Thinking about buying a 96 Cobra, Suggestions Please!

If I am not mistaken, it has a teksid block which is a pretty stout block. with some forged internals and a blower, they are pretty hoppin' motors. Another thing to consider is they don't have much torque under the curve, so going to a 4.10 rear gear will change the way the car feels.

For the first couple years, the four cammer had some intake and exhaust bottlenecks that robbed power. I'm sure those could be found and corrected. However, I think you'll get far more performance for the dollar from your pushrod engine ('89), and it will be easier to work on.

The “B” series heads can make great power; they flow pretty well but are a little hurting on the low end numbers. The solution, rev them high…

The powered rods and hyper pistons are a little weak, but the forged crank and block are very strong. The weak rods and pistons can actually take more power than most people give them credit for, its just you have much less margin for error, and they are far more sensitive to tune.

I have quite a few gripes about Mod motors but most of them revolve around how ridiculously heavy (yes even the Al ones) they are and their tragic bore spacing. But the honest truth is you can make plenty of power with them (just ask the 03-04 cobra guys).


Don’t forget to check your spark plug torque regularly, and be very careful while doing it not to over tq them. Mod motors love to shoot spark plugs through hoods because some CAD monkey at Ford only put about half the spark plug threads he should have in it.


One last thing; Great Deal!

man, and I thought I get a good deal on my cobra

Well....you have to understand that the Cobra has 305hp, not bad really. It's a DOHC motor so it's going to rev higher and the power will come at alittle higher RPM than you used to in your pushrod. Stock for Stock the Cobra is a faster car then any 5.0, but it might not feel as fast because of the lack of low end torque. Like Corey said, put some 4.10's in it and you'll be amazed.

5K for a 96 Cobra is a REALLY good deal as long as it's not got some major work. Especially if you put in another lets say 10K into it, you be as fast if not faster then most 03/04 Cobras for less then what you could buy one now.

VR4 said:

they werent considered good because they are gutless. much like the 96-98 sohcs. th heads flow tons of air and take very well to boost. for NA doing the basic mods to free things up and a tune will really wake them up though. my mark has the same engine and just a tune is usually good for 20-30 hp.

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Really? 20-30 hp just from a tune? That's pretty good.

Sounds like a good deal for 5k, if you back out let me know...I might be interested.

I would invite any of you that think 96 Cobras are "gutless" to come up to Edmonds. We have a couple in this neck of the woods that will dispell that bad information permanently. Also, the Teksid blocks are considered one of the stoutest, most desireable blocks to use for high horsepower mod engine build ups.

shipped the car from hawaii?


as for being gutless....when the mods start flowing we all know thats out the window. they are not all that impressive in stock form though i would still rather have a 96 GT over an LT1 camaro.