Hello from a new member of the Cobra family

[96vert]

Hi everyone - I've been a reader for a short time (while I looked and looked for a cobra - and convinced myself and my wife that I NEEDED another car, and it HAD to be a cobra). I was looking for one with low mileage, of course, but didn't have to be perfect. I had the choice of a 97 tripple black BONE STOCK w/ 8k miles or this one, for 3k LESS. To me it was a No-Brainer.

I ended up with the 96 cobra convertible in my signature below. I have a few questions for all you knowledgeable folks.

First, the car has 13,500 miles on it. According to all the documentation I have, it has NEVER been to the shop for anything - the previous owner installed the flowmasters & vortech, (7k miles ago) 3.73 gears (right after original purchase) and the cobra R rims w/ firestone firehawk tires (3k miles ago), and did all his own oil changes (mobil 1 every 2k miles)

now for the questions:
1. I have the documentation from Ford for a recall on the handbrake (hasn't been done yet), are there any other recalls on this model year? I read something about the cooling system- is this something to be worried about?

2. Also, there was no owner's manual- is there a way to order a replacement from Ford? (is this even something that I need? - since I have the repair manual...)

3. THE SUPERCHARGER. As you can read below, it is an 8 lb model, with the saleen guages for boost and fuel pressure in the standard clock location. I know VERY LITTLE about superchargers in general, and even less about supercharging a high output engine such as this. I have lots of questions about this part of the car - and have been doing some searches, finding bits of information. I will keep searching.

In the meantime, I wanted to introduce myself, say hi, and let you all know that you have a new cobra enthusiast in your ranks!

 

[CobraSeekr]

Welcome 96vert. I'm a new Cobra owner also, so I don't have alot of advise for ya. I'll step aside and let the others fill you in. The only advise I have is use 91-92 octane fuel with that S/C. A octane boost additive can't hurt either. I still get a little pinging in the higher R's at 6 pounds of boost.

I sure didn't get one with your low mileage!!!

 

[Ginsu]

Welcome and hope to see you sticking around for awhile. Since you are talking 4.6 I will have to pass since I am a 5.0 owner. G8White should be in here soon and should be able to answer your Q's!

 

[96vert]

Thanks for the replies guys, nice to be welcomed
I will probably be using either shell 93 or sunoco 94 - that is what the seller told me he recommended (good enough for me)

 

[CobraSeekr]

You have 93-94 octane?? The best we get here is a watered down 91!!! Damn CA environazi's strike again. Not only is our fuel oxygenated (less mileage), but it also has MTBE additive that was supposed to clean the air but ended polluting ground water (nice job environazi's). I was OK with all that, but this octane thing burns my a** :cuss:

 

[SVT X 2]

First off... welcome aboard and excelent purchase! That's LOW milage for a '96!

Anyways... The E-brake recall:
Get it done, it's a gravy fix for the mechanics and it'll pay off right away, even if yours feels fine. Mine "felt" fine too, until one day I applied it and got out of the car and she started slowly scooting forward down the driveway!!

The Cooling Problem:
Not all '96's reported having this problem and it wasn't a real safety issue, so instead of a full on recall, Ford opted for a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin). This is if the owner had reported the problem while the car was under warranty, they had a list of things to replace and do to the car free of charge. If the car no longer HAS the warranty, your SOL for the freebie. The TSB # is: 96-25-12 and consists of PN F6ZZ-8005-JB and included a larger radiator (wich went into the '97-'98's), larger cooling fan, revised A/C condenser, and relating hardware. At the time a $1,347 upgrade. Also some dealers removed the honeycomb style grille to allow more air to flow into the nose.

As for the manuals... You have to go through the company that prints them up, and they're like $100. You can get it on disc off of e-bay. I can look up the company for the printed copy and get back to ya'.

For sure run that 93-94 octane.

~ Tim~

 

[GR8WHITE]

Welcome aboard! Glad to see you have bought the best. SVT that is. ;-) I have had a good bit of experience with SC's on the 4v motors. You can see my old 97 in my homepage. The link is showing as WWW at the bottom of my post.

The best information I can give you right now is to just get used to the car. You have around 400RWHp and it is very sneaky HP. The car with the 3:73 still won't pull up to it's full potential until around 4000 RPM. Then it is like another motor kicks in. GOD I love boost. :-D

Brake fix: Yep that one is a must!

Cooling: Just keep an eye on the temperature guage in traffic. I always leaned the coolant mix out in the summer months. It is not a for certain problem. Only some had this problem.

Rear Swaybar: Some 96-97 Cobras were braking the rear swaybar. This is easy to see if it has happened by just looking under the rear. It is also easy to replace. The new swaybar ,if you buy it from Ford, is a 98 unit. You could also get one from the jukyard. It must be a Cobra SB to keep the handle of the car consistent. Again this is just a heads up. Not all Cobras had this happen, just some.

Belt Tensioner: Some 96-98 owners had problems breaking the stock belt tensioner with a SC. There is an improved unit from Ford here also. Watch the heads for black residue builing up on the valve covers. This could be from belt slip, and that is lost HP on a centrifical SC car. The belt should be changed once a year. Make sure the belt is clean and in good working condition at all times. DO NOT use belt dressing on the belt. If it is slipping just get a new belt. Sticky gunk on the pullies and belt won't keep it from slipping, since the biggest reason for slippage is that the belt has been stretched.

Plugs: Motorcraft AWSF22C plugs or other manufacturer's cross matched model. I used NGK's in my SC'd 97. The plugs should be gapped at .035 to keep the SC from blowing them out like a candle. Regap them to .052 for emissions and safety inspections, then regap them back to .035 afterwards. The bigger gap will lean the car out some for emissions.

I know you're going to look at this and think What have I gotten into!?!? Don't worry. Most of the things listed are just in case items. There were no huge issues with the 96-98's, only minor qwerks that not all had. Bottom line is that your car is a BEAST with the blower. You will love it once you get to know it.

 

[96vert]

Thanks!

Thanks a bunch for the good replies. Just what I was looking for. I absolutely love the car, and you are right, it is a different car above 4k rpm (I haven't had the opportunity to take it above 5000 rpm yet, but I'm working on it) (hey, i've only had it for 3 days now)

It is good to know what to look for. Are there any other problems to watch for (pistons, head gasket, etc?) that would be caused by the supercharger?

Should I replace the plugs/wires more often or anything? (the vortech manual I have says nothing about this, but I have read elsewhere that the ignition system is really fairly weak)

I appreciate all the help!

 

[GR8WHITE]

The pistons will survive a long time on a conservative tune provided you don't boost the car 24/7. I know it is hard not to once you get used to it! ;-) Just be sure you listen for detonation under boost, it sounds like a muffled handful of firecrackers under the hood. That is bad on the pistons. The top ringlands are the ususal breaking point on the boosted 4.6's, so as long as you keep good gas in, and avoid detonation you should be fine. I would however, look into the piston upgrade to forged pistons in the next couple of years if you can afford it.

The electrical system on our cars is pretty goo. It isn't designed for boost though. At upper RPM's when you achieve full boost the spark can be blown out like a candle. I installed the DIS-4 from MSD on my 97 and it was pretty nice. It has a 2 step rev limiter and timing retard function. I used this instead of the chip that came with the SC kit once I got it figured out on the dyno. You can also by the coil packs from Accel. They replace the existing coil pack and create more output for a longer duration which is gr8 for sc'd applications. It is the easier of the two to deal with, since you don't need to go back and retune your car. You just rely on the tune the chip sent in the SC kit uses and this eliminates the worry of detonation. You can even gap the plugs out some more for more HP if you have the time to tune a little. In either case it will help in your SC'd case.

The heads are solid. You run a risk of warping the heads if you overheat the car, but that is easy to keep an eye on. There really shouldn't be a problem with that.

 

[GR8WHITE]

Here is a link to Sean Hyland's site CLICK HERE This is where the Coil packs are listed. I'm sure you could contact JDM and get a better price. JDM's SPOT! CLICK HERE

 

[SVT X 2]

It wouldn't hurt to wire up a manual switch for the high-speed fan, if it's not done already. I think the instructions were off of Mustangworld.

 

[96vert]

pic

thanks everyone, will look into all the great advice. I thought I would post a pic now that I have some...

there is a picture in the testing forum at this thread:
here

there are also some other pics and more info on my personal homepage. here

anyway, here is the other pic.

 

[GR8WHITE]

I'm crushed. No mention of us on your homepage? :cryying:

 

[Blue03Cobra]

Looks great! Congrats.

 

[96vert]

still creating the webpage piece by piece - what is there now is the product of about 20 minutes this morning... (because I finally got some digital pics of the car, and wanted a page to post them on)

soooo, don't worry, that oversight is now corrected Gr8White