Just watched the first video and thought "bad tune or not, that car doesnt sound like its firing on all cylinders". Glad you got it sorted out!
Malcolm's Teksid Cobra rebuild thread
- Thread starter MalcolmV8
- Start date
Can't wait to see what kind of times it runs. High compression is the way to go with e85 on these cars, I can only imagine the extra grunt and crispness to be had especially with a pd blower. The tubular front end is soo tempting with the weight savings but I'm reminded of my old 95 gt with coil overs, too many noises for me.
Yeah only 5 cylinders lol. All sorted now
Yeah the high CR was an awesome move. Loving the crisp responsive throttle. Exhaust note sounds real sharp too.
The coil over noises are killing me. I wonder what exactly makes all the noise. I wouldn't mind trying to get bushings in somewhere or something to smooth out the noises. Makes the car sound like a cheap ol piece of junk with worn out shocks or something.
Let me know what u end up trying, because I think the same thing, they make ur car feel cheap. If it was a drag car I wouldn't care, but I dd my car in the summer and it's embarrassing when people are in the car.
It's all that mass now hanging off the shock towers which now includes the engine, K-member and 1/2 the weight of the tranny. Lots of movement taking place there. I would consider going back to the stock spring set-up that cantilevers off the K-member the metal fatigue with the coilovers will only get worse.
I had finished the other half of my shock tower reinforcement post on Saturday. When I went to submit the post the cache on Mozilla timed-out on me and I lost the whole thing :cuss: Now I have to re-write it all over again :cryying:
That's a great point. I just went back and looked at my old setup. The springs held the weight of the car at the point where the k-member attached to the sub frame. Now the weight of the car is been held in the shock towers. Completely different and probably the issue.
I wonder if there's a way to have a stock style spring setup and keep the tubular light weight k-member? I'll have to look into it (IE go browse the vendors to spend more money
lol). Adding a few pounds back to smooth out the noises and ride would be worth it to me.BTW Russ if I may suggest. When you make a large post before you hit submit copy and paste the post into TextEdit or Notepad etc. then if your browser craps out or SVTP is offline no worries. Refresh your browser etc. and get that resolved then simply copy/paste back from your text editor and magic
Malcolm, if I remember right the Steeda K member has spring perches. Try that one! I want to see your car soon haha, so glad to see it back alive!
I can't even tell you how not in the mood I am to swap k-members again lol
but cool man. I'll do some digging around.
there was just a thread where jgoffin had some links about the steeda k-member. very impressive
http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?1091888-K-member-question
i could never really understand how coilovers up front could be good because its clear that the car wasn't designed to carry the load at that location (same with the rear)
http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?1091888-K-member-question
i could never really understand how coilovers up front could be good because its clear that the car wasn't designed to carry the load at that location (same with the rear)
That's a great point. I just went back and looked at my old setup. The springs held the weight of the car at the point where the k-member attached to the sub frame. Now the weight of the car is been held in the shock towers. Completely different and probably the issue.
I wonder if there's a way to have a stock style spring setup and keep the tubular light weight k-member? I'll have to look into it (IE go browse the vendors to spend more money
Not only that the the chassis is now carrying the weight of the engine and 1/2 the tranny and the K-memeber where before the engine just rested on the K-member and bypassed the chassis althogether which is what I was getting at. Before the chassis just sat on top of the K-member and that was it! Finding a K-member that will accept the factory springs is hard to do. I consider it to be part of the chassis structure and for a street car I find most of the light weight drag K-members unacceptable. While the factory unit is on the heavy side I'll take the 25 lb. hit I doubt there is an aftermarket unit that can match the strength of deep drawn formed steel unit plus it acts as a skid plate and protects the steering gear. My chassis guy actually wanted to weld it to the car which is where I put my foot down! That would have turned my chassis into a "rock"
Personally I would either go back to the OE coils or consider beefing up the towers to carry the load which can be done with the engine still in the car but to take full advantage of it will require dropping the engine with the K-member so you can get to the frame rails which my post that got "vaporized" was addressing. Personally I would limit the amount of driving you do on the coilovers until you address this. Every time you hear metal creaking means something is flexing says fatigue and work hardening since the load has been moved so high in the chassis ...... those poor fender aprons are getting abused :cryying:
If I were in your shoes I would beak out the Miller, some #35 wire and start soldering mo metal to the chassis that way you get to keep the K-member you already have......... and just when you thought you were done :nonono: but that's what winters are for LOL
BTW Russ if I may suggest. When you make a large post before you hit submit copy and paste the post into TextEdit or Notepad etc. then if your browser craps out or SVTP is offline no worries. Refresh your browser etc. and get that resolved then simply copy/paste back from your text editor and magic
That's the course someone with more prudence would have taken :smmon:
Malcolm, Russ brings up a very good point. The point being, that the factory strut towers were never designed to handle the weight of coilovers. If you choose to stick with the coil overs and the upr k-member I would consider reinforcing the strut towers. As far as after market K-members are concerned, from the research I have done the only one I would consider would be the Steeda K-member. It seems like the strongest, more robust one on the market. It will also allow you to use the factory control arms with the stock or after market springs. You also don't have to relocate the oil filter. I don't think it's as strong as the factory k but probably the next best thing. Unfortunately Steeda discontinued this k-member but they are willing to bring it back in production if 10 people show interest. I have an interest thread in the suspension section but I might post one in the Terminator talk section as it gets more traffic. Also congrats on finishing the build. I have been following it from the beginning.
What kind of lca bushings are you running? Could they be making the noise you are hearing?
GREAT THREAD.... That's awesome your boy jumped in and wanted to work on the cobra with you.... :rockon:
It's what came with the kit. It seemed like a very hard urethane. I don't think that's the noise. To me it seems the noise is not really from any one part but rather just the car / dash etc. been shook in a way it's not supposed to. Like if you drive in a car with worn shocks you hear all kinds of noses when you hit bumps, metal creaks, dash vibrations etc. It's like that.
Went for a ride today, windows down, loud exhaust didn't notice it at all. When I drive a little more normal and windows up it's very noticeable though.
Actually it was a 70 lb difference. Not to be over looked on such a nose heavy car. I did some looking and UPR has spring perches for $40. They use the same two bolts on each side that hold the k-member to the body. Think I need to order those. I don't see any a-arms with spring perches so will probably have to put the stock a-arms back on with the factory coil springs. It'll add some weight back but it'll suspend the car from the correct spot and if it fixes the dash noises over bumps bonus.
While on topic I know a lot of guys run coil overs. Never really heard of anyone bending or breaking the shock towers. Is it really an issue? If I just live with the noise am I really going to hurt anything?
Yes awesome bonding experience I'm sure he'll remember his whole life.
I can't even tell you how not in the mood I am to swap k-members again lol
I feel like that is a huge understatement hahaha
The reason I ask is Bruce at FTBR recommends grease fittings on lcas with delrin (hard) bushings as they will squeak. I didn't see the fittings in your pics. I was hoping it was as simple as that. Sucks that it's coming from a number of locations. I really hate rattles, creaks and squeeks.
Gotcha. No it's more of a general car rattle from shaking things up.
Might be to soon to report but my old setup made 27.5 lbs of boost. The new setup is 23.5 PSI. Same blower, same pulleys. I haven't really taken the motor to more than 5K RPMs and it has less than 100 miles on it so needs more break in and tuning before fully opening up but pretty sure that was full boost. If anything the boost may tapper off in the upper RPMs if the new motor combo exceeds the air flow of the 2.9 crusher but not likely.
Malcolm this one has got me scratching my head. I weighted my front cross member at 53 lbs which would mean yours is at a negative 17. The MM K-member dials in at 35 lbs and the spindly drag K-members hit the scales at about 25 lbs which is what I was referencing.
I kept my stock A-arms and just braced the pivot points due to the fact the flanges were not supported on 4 sides. Steel stamping are actually pretty stiff and with coilovers no longer have a spring bearing-up against them supporting the weight of the car. I would have installed lighter tubular A-arms but the one thing I didn't like about them and did like about the factory A-arms was the huge bushings they accommodate over the smaller ones installed in the aftermarket units.
These things pivot on the OD rather then on the crush sleeve, have spiral cut grooves for grease and are the nicest A-arm delrin bushings for a Mustang I have come across. If you go back to your stock A-arms consider getting a set of these :rockon:
My maximum motorsports coil overs don't make a single noise. My old cheap drag stuff however, made a lot of noise. Now if I could just get that stupid brake caliper to stop rattling I would be great.
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