My car has a date with Brads Custom auto..

SSinfull

Founding Member
Oct 19, 2000
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Everett Washington
I talked to Dean and finally decided to order the pulley, Diablo, and Off-road pipe.

I should be a 7 flat at Monroe after this! :rlaugh:

Im scheduled for July 22nd at 9am.

My only question is:

They are charging me 4 hours labor to put this stuff on... Does that sound right? Seems a tad high to me but I scheduled it anyway.

Ryan
03 Black Snake
K&N
 
What kind of pulley?. I recommend Billetflow or Reichard Racing from Amazon Racing. I've had bad experiences with South Florida Pulley HQ's non slip and personally I think a non slip is not necessary if you run an idler tensioner pulley. Also, you say Diablo, is that a chip or the Predator? I can tell you the pulley and Predator tune shouldn't take more than an hour. I can remove and install a pulley alone in an hour. O/R pipe can get tricky but I don't think that would be three hours unless a nut doesnt want to come off the header bolt. When its done, your car will be very different.... :flag:
 
A professional performance shop should not take 4 hours to install a pulley, chip, and x-pipe.

I would say 2 hours if everything fits right. Try KrazyKoncepts, they have done tons of these installs on 03 Cobras.
 
I will say that Brad's does really nice work. I don't doubt they might have said it could take 4 hours -- but I don't know if it actually will. There's always some question the first time things come off -- so they may have estimated high -- just to protect themselves. They've been fair and honest with me, and kept me updated and informed every step fo the way. Most important to me, is they treated me with respect.

Oh, and I think you might have spoken with "Dane." :D
 
Less than $300 is a very reasonable price to have a quality shop install those parts. I'm sure that if you shop around you could get it done for less, but Brad's will do it right and it will be a pleasant experience. You get what you play for. If you think it's too much, go someplace else or do it yourself.
 
I would doubt 50 hp but 40 is likely. Oh, and have you done a baseline dyno? Most stock cars avg between 360 to 380 rwhp but might be on low side due to temps being hotter this time of year. 2.8 is a good pulley setup and KN filter helps but not as good as a true cone filter setup that flows more air. Off road pipe is good to reduce backpressure but will only really come into play if you get a catback as the stock one is the main restriction in the exhaust. Even just new mufflers would help as the stock ones are really designed to choke things up to meet the noise standard tests. I went from 371 rwhp bone stock to 420 rwhp with just cone filter, MAC catback, and Predator performance tune. Not even a pulley. The exhaust hold these cars back quite a bit. Problem is with off road pipe and catback it would be VERY loud. I get pulled over by cops for "rodding" it on a normal 4000 rpm upshift. My catback is one of the louder ones though. With an off road pipe, mine would be in NASCAR territory...
 
03-04 Cobras with CAI, exhaust, pulley, Predator make between 440-460 on the norm.
NASCAR territory. CUP cars are way louder than a O3's even with off road exhaust, long tube and Borla or like mufflers. But you will be able to here the car for 2-3 blocks with a set up like that.
 
have an Amazon Racing pulley puller if you need some help. The pulley swap is very easy to do.

Dave - Is it really necessary to use a pulley puller? I haven't done a pulley on my car yet. I am ordering some new pulley's here very soon and would prefer to do them myself.

As for time wise....2 hrs for exhaust???? :notnice: my opinion. I did my own exhaust in about 45 minutes, if not less. Of course that wasn't on my Mustang, but I have done the exhaust on all my cars that I have owned (it's been about 11 cars now)....none of them took 2 hours!!!

As for the diablo chip....I don't know anything about those. I guessing from others experiences that I have heard that they are about maybe a 1/2 hour job. :shrug: :shrug:

Good luck and I am sure they do quality work, so it might be worth it. What is the hourly charge??
 
I know the reason for the length of time........they double check their work :shrug: I never double check my work, that's why most of it is crappy :D :rlaugh:

Really dumb question....but, what is an "O/R pipe"? I know it means "off road pipe", but what exactly is that? Does that mean it's not street legal?
 
My_Little_Pony said:
I know the reason for the length of time........they double check their work :shrug: I never double check my work, that's why most of it is crappy :D :rlaugh:

Really dumb question....but, what is an "O/R pipe"? I know it means "off road pipe", but what exactly is that? Does that mean it's not street legal?

I believe it is a term con by the aftermarket company to market their exhaust system,Off-Road Pipes does ring a bell then just Straight Pipes. I know it delated the catalytic converters and that will just about makes it illegal for public road use about anywhere in this little corner of the world.
But then again it is the sounds of power when you heard a 5.0 Mustang with one of those on making a high speed pass. You will never take it for a Honda with the 5" coffee can exhaust pipe out back.

K.