2003cobra#2's 3.4 Whipple Build

03cobra#2

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Made my marks on the chains marked everything and am starting to remove the chains, cams, followers ect. For the chain tensioner I am using a vice to collapse and a paperclip to hold them in place. Springs, retainers, head studs, and spring compressor are all on order and will be here in a couple days.
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03cobra#2

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Small update. I have the cams, followers, lifters, out of the passenger head. Looks like I'll have the room I need to get the springs and head studs in. Probably gonna have to jack up / tilt the engine to squeeze a couple of the studs in. As far as the springs go looks like I'll have the room I need to get the spring compressor in. The back ones by the firewall don't look like it will be a lot of fun but I guess that's what grease and a magnet is for.

Also getting the some of the followers in could be fun as well after the new cams go in and it's all degreed. Patience.
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cj428mach

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Small update. I have the cams, followers, lifters, out of the passenger head. Looks like I'll have the room I need to get the springs and head studs in. Probably gonna have to jack up / tilt the engine to squeeze a couple of the studs in. As far as the springs go looks like I'll have the room I need to get the spring compressor in. The back ones by the firewall don't look like it will be a lot of fun but I guess that's what grease and a magnet is for.

Also getting the some of the followers in could be fun as well after the new cams go in and it's all degreed. Patience. View attachment 1619642


As far a long as you are, I'd just drop the engine.
It will probably save you time in the long run and you 'll be able to do better work. I spent about a day doing valve seals on the pass side. Some valves it would be 5 mins start to finish, others 1hr plus.
 

03cobra#2

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I don't really have the room in the garage to pull the motor. I'm not really concerned about the time. If I do end up having to pull the motor to continue I'll have to wait until spring so I can kick the wife's car out of the garage. The Whipple showed up today. Now I need to keep an eye out for a crusher upgrade.
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cj428mach

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I don't really have the room in the garage to pull the motor. I'm not really concerned about the time. If I do end up having to pull the motor to continue I'll have to wait until spring so I can kick the wife's car out of the garage. The Whipple showed up today. Now I need to keep an eye out for a crusher upgrade. View attachment 1619718


You might be able to just undo the kmember bolts and raise the chassis just enough you can work from the fender wells.
 

03cobra#2

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You might be able to just undo the kmember bolts and raise the chassis just enough you can work from the fender wells.
Don't want to sound stupid but looks like most of work is done on the top of the engine. Are you talking about being able to reach all the springs / head bolts? I do have the front end on jack stands do dropping the kmember not a huge deal at this point.
 
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cj428mach

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Don't want to sound stupid but looks like most of work is done on the top of the engine. Are you talking about being able to reach all the springs / head bolts? I do have the front end on jack stands do dropping the kmember not a huge deal at this point.

I meant lower engine enough just to get heads clear of the body.
 

RichM1983

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Mine comes tomorrow. I got the non-crusher too. I'm going to be stubborn and stick with the standard inlet when the time comes.
 

03cobra#2

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For anyone that is concerned about replacing valve springs with the engine in the car it is not that bad. I did disconnect the brake booster to give me more room, but with this tool I have its not that bad. Took 1 1/2 hours to do the 4 closest to the firewall on the driver's side. Figured those would be the most difficult and it was not that bad. No swearing or crying. Knock on wood lol. Still need to make my cam selection. I'll update again once I finish the springs and head studs.
 

03cobra#2

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Just wanted to give a little update. Just finished switching out the valve springs. This tool, along with the small magnetic screw driver it came with made it pretty much a breeze. I used grease to hold the locks on the screw driver and was able to pop them right on the valve stem no problem. Plenty of room to use the spring compressor on both sides. It is a bit time consuming but no frustrations or swearing at all.

Tonight I'll be starting on the head bolts. I have a feeling I may need to tilt / jack up the motor slightly to get to all the bolts.
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94slowbra1

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Well that's good news about the springs. And coming from someone who just did studs with the engine in the car, you will need to tilt the passenger side up to get the lower rear bolts out/in. Literally took a couple of mins to loosen the motor mount bolt, jack it up and change them out.
Progress is looking good, keep it up!
 

03cobra#2

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Well that's good news about the springs. And coming from someone who just did studs with the engine in the car, you will need to tilt the passenger side up to get the lower rear bolts out/in. Literally took a couple of mins to loosen the motor mount bolt, jack it up and change them out.
Progress is looking good, keep it up!
Finished the passenger last night first. That's exactly what I had to do . Moved the engine up like 2 Inches. No issues. I'll do the drivers side studs tonight and hopefully I'll be installing the cams this week and get started on the degreeing processes by the end of the week.
 

03cobra#2

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Getting ready for the cam install. Ordered the followimg:

Comp cams 106460 cams
Trick flow cam degree kit
Trick flow Ford mod motor suplimemt kit
Trick flow 12mm cam bolts
Crank / degree wheel holder
Comp cams primary adjustable cam gears
L&M Engines adjustable secondary sprockets

Gears and sprockets probably won't be here until next week but the cams arrive tomorrow so I'll be able to install thoes and get them torqued town. Then throw in the chains and gears and start degreeing next week.

I decided to buy the adjustable secondarys because I want to make the degreeing process as easy as possible.
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03cobra#2

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I have not really. I was just going to reuse the stock pieces. 25k miles on the car and don't plan on racing it.
 

cj428mach

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I have not really. I was just going to reuse the stock pieces. 25k miles on the car and don't plan on racing it.

The secondary tensioner fixes a flaw in the way ford designed the factory timing tensioner. I went with the cobra engineering, and am very happy with it. Expensive but timing accuracy matters.
 
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4sdvenom

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I did read that. I'll look into them. Thanks for the tip.
It's only needed for the passenger side, but like mentioned above it fixes a factory flaw. Stock passanger side tensioner applies tension to the driven side of the chain, driver's side applies tension to the slack side of the chain. The Cobra Engineering piece changes the passenger side to apply tension to the slack side, which is the correct side of the chain.
Click---> Cobra Engineering LLC
 

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