Warning: This is likely to get long-winded
Needing somewhere I can try to document current mods, ongoing changes, and get any necessary feedback from the community so figured I would make a thread. This isn't some crazy SEMA build thread, so please adjust your expectations accordingly haha.
In fact I have a ton of learning to do just to understand the current mods and how they all work or effect performance.
An 03 Cobra in Sonic Blue has been my dream car since I was 18. That year (2013) I bought a 04 Mustang GT local to me that just so happened to be Sonic Blue. I instantly fell in love with the color and the car. I still remember being in Tech School (Air Force "A-School") and watching every dang terminator video on youtube that I could find. Staying up way too late to listen to "whine compilations" lol.
So I finally bought my dream car on Oct 24th, had it shipped from Utah, and delivered on the 26th. I am the fourth owner if my memory serves me right. I bought it directly from the previous owner who seems to be a great guy. Unfortunately he suffered some serious health issues about a year ago and just kind of lost interest and time for the car shortly after.
He included a ton of receipts from both him and the first owner which I spent some time going through and organizing. It would seem the first owner was all about suspension and handling. He pretty much had all the suspension mods done, then the third owner was all about the power mods. Both of them seemed to have left all the installation and tuning to pro performance shops in their respective areas. Current tune was done on the dyno and was reported to be 775whp @21psi, in Utah at ~5000' elevation. However the last dyno sheet I have with the car seems to be about 670whp. The timing of it seems to co-align with when a 2.3L VMP was installed. We will see when I get it to a local place for a dyno run just to verify.
I'm going to go through and list what is (or at least should be) currently installed on the car. I'll throw an (*) next to anything I have a receipt for or was told is currently installed, but haven't personally verified yet.
Engine:
- Whipple gen4 2.9L Crusher w/ 3.5" pulley
- JLT intake*
- VMP 5" throttle body*
- Car came with an SCT X4 tuner.
- Current dyno tune is for E85 with meth injection. I was told there was no 93 tune however the tuner does have one in its memory. Definitely won't roll the dice on that though.
- Metco 4# Lower Pulley
- Metco Idlers, (1) 90MM and (3) 100mm
- Fore full return fuel system
- Twin 465LPH fuel pumps*
- 90# FIC fuel injectors
- Alky control meth injection
- Lightning Performance heat exchanger
- K&N valve cover breathers.
- Moroso coolant tanks. Powdercoated to match wheels.
- Head cooling mod
Drivetrain:
- Steeda Tri-ax shifter
- Mcleod RST twin disk clutch*
- Torsen T-2R limited diff
- Metco Driveshaft Safety loop
- MSD 2-step
Exhaust:
- BBK 1 5/8" Long tube headers
- BBK high flow catted X pipe
- Borla ATAK catbacks
Suspension:
- Modular Motorsports Caster Camber Plates
- Eibach lowering springs
- Koni "yellow" adjustable shocks
- Weld-in subframe connectors from MM
- Steeda sway bar*
- Polyurethane bushings for subframe, IRS, control arms, front and rear diff mounts.
- Brembo Gran Turismo brake kit with supporting master cylinder and braided brake lines
- Rovo Durban wheels, 18x9 front, 18x10.5 rear. Powdercoated
- Toyo R888r's, 275 front, 315 rear
Interior:
- AEM Wideband Failsafe (Boost/Wideband combo) gauge. Love this thing.
- Driver's side racing harness. Haven't even looked at it to see what the brand is yet
- Aftermarket shift knob.
- Door Sills. Powdercoated to match wheels
Exterior:
- Lightning Force Performance Heat extractor inserts. Powdercoated to match wheels
- Fiberglass side skirts from Carbon Driven
- Carter Custom diffuser
- Custom trunk liner
- Tinted tail lights
Need to verify:
- Full suspension. Suspension is probably where I'm currently the most ignorant (especially IRS) and cannot identify most things just by looking at them.
There's likely a couple things I'm missing or need to find but that should be the bulk of it.
Things to do and could probably use advice/thoughts with:
- Fix headlights. The current bulbs do not seem to be made for the factory housing. They kinda suck and switching to bright changes how the light reflects but does not yield further visibility.
- Had an alignment done the other day and the tech noticed my diff was leaking. No idea how badly, I haven't noticed a liquid underneath the car except the AC so I need to get under it this week to check it out. Went ahead and ordered a slew of amsoil fluids to have on hand including diff fluid and a handpump. I'm also going to grab the FRPP diff cover if one isn't currently installed.
- Swap out the shifter. Either this shifter sucks or something is going on. Putting it into first from a complete stop usually takes two or maybe three tries. Reverse is even worse. It doesn't want to go in but when it does, it takes wayyy too much muscle for it to finally "notch" into position. While slowly rolling, first clicks right into place. Worth noting, there's no grinding or anything else I'm aware of that would indicate it's a synchronizer issue. I'm praying swapping it out for an MGW solves this.
- Vented Catch Can. These breathers are slinging oil everywhere after boost and it's already getting old. The motion raceworks seem to be highly liked and also look really good so that's the route I'm likely going to go.
Goals/Plans:
I intend to keep this as just a fun, streetable car that can put bus lengths on 99% of anyone who wants to FAFO.
Ideally I'd like to start building another 4.6L 4v long block on the side that is far "overbuilt" for the intended output. I'd like to touch 1000whp with that engine but trying to do that while keeping it a streetable car that can actually put the power down is likely nothing more than a pipe dream. The 1000whp would literally just be for bragging rights so we will see how that ends up.
Needing somewhere I can try to document current mods, ongoing changes, and get any necessary feedback from the community so figured I would make a thread. This isn't some crazy SEMA build thread, so please adjust your expectations accordingly haha.
In fact I have a ton of learning to do just to understand the current mods and how they all work or effect performance.
An 03 Cobra in Sonic Blue has been my dream car since I was 18. That year (2013) I bought a 04 Mustang GT local to me that just so happened to be Sonic Blue. I instantly fell in love with the color and the car. I still remember being in Tech School (Air Force "A-School") and watching every dang terminator video on youtube that I could find. Staying up way too late to listen to "whine compilations" lol.
So I finally bought my dream car on Oct 24th, had it shipped from Utah, and delivered on the 26th. I am the fourth owner if my memory serves me right. I bought it directly from the previous owner who seems to be a great guy. Unfortunately he suffered some serious health issues about a year ago and just kind of lost interest and time for the car shortly after.
He included a ton of receipts from both him and the first owner which I spent some time going through and organizing. It would seem the first owner was all about suspension and handling. He pretty much had all the suspension mods done, then the third owner was all about the power mods. Both of them seemed to have left all the installation and tuning to pro performance shops in their respective areas. Current tune was done on the dyno and was reported to be 775whp @21psi, in Utah at ~5000' elevation. However the last dyno sheet I have with the car seems to be about 670whp. The timing of it seems to co-align with when a 2.3L VMP was installed. We will see when I get it to a local place for a dyno run just to verify.
I'm going to go through and list what is (or at least should be) currently installed on the car. I'll throw an (*) next to anything I have a receipt for or was told is currently installed, but haven't personally verified yet.
Engine:
- Whipple gen4 2.9L Crusher w/ 3.5" pulley
- JLT intake*
- VMP 5" throttle body*
- Car came with an SCT X4 tuner.
- Current dyno tune is for E85 with meth injection. I was told there was no 93 tune however the tuner does have one in its memory. Definitely won't roll the dice on that though.
- Metco 4# Lower Pulley
- Metco Idlers, (1) 90MM and (3) 100mm
- Fore full return fuel system
- Twin 465LPH fuel pumps*
- 90# FIC fuel injectors
- Alky control meth injection
- Lightning Performance heat exchanger
- K&N valve cover breathers.
- Moroso coolant tanks. Powdercoated to match wheels.
- Head cooling mod
Drivetrain:
- Steeda Tri-ax shifter
- Mcleod RST twin disk clutch*
- Torsen T-2R limited diff
- Metco Driveshaft Safety loop
- MSD 2-step
Exhaust:
- BBK 1 5/8" Long tube headers
- BBK high flow catted X pipe
- Borla ATAK catbacks
Suspension:
- Modular Motorsports Caster Camber Plates
- Eibach lowering springs
- Koni "yellow" adjustable shocks
- Weld-in subframe connectors from MM
- Steeda sway bar*
- Polyurethane bushings for subframe, IRS, control arms, front and rear diff mounts.
- Brembo Gran Turismo brake kit with supporting master cylinder and braided brake lines
- Rovo Durban wheels, 18x9 front, 18x10.5 rear. Powdercoated
- Toyo R888r's, 275 front, 315 rear
Interior:
- AEM Wideband Failsafe (Boost/Wideband combo) gauge. Love this thing.
- Driver's side racing harness. Haven't even looked at it to see what the brand is yet
- Aftermarket shift knob.
- Door Sills. Powdercoated to match wheels
Exterior:
- Lightning Force Performance Heat extractor inserts. Powdercoated to match wheels
- Fiberglass side skirts from Carbon Driven
- Carter Custom diffuser
- Custom trunk liner
- Tinted tail lights
Need to verify:
- Full suspension. Suspension is probably where I'm currently the most ignorant (especially IRS) and cannot identify most things just by looking at them.
There's likely a couple things I'm missing or need to find but that should be the bulk of it.
Things to do and could probably use advice/thoughts with:
- Fix headlights. The current bulbs do not seem to be made for the factory housing. They kinda suck and switching to bright changes how the light reflects but does not yield further visibility.
- Had an alignment done the other day and the tech noticed my diff was leaking. No idea how badly, I haven't noticed a liquid underneath the car except the AC so I need to get under it this week to check it out. Went ahead and ordered a slew of amsoil fluids to have on hand including diff fluid and a handpump. I'm also going to grab the FRPP diff cover if one isn't currently installed.
- Swap out the shifter. Either this shifter sucks or something is going on. Putting it into first from a complete stop usually takes two or maybe three tries. Reverse is even worse. It doesn't want to go in but when it does, it takes wayyy too much muscle for it to finally "notch" into position. While slowly rolling, first clicks right into place. Worth noting, there's no grinding or anything else I'm aware of that would indicate it's a synchronizer issue. I'm praying swapping it out for an MGW solves this.
- Vented Catch Can. These breathers are slinging oil everywhere after boost and it's already getting old. The motion raceworks seem to be highly liked and also look really good so that's the route I'm likely going to go.
Goals/Plans:
I intend to keep this as just a fun, streetable car that can put bus lengths on 99% of anyone who wants to FAFO.
Ideally I'd like to start building another 4.6L 4v long block on the side that is far "overbuilt" for the intended output. I'd like to touch 1000whp with that engine but trying to do that while keeping it a streetable car that can actually put the power down is likely nothing more than a pipe dream. The 1000whp would literally just be for bragging rights so we will see how that ends up.
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