestly scare the hell out of you!
BUT!!!
The combo is aggressive enough that it does have it's drivability issues. Big injectors and throttle body do cause some surging down low (could just be my tuning too) especially in conjunction with the detroit locker in the rear end. The other and largest issue is the pro-shifted tremec. The surging and locker were not too bad to deal with but the non-synchronized transmission is a real pain to drive.
As far as reliability goes, um.....it's actually not to bad. I have no issue with jumping in the car and driving it on the highway on a 2hr trip. It's never left me stranded on the side of the road. It's left me stranded at the track several times but not on the road.
I do however completely tear down the car every winter and do a refresh on the engine and check the trans and other parts of the car to make sure everything is in good working order. This is definitely not something that is required of a normal street car but mine does see a lot of time at the track also where it sees TONS of abuse
4) If you did it again ... what would you do differently
Now ... Lets stick to a combo with a Street Car Application
and
Be very honest and specific about this last topic of discussion
If I had to do it again I would not do it the same. I would be very inclined to change to a fox body. Either way I would build a large 351W stroker combo and rather than keeping my 8.8 I would swap it for a 9"
I could make better power with the larger cubich inch and would have to have the 9" to hold that power. My 8.8 would not survive!
5) Is the car you built ..............
The kind of car you would consider practical to drive EVERYDAY
or
Did it turn out to be a bit more of a challenge than you expected
so
Come on now ... be honest here about gas mileage, drivability, etc
This is not a practical DD. I do drive it daily in the summer but it's by no means practical. It's hard to drive and gets HORRIFIC mileage in town.
With my 02's hooked up and working the car is capable of 20mpg on the highway. The stupid kooks long tube headers leak so bad it's hard to get them sealed so the 02's work though. Drivability is ok but not great for a DD. If it wasn't used so hard at the strip I could go without the pro-shifted trans and it would still be a decent DD minus the in town milage.
