Set Me Up (PLEASE HELP)

Hmm, this is a daily driver right? In which case porting your own heads would be difficult without a lot of down time. Otherwise I would say port and rebuild the stock heads, get a nice intake and get a cam. That would set you off nicely. But in the long run, I would go H/C/I over N2O anyday.

First off, welcome to stangnet! Second, your questions are not at all stupid. We've all asked them too.

Now onto the meat of the subject. H/C/I will yield great power, dare I say almost as good power as nitrous. Plus, you don't have the hassle of refilling the bottle, where you only get 1 or 2 good shots before the bottle pressure is too low. I would NOT recommend an E303 cam, MANY guys have problems with their PCM's not liking it and causing idle problems. There are much better cams out now that make more power and are still street legal. Check out the FAQ section at the top of the 94/95 section. It lists about 10 different cams with specs and whether or not they are street legal. Your heads are okay, a good port and valve job will do wonders with them. The intake is good as well, a good port job there and it will outflow most aftermarket ones. You can typically expect to see around 280-300rwhp depending on the heads and cam. If you stick with the GT40's, expect 280-290. Porting the intake will definitely help. I threw a ported Cobra intake and 70mm throttle body on my stock heads and cam and dropped 7 tenths and gained 5mph! A H/C/I install will cost a pretty penny. Do it yourself, it's not that hard. I was terrified of doing the cam, but it was easier than the heads. Not too bad at all. Let us know if you have any other questions!
-Chris

With all the normal bolt-ons like exhaust, pulleys, gears, CAI, etc you should put down somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-260rwhp. Check with the other 94-95 cobra owners here for specifics. I know that GMKILLR made a little over 260 to the wheels with bolt-ons and his stock cam, heads, and intake in his 94-95 cobra. I would opt for H/C/I anyday over a nitrous setup just for the fact that you can make the added power all the time, not just when the bottle is on and the system is armed. The cobra intake isn't bad once its downfalls are addressed like the lower portion of it, get it ported and it can be a good performer. If I had a cobra I'd do everything in my power to keep that intake on my car, but that's me.

Gears and pulleys are definitelt one of the biggest bang for the buck, and butt-o-meter gains that you will feel. Gears didn't do a whole lot for me when I was stock, but they made the car feel a whole lot stronger. Pulleys were worth a solid reduction in ET of 3 tenths and I gained 3mph with them. This is on the high end of typical results of gains for pulleys, but you should see at least a 2 tenth reduction with them. I run and highly suggest aluminum ASP pulleys, they are priced great, their fit and finish are second to none, and they are proven to add substantial amounts of power.

As for what a good H/C/I setup will net you the answer is it all depends. I mean that some will put all the parts that seem like the right combo on paper on a car and the thing will not perform as well as planned. Typically the secret is to getting the most from an H/C/I car (or an NA car in general) is attention to detail and getting each part to work perfectly with the others. From the little things like trimming the intake gaskets to match the ports perfectly, to filing away any excess welds in the header primaries... it all adds up. Most streetable setups will make anywhere from 275-290rwhp, with the well thought out ones making 300 or slightly above. Streetable is more a matter of personal opinion, but what I meant by it is a setup with a long runner intake (like the cobra, edelbrock performer, etc), a mild cam (durations in the mid to low 220's at .050 with a useable powerband in the 1500-sub 6000rpm range), and typical bolt-ons.


I have no idea what an install would cost you as I have done all my work myself, I always looked at it as the more I spend on an install is the less I can spend on parts so I learned to do it myself. these boards can be a GREAT help for that as many of us have done it ourselves.

Hope that helps...

Chris types faster than me... LOL!

Everyone types faster than me right now. Ok, with $1500 to play with, I say gears first, talk to Tmoss about getting your lower intake ported, maybe a cam, off-road H or X, and some sort of catback. Check ebay or the classifieds and you'll be sure to find some parts for cheap, and maybe even used at a good price, when people upgrade their combo.

FastBlack5.0 said:

ok so i just bought a 95 Cobra and it has just a few things done to it (see sig) but nothing big. and i have about 1500 to spend and i have a few questions about a somethings. I was thinging to start out with gears, shorite headers, and some pulleys and then save for a nitrous system; or i could get gears, shorties, and pulleys and then save for heads, cam, intake. What does everyone think and i go with? Also have several questions concerning the H/I/C. i need a good setup, but it has to be 100% all street legal. I was thinking to do an E303 cam with GT40X heads, but i dont really know what intake or will my stock one be just fine or should i port it? If anyone has some good setups with wont kill my gas milage let me know them, and let me know you HP/TQ gains. Also i have a few other questions about this subject:

1. Should i go nitrous or h/c/i?
2. how much HP/TQ gain will i see from a good h/c/i setup?
3. how much would install be in h/c/i?
4. would porting my upper and lower intake now help me at all?

sorry for all the questions and sorry if some of them are stupid, but i am just learning about the 5.0 engines and i dont know to much about them right now

Thanks

Click to expand...

1. Absolutely H/C/I.
2. You will see around 300 to the wheels with a decent combo.
3. Don't know...expensive.
4. The lower is the one that needs the work. Have it ported by TMOSS he is a member on here. Gains are good.

I vote that since your car already had a better intake and heads than a stock GT I would go pullies, gears, O/R pipe, headers, and catback. You can do all this farily cheap if you buy used parts.