2003 Cobra refresh/restoration

[heitzke]

Turns out my idle issues were me being dumb. I didn't have the intake manifold situated quite correctly nor were the intake manifold bolts tightened down to spec.

I definitely had some vacuum leaks going on so when I cranked it all down nicely onto the gaskets the idle evened right out and drives super well. I'm seeing about 19-20psi on the 3.25" pulley and it's an absolute on/off switch of torque. So much fun.

[Alfisti]

Wheels are perfect shape and size but i'd go black.

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Wheels are perfect shape and size but i'd go black.

Yeah honestly I was expecting the wheels to be a shade or two darker based on pictures. I may end up powder coating them darker at some point, but I'm just ready to call this thing done for a bit haha

[Red Bread]

Love the wheels. I just went brushed for mine. Tired of the dark wheel thing, and I've had a few myself.

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Red Bread

Love the wheels. I just went brushed for mine. Tired of the dark wheel thing, and I've had a few myself.

Yeah I really thought hard about doing brushed as well. The color decision was pretty hard on these but the i've been really impressed with the quality for the price point.

[heitzke]

It's been a LONG week.

I went to get some exhaust work done and have a new tailpipe made so I can fit my wheels/tires. The car ended up roasting the fuel rail pressure sensor, and when they FAIL fail they end up pressurizing the vacuum line to the intake manifold with fuel.

Sure enough, after troubleshooting the non-starting for a while the motor was entirely flooded. I finally tracked down the issue, but was just too slow on it and there was no CEL or anything to help trace it.

I pulled all the plugs, pumped fuel out of the cylinders with a transfer pump and then cranked it with the injectors disabled until it would run on the fuel in the motor itself. Took a few cycles of 20-30s hits on the starter to get it going, but it finally turned over.

Drained all the oil to find at least a gallon of fuel in the engine oil. Such a fucking mess. Fresh oil, swapped out the absolutely trashed spark plugs and it's all back alive and running.

Swapped out my coilover springs from 10" -> 8" and adjusted some clearance issues with the top hats so i'll be ready to mount the wheels/tires when I pick them up today at least.

Also looks like I'm JUST about set for my tuning appointment on Friday. It's been stressful as hell, but i'm glad the car is back together and running well. If it makes at least 650whp i'll be happy.

[jmack]

Looking forward to the results of the tuning session.

[heitzke]

Little teaser because there's just no sunlight anymore. I need to drop it just a touch more to be totally content, maybe .5 in the rear and .25 up front. I can't slam it like I want to because the longtubes and exhaust hang so low.



And one little goofy addition. I can't let the car be too too serious now.

Originally Posted by jmack

Looking forward to the results of the tuning session.

Nervous, but same. Just a few more days and still need to gap/swap some fresh TR6, fresh oil change and burp the coolant system one last time.

[Ease23z]

Originally Posted by heitzke

Juuust picked it up last night and have some work cut out for me haha. It's obviously a 2003 Oxford White convertible w/ 75k miles.

Fairly clean for being a 18-19yr old Ford. It's always been on my 'to-own' list since I had a '99 GT for several years that I really enjoyed.





Car came with:
- Pulley (have to find my caliper still, but looks to be a 2.8" metco to match the metco idler)
- Steeda firewall adjuster, quadrant and cable (clutch needed to be adjusted BADLY. Someone didn't know what they were doing lol)
- Steeda short-throw shifter
- Bassani high-flow cats, x-pipe, catback exhaust
- LPF heat exchanger (80% on this one, need to get underneath and measure it up).
- Xcal2 tune (appears to be canned tune). Car should make in the 440-450whp range as it sits, which is plenty tbh.


Immediate to-do list and have parts ordered for:
- Fresh oil change
- Fresh plugs
- Fresh alignment
- Mild window tint
- New factory tail lights and headlights ordered (these tinted ones are AWFUL)
- New third brake light
- Short IRS subframe bolts
- MM roll bar for some ACTUAL safety. Style bar doesn't make me feel secure tbh.

Longer plans:
- Interior refresh, reupholster the front/rear seats or replace with something that's not too "race looking"
- replace the nasty double-DIN screen with something more modern w/ carplay
- Refresh/update the tune
- MAYBE a mild Stieg porting to make that extra 50whp and heaton noise.
- Bilsteins/springs/mm camber plates
- Wheels are that aren't FR500's, Cobra 5-spokes or some drag pack lol.

Whole build concept is to just sort it out better, have something to drive with a/c besides the M4 and have a little fun. The M build got a little out of control so I wanted something a little different that I don't have to worry about as much, log some miles and also maintain a little bit of value when i'm all done and ready for what's next.

Originally Posted by heitzke

Juuust picked it up last night and have some work cut out for me haha. It's obviously a 2003 Oxford White convertible w/ 75k miles.

Fairly clean for being a 18-19yr old Ford. It's always been on my 'to-own' list since I had a '99 GT for several years that I really enjoyed.

[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...eb89dad5_k.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6870aa17_k.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d2dd00a8_k.jpg[/IMG]

Car came with:
- Pulley (have to find my caliper still, but looks to be a 2.8" metco to match the metco idler)
- Steeda firewall adjuster, quadrant and cable (clutch needed to be adjusted BADLY. Someone didn't know what they were doing lol)
- Steeda short-throw shifter
- Bassani high-flow cats, x-pipe, catback exhaust
- LPF heat exchanger (80% on this one, need to get underneath and measure it up).
- Xcal2 tune (appears to be canned tune). Car should make in the 440-450whp range as it sits, which is plenty tbh.


Immediate to-do list and have parts ordered for:
- Fresh oil change
- Fresh plugs
- Fresh alignment
- Mild window tint
- New factory tail lights and headlights ordered (these tinted ones are AWFUL)
- New third brake light
- Short IRS subframe bolts
- MM roll bar for some ACTUAL safety. Style bar doesn't make me feel secure tbh.

Longer plans:
- Interior refresh, reupholster the front/rear seats or replace with something that's not too "race looking"
- replace the nasty double-DIN screen with something more modern w/ carplay
- Refresh/update the tune
- MAYBE a mild Stieg porting to make that extra 50whp and heaton noise.
- Bilsteins/springs/mm camber plates
- Wheels are that aren't FR500's, Cobra 5-spokes or some drag pack lol.

Whole build concept is to just sort it out better, have something to drive with a/c besides the M4 and have a little fun. The M build got a little out of control so I wanted something a little different that I don't have to worry about as much, log some miles and also maintain a little bit of value when i'm all done and ready for what's next.

Love the color 🥰

[heitzke]

Rolled it out to grab a few pics in the light. Pretty damn happy with how it's sitting now that the coilovers have settled down a little bit more.

[heitzke]

Long but good day here! Made it over to Lee Blankenship tuning this morning and got some things dialed in on his mustang dyno. It's supposed to be calibrated to be pretty close to a DJ and i'm pretty happy with the numbers.

With smoothing I made:

629/601 on 93
690/645 on E85!

I also ended up making just over 21psi on a 3.25" even with longtubes too. Air density was SUPER high so I expect that it'll be more like 19-20 in more normal conditions. We talked about throwing the 3" on and cranking up the base fuel pressure, but I wanted to keep it so I could flip between 93/E85 easily.

Without the smoothing I hit 697whp on E85 and I believe it was 639whp on 93. Car absolutely rips now and honestly faster than I had expected.

E85 dyno: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZJkG98AEpwg

93 dyno: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6HcDCdUec9E

[heitzke]

[Rono63]

What made you decide on the Cobra instead of a Shelby 500?

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Rono63

What made you decide on the Cobra instead of a Shelby 500?

Good good question. Mostly because I had two 2007 GT500's in the past. Really cool cars but I've always been so nostalgic for the 03-04 models despite not being great cars honestly. The cable clutch sucks to drive and they ride pretty terribly but the analog driving experience is just SO fun.

GT500 made for a great touring car. Super comfortable, easy to drive, made great power but they just never felt that special to me.

[Alfisti]

Fuck me those are huge numbers, my 997 has a touch under 400 and it feels plenty.

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Fuck me those are huge numbers, my 997 has a touch under 400 and it feels plenty.

yeah it's honestly more than I was expecting and it's a handful for sure, even with some sticky 315's in the rear. I set out to hit somewhere in the 650whp range on 93 but that extra almost 50whp and associated torque took it to another level. Having a garage of a combined 1400whp "daily drivers" has gotten a little out of control. I need another daily for my daily cars.

[0-60Motorsports]

Great numbers! How does it feel on the road once those tires warmup.

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by 0-60Motorsports

Great numbers! How does it feel on the road once those tires warmup.

Thank you! I'd have loved to hit that 700 mark but so many variables on a dyno. The weather is SO cold right and roads aren't super friendly still. I did a 4th gear pull last night and it's quite quick. Seat of the pants says it's faster than the M4, but they're so different that it's hard to tell

3rd gear is fast fast but traction on a hard hit is non-existent. I see why a lot of people run around with street slicks and various drag radials on the rears now

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Rono63

What made you decide on the Cobra instead of a Shelby 500?

I do sometimes miss them a little bit. Both of them were white too lol. One I only had a few months because it was a lemon, but I kept the other for several years and had a great time with it.

[heitzke]

I must be getting old but my Borla exhaust is just too damn loud with the long tubes so i'm going to try this Magnaflow street setup that I got for cheap as an "open box" for $400.

[heitzke]

Allllll business mode lol





I obviously need to crank up the coilovers, roll the fenders, but they look MEAN. Also waiting for my MM rear brake lines so they'll actually fit correctly. They're pretty cool though for something to roll around with sometimes.

[heitzke]

Little updates here:

- Driver header is leaking out of the front port, I apparently blew out part of the gasket that I knew I should have gone OEM on.
- Swapping the front k-member to a lightweight tubular BMR because I have to drop the whole k-member again to do the header gasket :/
- Magnaflow exhaust is too quiet lol, so I'm swapping to a MBRP next to try it out. Got a really good deal on it so it's worth trying.

Other than that list, the car is absolute rocket. The torque comes on instantly and just liquidates tires. Fun thing about a built-SRA is the car wants to stay super straight almost all the time. It's definitely no corner carver, especially once I change the k-member out and lose my front lower brace.