Man thats some installation on that system!
Car looks great bud, nice work :rockon:
Car looks great bud, nice work :rockon:
2003 Mustang Cobra convertible getting Accuair e-level setup!
- Thread starter Fastphil
- Start date
Gotta post vids of the car at the track. Looks sick. I like to see how this handles around some corners ;-)
[youtube_browser]6BCHwE-G-3Q[/youtube_browser]
absolutely sick car and the stance looks so good...
Is this the same car that was featured on the Stance is everything website? Absolutely great looking car!
Thanks!
Yes it is. I've been reading Dave's blog for a while now, and he didn't turn down an opportunity to feature my car.
Thanks for the compliments, guys!
Michel and I got to work some more on the car today, and although we didn't get the job completely finished, we went a long way towards making it appear done!
First things first, Michel slapped an Accuair sticker on his toolbox, to go with the Ridetech ones he put on there a few weeks ago.
We worked exclusively on the trunk today, and in case you don't remember (or haven't looked), here's where we left off.
Michel took the bull by the horns and started working on the tank bracket. Here is the first iteration of it, showing the non-visible side then the visible side, then a quick test fit in the car.
Here's Michel being all nonchalant with the grinder, and throwing down some welds.
In the meantime, I got cracking on fitting the trunk side panels back in place, cutting holes in them to clear the heads of the compressors. It's a long and tedious process, starting with a black sharpie circle on the backside. Then, little by little, cutting away a small piece, then test fitting, checking where to cut next, removing, flipping the panel around, trying not to forget where to cut, cutting, and reinstalling, and repeating until satisfied.
We had come up with an aesthetic upgrade for the tank bracket that Michel worked on in the meantime. We decided to angle the sides in towards the top, making a cleaner appearance. Then, one more test fit in the car. The long tabs on the bracket are necessary because the left side of the bracket is above the spare tire, where it can't be attached to anything. So they go forward, and bolt into the floorpan using the same inserts we had previously used for the ride height sensors. The last pic is the insert tool that Michel had fabricated back when we were doing the sensors. It was getting pretty beat up, but a little grease got us through it.
Once the side panels were done, we were able to test-fit the floor carpet. We figured the simplest way to keep it functional was to cut out the areas where the tank brackets bolted to the floor. This way, the carpet is completely removeable, and the spare tire can still be accessed. Putting the carpet back in is simple too, because we decided to put some spacers under the tabs of the tank bracket. This had the added benefit of making the whole tank bracket look like it's floating above the carpet once it's all put together! Pretty cool!
Michel hit the bracket with some hammered-finish paint that was kicking around on a shelf. I'm not sure exactly what I'd like to do in the way of painting the tank and bracket yet, so this will do for now. In the second pic you can see the stacked washers that I mentioned above. Between the tank and the bracket there's an old rubber propane hose that was slit lengthwise and fitted over the bracket. Really simple, but looks pretty good, and protects the tank and maybe even damps some vibrations.
So we got so close, but we called it quits before we could tackle the front trunk panel. It's a tight fit, and we were both too tired to be doing delicate work. So this is where we stopped. You can also see that we drilled holes in the side panels to pass the braided compressor lines through. The left panel took a couple of tries to get the hole in the right spot.
Next time, we'll finish the trunk panel, and find a better solution for the air line that goes from the tank to the manifold. We discovered today that the water trap wasn't doing its job because the water was all in the tank. But in the meantime, I'm happy that the trunk is useable again.
Later.
Michel and I got to work some more on the car today, and although we didn't get the job completely finished, we went a long way towards making it appear done!
First things first, Michel slapped an Accuair sticker on his toolbox, to go with the Ridetech ones he put on there a few weeks ago.
We worked exclusively on the trunk today, and in case you don't remember (or haven't looked), here's where we left off.
Michel took the bull by the horns and started working on the tank bracket. Here is the first iteration of it, showing the non-visible side then the visible side, then a quick test fit in the car.
Here's Michel being all nonchalant with the grinder, and throwing down some welds.
In the meantime, I got cracking on fitting the trunk side panels back in place, cutting holes in them to clear the heads of the compressors. It's a long and tedious process, starting with a black sharpie circle on the backside. Then, little by little, cutting away a small piece, then test fitting, checking where to cut next, removing, flipping the panel around, trying not to forget where to cut, cutting, and reinstalling, and repeating until satisfied.
We had come up with an aesthetic upgrade for the tank bracket that Michel worked on in the meantime. We decided to angle the sides in towards the top, making a cleaner appearance. Then, one more test fit in the car. The long tabs on the bracket are necessary because the left side of the bracket is above the spare tire, where it can't be attached to anything. So they go forward, and bolt into the floorpan using the same inserts we had previously used for the ride height sensors. The last pic is the insert tool that Michel had fabricated back when we were doing the sensors. It was getting pretty beat up, but a little grease got us through it.
Once the side panels were done, we were able to test-fit the floor carpet. We figured the simplest way to keep it functional was to cut out the areas where the tank brackets bolted to the floor. This way, the carpet is completely removeable, and the spare tire can still be accessed. Putting the carpet back in is simple too, because we decided to put some spacers under the tabs of the tank bracket. This had the added benefit of making the whole tank bracket look like it's floating above the carpet once it's all put together! Pretty cool!
Michel hit the bracket with some hammered-finish paint that was kicking around on a shelf. I'm not sure exactly what I'd like to do in the way of painting the tank and bracket yet, so this will do for now. In the second pic you can see the stacked washers that I mentioned above. Between the tank and the bracket there's an old rubber propane hose that was slit lengthwise and fitted over the bracket. Really simple, but looks pretty good, and protects the tank and maybe even damps some vibrations.
So we got so close, but we called it quits before we could tackle the front trunk panel. It's a tight fit, and we were both too tired to be doing delicate work. So this is where we stopped. You can also see that we drilled holes in the side panels to pass the braided compressor lines through. The left panel took a couple of tries to get the hole in the right spot.
Next time, we'll finish the trunk panel, and find a better solution for the air line that goes from the tank to the manifold. We discovered today that the water trap wasn't doing its job because the water was all in the tank. But in the meantime, I'm happy that the trunk is useable again.
Later.
Last edited:
Phil - the water trap isn't meant to keep moisture out of the tank per say. It's placed between the tank and the VALVE to keep debris and some moisture out of the valve
Looks good! Definitely a great stance and I bet the ride comfort has improved immensely!
That's what I figured it was, but I don't care too much about having water in the tank. I might put a drain valve on one of the lower fittings next time we take it apart.
Thanks for the compliments guys, I really do appreciate it. If you care to refer back to my original post, you'll see that I don't really care what everyone else thinks of my car because I modify it for my own pleasure. The fact that other people do like it is icing on the cake!
Reposted from November 2011...
Well, despite a beautiful top-down day today with temperatures in the high sixties, the summer-car season is drawing to a close up here soon. It looks like I will run out of time to finish the work in the trunk. I won't be able to work on the car over the winter because it is stored in a remote location. No big deal. Maybe some good ideas will come to me over the winter months while the car is in storage. I have a list of other things that will need to be done on the car when it hits the road again in the spring. I'm gonna list a few here to use as a reference over the winter to get everything I need lined up.
The car needs an alignment. The steering wheel is about 3-5 degrees off while driving straight. It tracks pretty straight, but I don't care to look at a crooked steering wheel.
We never got around to double-checking the whole install, so we will need to do that.
I've got a few squeaks in the rear suspension/trunk area that need to be investigated. I know one of the upper shock mounts is severely chewed up, so that might be it.
The air system needs a water trap or drain.
The rear tires need to be changed. Expect a video of a big smoky burnout around the same time that gets done.
I need to find a way to trim the fender lips where they meet the bumper because they rub a little too much on the tires for my tastes. Nothing to be worried about, but annoying.
I gotta sort out the loose connection in the wideband O2 sensor. It works even less frequently now than it did before.
More out of curiosity than necessity, I want to measure the ride height at each corner to see if it's actually level from side to side. I suppose any difference can be sorted out by adjusting the length of the pushrods.
Despite all these little ####les, I've really been enjoying the car and the suspension setup. It rides so much smoother than it did before and the instant height adjustability is sometimes useful, and often just fun! The car still turns heads just as much as it did before I bagged it, but that's because ride height is basically the same as before. The loss of trunk space hasn't really been an issue at all.
On another note, owning a convertible is an experience in itself. Every single hour of top-down driving makes up for dozens of crappy days. It's therapeutic, and even more so when the season is limited, as it is up here. Most people will tuck their summer rides away for 6 months of the year, from November to April, inclusively. I roll 8 months in the Mustang, tucking it away December to March, inclusively. Those extra two months are where the best top-down driving is. Dress appropriately, and the funny looks you get make it all worthwhile.
That's it for now.
Later.
Well, despite a beautiful top-down day today with temperatures in the high sixties, the summer-car season is drawing to a close up here soon. It looks like I will run out of time to finish the work in the trunk. I won't be able to work on the car over the winter because it is stored in a remote location. No big deal. Maybe some good ideas will come to me over the winter months while the car is in storage. I have a list of other things that will need to be done on the car when it hits the road again in the spring. I'm gonna list a few here to use as a reference over the winter to get everything I need lined up.
The car needs an alignment. The steering wheel is about 3-5 degrees off while driving straight. It tracks pretty straight, but I don't care to look at a crooked steering wheel.
We never got around to double-checking the whole install, so we will need to do that.
I've got a few squeaks in the rear suspension/trunk area that need to be investigated. I know one of the upper shock mounts is severely chewed up, so that might be it.
The air system needs a water trap or drain.
The rear tires need to be changed. Expect a video of a big smoky burnout around the same time that gets done.
I need to find a way to trim the fender lips where they meet the bumper because they rub a little too much on the tires for my tastes. Nothing to be worried about, but annoying.
I gotta sort out the loose connection in the wideband O2 sensor. It works even less frequently now than it did before.
More out of curiosity than necessity, I want to measure the ride height at each corner to see if it's actually level from side to side. I suppose any difference can be sorted out by adjusting the length of the pushrods.
Despite all these little ####les, I've really been enjoying the car and the suspension setup. It rides so much smoother than it did before and the instant height adjustability is sometimes useful, and often just fun! The car still turns heads just as much as it did before I bagged it, but that's because ride height is basically the same as before. The loss of trunk space hasn't really been an issue at all.
On another note, owning a convertible is an experience in itself. Every single hour of top-down driving makes up for dozens of crappy days. It's therapeutic, and even more so when the season is limited, as it is up here. Most people will tuck their summer rides away for 6 months of the year, from November to April, inclusively. I roll 8 months in the Mustang, tucking it away December to March, inclusively. Those extra two months are where the best top-down driving is. Dress appropriately, and the funny looks you get make it all worthwhile.
That's it for now.
Later.
Back from the dead with an update!
I finally got some time to sort out things that were on my to-do list for the air suspension.
The first order of business for the day was to swap out the 9 or 10 year old stock battery for an Optima Red Top. Thirty minutes later, that was taken care of.
Next up, I needed to sort out the tire-rubbing issue. As I have surely mentioned several times in this thread, the tires rub in the fenders near where they meet the bumper. This had been going on since I swapped on the 11-inch wide CCW Classics in October of 2009. It was never serious enough to worry about, but it was chewing up the tire where the tread rolls over to the sidewall.
On top of the usual rubbing, I encountered a problem one cold morning this spring when the car wouldn't air up because the water in the suspension system had frozen up. When I tried to move the car, the passenger side tire bent up the lip of the fender a bit. No visible damage, but it resulted in the tire rubbing even more than usual, and the lip of the fender cutting into the tire every time I'd air up or down. You can see below the section I'm referring to. The first two pics are "before," the last two are "after":
The driver side rubbed too, but nowhere near as much, so I fixed that side too. No pics necessary. I didn't use any fancy fender roller this time, I just went at it semi-gently with a plastic mallet. I followed up with some black paint to help protect the exposed metal. In retrospect, I should have gone with some shade of red to make it less obvious. Whatever.
Now the fenders don't grab the tire sidewalls any more when airing up or down and there's no more rubbing when going down the road! I can even drive now on preset 1 without rubbing. I haven't tried driving with it fully dumped, but I think that will be possible as well, with only very minor rubbing in the rear. Awesome!
And finally, I took care of finishing up the trunk to a more satisfactory level. Here again I didn't use any fancy tools or products. I just thought it through (for the last 10 months!) and followed the plan in my head. Here are a couple pics of what the trunk looked like before I got to work on it today:
I figured I would be able to reuse the stock trunk panel that is missing in the pictures above. I got to work cutting and test fitting it until I was satisfied. Now the only things visible are the compressors on the sides of the trunk. Here is the end result (the plugs across the top of the panel are missing, but I have them somewhere. That's a 10-second job):
I think for a total of investment of zero dollars (aside from the price of the battery), I did a helluva good job today! I'm especially relieved to finally get these items checked off my list. Finding time to work on the car without my own garage is more complicated than it seems. Now that it's done, I'll be able to enjoy the car even more!
In other news, the car has been featured in two magazines and a couple more websites. It may yet still show up in another magazine and at least one more website this year. Considering I did this for my own pleasure, I'm really tickled pink to see how much attention my car is garnering! I really do appreciate all the feedback, and I even enjoy reading the comments from ignorant people who just like to bash me and the car without even getting informed first.
I've also got a new pair of rear INVOs sitting in the shed, so when I get time I'll be swapping those on. In the meantime, I'm having fun leaving darkies wherever the opportunity arises.
Another thing to take care of is to install a water drain for the air tank. I've got an idea in mind for that. I just have to check it out more closely to see if my idea will work out.
The main reason for this work today, besides to get these things done, is that next weekend there's a big local show and there's gonna be a lot of bagged cars in attendance. I wanted to be able to show off something that was at least presentable.
That's all for today.
Phil
I finally got some time to sort out things that were on my to-do list for the air suspension.
The first order of business for the day was to swap out the 9 or 10 year old stock battery for an Optima Red Top. Thirty minutes later, that was taken care of.
Next up, I needed to sort out the tire-rubbing issue. As I have surely mentioned several times in this thread, the tires rub in the fenders near where they meet the bumper. This had been going on since I swapped on the 11-inch wide CCW Classics in October of 2009. It was never serious enough to worry about, but it was chewing up the tire where the tread rolls over to the sidewall.
On top of the usual rubbing, I encountered a problem one cold morning this spring when the car wouldn't air up because the water in the suspension system had frozen up. When I tried to move the car, the passenger side tire bent up the lip of the fender a bit. No visible damage, but it resulted in the tire rubbing even more than usual, and the lip of the fender cutting into the tire every time I'd air up or down. You can see below the section I'm referring to. The first two pics are "before," the last two are "after":
The driver side rubbed too, but nowhere near as much, so I fixed that side too. No pics necessary. I didn't use any fancy fender roller this time, I just went at it semi-gently with a plastic mallet. I followed up with some black paint to help protect the exposed metal. In retrospect, I should have gone with some shade of red to make it less obvious. Whatever.
Now the fenders don't grab the tire sidewalls any more when airing up or down and there's no more rubbing when going down the road! I can even drive now on preset 1 without rubbing. I haven't tried driving with it fully dumped, but I think that will be possible as well, with only very minor rubbing in the rear. Awesome!
And finally, I took care of finishing up the trunk to a more satisfactory level. Here again I didn't use any fancy tools or products. I just thought it through (for the last 10 months!) and followed the plan in my head. Here are a couple pics of what the trunk looked like before I got to work on it today:
I figured I would be able to reuse the stock trunk panel that is missing in the pictures above. I got to work cutting and test fitting it until I was satisfied. Now the only things visible are the compressors on the sides of the trunk. Here is the end result (the plugs across the top of the panel are missing, but I have them somewhere. That's a 10-second job):
I think for a total of investment of zero dollars (aside from the price of the battery), I did a helluva good job today! I'm especially relieved to finally get these items checked off my list. Finding time to work on the car without my own garage is more complicated than it seems. Now that it's done, I'll be able to enjoy the car even more!
In other news, the car has been featured in two magazines and a couple more websites. It may yet still show up in another magazine and at least one more website this year. Considering I did this for my own pleasure, I'm really tickled pink to see how much attention my car is garnering! I really do appreciate all the feedback, and I even enjoy reading the comments from ignorant people who just like to bash me and the car without even getting informed first.
I've also got a new pair of rear INVOs sitting in the shed, so when I get time I'll be swapping those on. In the meantime, I'm having fun leaving darkies wherever the opportunity arises.
Another thing to take care of is to install a water drain for the air tank. I've got an idea in mind for that. I just have to check it out more closely to see if my idea will work out.
The main reason for this work today, besides to get these things done, is that next weekend there's a big local show and there's gonna be a lot of bagged cars in attendance. I wanted to be able to show off something that was at least presentable.
That's all for today.
Phil
Sick. Great work. Way to be unique.
Such a Sick Termi!!! i would abosolutely love to have mine bagged with the quality you have done in this thread/car. So awesome!
Thanks guys! I've really been enjoying the car this summer. If you want quality, you're either gonna pay a lot to have someone do it, or do it yourself. I didn't have the budget to have someone else do it for me, plus I figured with some help we could get it done ourselves. While we were at it, we took the extra time to do it right.
I still need to figure out how to install a water trap and drain before the fall. I don't want another freeze-up like I had in the spring. There's also something loose under the car. I'm thinking one of my cats is on its way out, but I haven't checked yet.
Phil
ii wish you lived close. i would happily pay YOU to install it for me. amazing work again man.. just awesome. so jealous lol:beer:
Last night I did a little bit of work on the Cobra. I had several small things to take care of , so I was only in the garage for about an hour.
First up, I installed a new serpentine belt and idler pulleys from Billetflow to resolve a belt slippage issue that I was just beginning to have. The stock idlers tend to eventually self-detonate, so that can be considered preventive maintenance.
Next, I got a "Service Engine Soon" light last week while driving in the rain. I suspect it was caused by the rain, so I just disconnected the battery to clear it. If it comes back, I'll look into it further. Baby steps!
And finally, most relevant to this thread, I removed the air tank to drain the water from it. There was probably between one and two cups of water in there, so I'm glad I did it. In the spring and fall, the nights get below freezing around here and I didn't want my car to be incapacitated again like it was once this spring.
Needless to say, removing the tank to drain the water is not very practical, so Michel and I brainstormed a bit to come up with a plan for a water drain from the tank. The tricky part is accessibility, and the fact that I want the water to drain outside the car and not inside the trunk. We came up with a rough plan but I'll have to go to the local air compressor supply store to see just what options I have on hand. I'm hoping to get this done before I go back to work on Wednesday this week.
In other news, I've been on the hunt for a new (to me) winter car for weeks now, and I may have found an interesting candidate.
That's It for now!
Phil
First up, I installed a new serpentine belt and idler pulleys from Billetflow to resolve a belt slippage issue that I was just beginning to have. The stock idlers tend to eventually self-detonate, so that can be considered preventive maintenance.
Next, I got a "Service Engine Soon" light last week while driving in the rain. I suspect it was caused by the rain, so I just disconnected the battery to clear it. If it comes back, I'll look into it further. Baby steps!
And finally, most relevant to this thread, I removed the air tank to drain the water from it. There was probably between one and two cups of water in there, so I'm glad I did it. In the spring and fall, the nights get below freezing around here and I didn't want my car to be incapacitated again like it was once this spring.
Needless to say, removing the tank to drain the water is not very practical, so Michel and I brainstormed a bit to come up with a plan for a water drain from the tank. The tricky part is accessibility, and the fact that I want the water to drain outside the car and not inside the trunk. We came up with a rough plan but I'll have to go to the local air compressor supply store to see just what options I have on hand. I'm hoping to get this done before I go back to work on Wednesday this week.
In other news, I've been on the hunt for a new (to me) winter car for weeks now, and I may have found an interesting candidate.
That's It for now!
Phil
I put the Cobra away for the winter last week. It's time to evaluate what needs to be done in the off-season.
The big news is that I just ordered Accuair's iLevel controller. I'm hoping to have it under the Christmas tree because it's a partial gift from my girlfriend. Every guy dreams that his girlfriend would buy him something really cool for his car, and now I'm one of those guys whose dream will come true. Of course there's no hurry to get my hands on it because the car is stored off-site and I won't be able to install it until the spring anyway. In the meantime I'll get informed about what iPhone I want to buy. Surely an iPhone 5.
Since around the time I took my car to Billet Pro Shop and had it up on the lift, I've been having problems with the ride height on the rear suspension. When set on preset 2, it airs out completely regardless of whether it is at the right height or not. I'm thinking one or both of the sensors may have suffered some damage from being on the lift. I am NOT blaming Billet Pro Shop for this. In the spring I will swap the rear height sensors to the front of the car and the fronts to the rear and see what happens. If the rear still airs out, then I guess the problem is inside the ECU. I tried redoing the automatic ride height programming and setting the height presets manually, but that didn't help. I'm hoping that Accuair will be able to help me out in resolving this problem. I don't care to spend $500 for a new ECU if this one is on the fritz.
I'm also mulling over a couple of other possible projects that will require investing a fair sum of money into the car. Not sure I want to proceed on either one at the moment, but if the mood strikes me, I may pull the trigger.
First is a possible upgrade to either one or two Air Zenith OB2 compressors from my current dual Viair 400C's. This doesn't require a whole lot of preparation, but those OB2's are quite pricey. I may also bump my system up from the current 150 psi to 200 psi when I make the switch.
The next project is not suspension related, but a comprehensive power upgrade which would net me another 40-60 rwhp. I'm looking into supporting modifications at the moment which would be required for a blower upgrade. Not so much a blower upgrade, but having the stock blower ported. Billet Pro Shop is getting their feet wet in the blower porting business, so that's the route I would take. A blower upgrade on these Cobras usually requires a Kenne Bell Boost-a-Pump and a SCT BA2600 Mass Air Flow Meter to be able to cope with the big increase in airflow that the ported blower can provide. Both of these upgrades are not terribly complicated on their own, but when you get into extensive mods like this, the potential for trouble rises exponentially. This would also be my first foray beyond simple bolt-ons. I am trying to evaluate the risk vs. reward aspect, which isn't easy because of the abundance of information about these upgrades on these Cobras. I've got all winter to work on it and collect the required parts. The engine's ECM would also require fairly extensive retuning to get everything working in symphony.
I've also been considering a swap from 3.55:1 to 3.73:1 rear axle gearing. It doesn't sound like a huge change on paper, but I feel it would be enough to make a difference in the car's performance without sacrificing its daily driveability. I drive the car regularly so any shorter gearing (higher numerically) would result in higher RPM's on the highway and I don't want that. Slightly shorter gearing would give me a little more punch off the line, and the added bonus of slower low-speed rolling in first gear for traffic purposes. As it is, idling in first gear is actually too fast for the goddamn slow traffic we get around here. I constantly have to drag the brakes and/or clutch in to keep from catching up to the traffic ahead. Sounds silly, I know, but that's what it is.
So there it is, my winter to-do list.
Phil
The big news is that I just ordered Accuair's iLevel controller. I'm hoping to have it under the Christmas tree because it's a partial gift from my girlfriend. Every guy dreams that his girlfriend would buy him something really cool for his car, and now I'm one of those guys whose dream will come true.
Of course there's no hurry to get my hands on it because the car is stored off-site and I won't be able to install it until the spring anyway. In the meantime I'll get informed about what iPhone I want to buy. Surely an iPhone 5.Since around the time I took my car to Billet Pro Shop and had it up on the lift, I've been having problems with the ride height on the rear suspension. When set on preset 2, it airs out completely regardless of whether it is at the right height or not. I'm thinking one or both of the sensors may have suffered some damage from being on the lift. I am NOT blaming Billet Pro Shop for this. In the spring I will swap the rear height sensors to the front of the car and the fronts to the rear and see what happens. If the rear still airs out, then I guess the problem is inside the ECU. I tried redoing the automatic ride height programming and setting the height presets manually, but that didn't help. I'm hoping that Accuair will be able to help me out in resolving this problem. I don't care to spend $500 for a new ECU if this one is on the fritz.
I'm also mulling over a couple of other possible projects that will require investing a fair sum of money into the car. Not sure I want to proceed on either one at the moment, but if the mood strikes me, I may pull the trigger.
First is a possible upgrade to either one or two Air Zenith OB2 compressors from my current dual Viair 400C's. This doesn't require a whole lot of preparation, but those OB2's are quite pricey. I may also bump my system up from the current 150 psi to 200 psi when I make the switch.
The next project is not suspension related, but a comprehensive power upgrade which would net me another 40-60 rwhp. I'm looking into supporting modifications at the moment which would be required for a blower upgrade. Not so much a blower upgrade, but having the stock blower ported. Billet Pro Shop is getting their feet wet in the blower porting business, so that's the route I would take. A blower upgrade on these Cobras usually requires a Kenne Bell Boost-a-Pump and a SCT BA2600 Mass Air Flow Meter to be able to cope with the big increase in airflow that the ported blower can provide. Both of these upgrades are not terribly complicated on their own, but when you get into extensive mods like this, the potential for trouble rises exponentially. This would also be my first foray beyond simple bolt-ons. I am trying to evaluate the risk vs. reward aspect, which isn't easy because of the abundance of information about these upgrades on these Cobras. I've got all winter to work on it and collect the required parts. The engine's ECM would also require fairly extensive retuning to get everything working in symphony.
I've also been considering a swap from 3.55:1 to 3.73:1 rear axle gearing. It doesn't sound like a huge change on paper, but I feel it would be enough to make a difference in the car's performance without sacrificing its daily driveability. I drive the car regularly so any shorter gearing (higher numerically) would result in higher RPM's on the highway and I don't want that. Slightly shorter gearing would give me a little more punch off the line, and the added bonus of slower low-speed rolling in first gear for traffic purposes. As it is, idling in first gear is actually too fast for the goddamn slow traffic we get around here. I constantly have to drag the brakes and/or clutch in to keep from catching up to the traffic ahead. Sounds silly, I know, but that's what it is.
So there it is, my winter to-do list.
Phil
It's been a while since the last major update. Mainly because the Cobra has been working well, so there just hasn't been much to report on. I also bought a house over the winter, so now I have my own garage in which I can work on and park the car!
One issue I was having last summer was an error for the left rear ride height sensor on the eLevel system. I just didn't have time to check it out, but the air system was still working well. Just when one of the sensors bug, the preset heights don't work, but the height adjustability is still fully functional.
This weekend I finally brought my toolbox home from my friend's garage, so I was able to pull the left rear wheel off the car to check out the sensor problem. I don't know how it happened, but the sensor's swingarm got bent in two places, and the mounting tab on the upper upper A-arm was also bent. The pushrod had become disconnected from the upper A-arm, so the sensor wasn't reading the actual height of the left rear corner. Instead, the sensor was just flopping around and giving erroneous data to the ECU, so the ECU would adjust the air pressure randomly based on those false readings.
Right now I'm in the process of contacting Accuair about what I can do to fix this. They've suggested that I could just bend the swingarm straight again and I should be OK. It's a free fix, so I'll give that a shot next weekend when I get back home.
In other news, since I got the car back on the road this spring, I've been driving it lower than I did in the past. Strangely, I didn't bottom out nearly as much as I was expecting. I have noticed, though, that the rear shocks are on their last legs. The to-do list never ends...
One issue I was having last summer was an error for the left rear ride height sensor on the eLevel system. I just didn't have time to check it out, but the air system was still working well. Just when one of the sensors bug, the preset heights don't work, but the height adjustability is still fully functional.
This weekend I finally brought my toolbox home from my friend's garage, so I was able to pull the left rear wheel off the car to check out the sensor problem. I don't know how it happened, but the sensor's swingarm got bent in two places, and the mounting tab on the upper upper A-arm was also bent. The pushrod had become disconnected from the upper A-arm, so the sensor wasn't reading the actual height of the left rear corner. Instead, the sensor was just flopping around and giving erroneous data to the ECU, so the ECU would adjust the air pressure randomly based on those false readings.
Right now I'm in the process of contacting Accuair about what I can do to fix this. They've suggested that I could just bend the swingarm straight again and I should be OK. It's a free fix, so I'll give that a shot next weekend when I get back home.
In other news, since I got the car back on the road this spring, I've been driving it lower than I did in the past. Strangely, I didn't bottom out nearly as much as I was expecting. I have noticed, though, that the rear shocks are on their last legs. The to-do list never ends...
awesome! Wonder if the rear suspension flexed in an abnormal direction and somehow the swingarm or pushrod ended up binding.
I'm debating between this or a custom koni coilover setup. The coilovers would be lighter and easier to install but this is much cooler.
I'm debating between this or a custom koni coilover setup. The coilovers would be lighter and easier to install but this is much cooler.
I'm still scratching my head over how the damage occurred. Either there was some binding, or a foreign object made it up there and interfered somehow. I checked the other side and everything was fine, so I don't know. Now I'm wondering, if I just straighten everything out and put it back together as it was, will it happen again?
Forget the coilovers, go with air!
:beer:
Users who are viewing this thread
