Stock oem cobra n/a over 300rwhp!

BHAM

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This is a small outline of my 1993 cobra build.
cobra.jpg

the cobra is a vibrant red clearcoat, with cloth opal interior. No sunroof and the tape/radio. it is build number 3755.

I got the cobra by trading my fully built coupe, caged, every possible modification that could be done. we went title for title, and both drove off happier than pigs in sh!t.

there were a few things wrong with the cobra but i knew that for the trade i would have taken it with a blown up motor. funny thing about that, but ill get to that in a bit.

the original owner, from what ive understood, after contacting him, was somewhat of a perfectionist. he was in his early sixties and him and his wife took the car around to carshows. he removed several of the oem parts and replaced them with aftermarket parts,(gt40 tubular upper, fms f303 cam,fms shorty headers, king cobra clutch, v2-s-trim blower with snow methanol injection) he took alot of the factory brackets bolts and the blower parts and sent them off to get chromed. he did keep all of the factory parts if he ever wanted to install them.

the car was near flawless but it had all the aftermarket parts on it, and i didnt like that, or the chrome. i contacted the original owner and asked if he was willing to sell the oem parts to me and he said yes. i transfered money to him and he sent the parts. yay!:pepper:

the car in its condition put down 466rwhp and 413 rwtq with 12psi of boost , not bad for an stock 93 cobra motor with an f cam.:beer:
but it had its problems. there was a broken valve cover that i originally thought was causing the smoke show. i had thought that under boost there was oil being pushed out of the broken valve cover onto the headers. and there was, ALOT! but come to find out that wasnt the problem. to make this story short i will save you the details. needless to say it was 4 broken pistons!!!!!!.

i decided to put this car back to stock and get rid of the vortech. i have always been infatuated with stock motors and oem parts making the most out of what they could do.so i started the work. my goal was to take this stock motor and parts make 330 rwhp and 350 rwtq.

i pulled the motor apart and took the block to the machine shop, there it was decked.010, bore checked and honed so i could keep the stock 302 bore.
hone.jpg


decking.jpg


cleaned, and new cam bearings installed. i purchaded MAHLE flatop forged pistons, EAGLE SIR rods, fms wrist pins, moly rings, and arp bolts for the rods. it was the same rotating system that came in the BOSS 302 KIT.
parts.jpg



i kept the stock crank and had the rotating asy. balanced, it came in at .25 gram of each other.
NICE! it was 200grams lighter per slug than the oem bricks.
balancing.jpg



crank.jpg



while the motor was being worked on i took the heads and started in with the old carbide bit. i worked my magic and spent alot of time in the bowls and exhaust side. i had several hours into these heads and when they were finished i was impressed, so were the guys at the head shop. i had a total of .060 off the head deck, installed new beehive springs 130 on the seat and 330 over the nose.i then put a new valve 3 angle valve job on it. since i had new parts on it i figured it was worth 10* locks and retainers

exhaust.jpg




exhaust1.jpg



while porting the heads i deciced to port the lower intake, opening the ports to match the heads, i wound up breaking through all the runners and welding up the holes
inake.jpg


.it came out nice.
lintake.jpg


since i had opened up the heads and lower intake for better breathing capabilities i decided to extend the ability of the upper intake.
inakew.jpg
i first opened up the restrictive throttle body opening to match my 75mm tb.
intke.jpg


tb.jpg


the pinchpoints where the upper intake bolts go were widened to make it less restrictive. i then cut 2.5 inches of runner out of it.
intake2.jpg


while it was open i also increased the plenum volume by 1 inch per runner, and recontouring the runner to plenum transition. then welded it all back up and painted it.
shrcobra.jpg


i put longtube headers on it, but noticed that the flange welds protuded into the exhaust path.
header.jpg



i had the carbide bit take care of that, then blended it, they also matched the exhaust port perfectly.
headr.jpg



by this time the balancing was finished and the machine work was finished on the block. i picked it up and took it to the house, and assembled the rotating assembly. i degreed the tfs1 cam and it was way off. i might add that you should always degree your cam upon installation. it came in with a icl of 109.5, yikes! i advanced it to come in at 106.5.

i buttoned it all up and took it for a spin. i drove it like i stole it !! i prefer to break in my motors that way....i think i get the best ring seal. i could go on but i dont have the time.

after a few hundred miles i took it to the dyno, i had a hiccup with the intake, there was a hairline crack so i had to resort to a completely stock upper along with the stock airbox and plumbing. after tweeking the twEECer, we only got 305rwhp and 335 rwtq. i was impressed but thought it had more, in it.this is the upper that had the crack in it, notice the stock cai.
intake.jpg
.


i rewelded the upper intake and installed the 4inch custom cai with an 85mm pro-m meter cal. for the 24's. the tune seemed off , even with the other parts installed it seemed " soft" below 3000 rpm. it also had a few other problems. the af was reading 11.5 at wot on my innovate lc-1 and xd-16. wow, super rich! i contacted mike on the eectuning.org he goes by the name decipha. and let me say that guy is top notch!!!!! i asked him if he could tune my car via a remote tuning session. he lives in new orleans LA. and i live in austin TX.
he said sure and we went to tuning on the car.....the original tune was in his words a joke and to not let that tuner touch it again. he picked up noticable power everywhere!!!!! probably in the tune of 50ft lbs under the curve and an easy 20 hp peak. im not sure, since i havent had it dynoed again but ill keep you posted!

here is a list of parts that got me over 300rwhp on a stock 302 cobra
a6bca6d4-540c-e61c.jpg

75mm tb
stock air box and pipe
stock upper cobra intake
ported cobra lower
24lbs injectors
302 shortblock
longtube headers into xpipe
tfs1 camshaft 109.5 icl
1.7 stock rockers
ported gt40 heads
3.73 gears
t-5 trans
bad tune
parts that should get me to my goal of 330hp and 350tq
tweecer r/t tune
shorty cobra upper
4inch cold air intake
85mm pro-m meter in fender
advanced tfs1 cam to 106.5icl
new correct size pushrods and shims

i had a list of pics to post in this thread but just found out i cant post pics, kinda defeats the purpose of the thread, sorry about that.:bash:
 
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TX93Cobra

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wow awesome.... im thinking about getting my heads ported. i too like to keep my stock heads
 

BHAM

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wow awesome.... im thinking about getting my heads ported. i too like to keep my stock heads

thanks. you dont have to do alot to the heads to make good numbers. just a little bowl work and some work on the exhaust, you dont , and shouldnt " hog em out" milling them is a must in my opinion, they need to be around 55cc chamber to make good power. just my .02:banana:
 

BHAM

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what compression did that put you at??

milling the heads(55cc) decking the block.010,flat top pistond with 6cc valve relief, and a headgasket compressed to .039 put me at exactly 10.03 to 1:thumbsup:
 

TX93Cobra

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i had my heads milled when i did a rebuild and had the block decked but im unsure of the exact specs. id like to know what my compression is. lol. i like what you did with the intake.
 

BHAM

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i had my heads milled when i did a rebuild and had the block decked but im unsure of the exact specs. id like to know what my compression is. lol. i like what you did with the intake.

thanks, they probably did a cleanup pass on the block.005 to 010. piston is probably still in the hole, but for guessing sake ill say its zero. and probably .020 on the heads putting you at best 60cc chamber. stock pistons are 5.5 valve reliefs total. depending on headgasket, probably a 9333 .039 compressed should put you at 9.3 to 1 if it was a standard bore and not a 306

it actually takes quit a bit to get s.c. up....
 

WillyB93

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That is a sweet build up, what made you think of porting the intake to that extent??
 

buddha93

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Hats off to you. You old school guys grinding away on iron heads makes appreciate the work that goes into getting parts like that to work. Nothing like getting your hands dirty, eh?
 

bionic_chronik

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Hats off to you. You old school guys grinding away on iron heads makes appreciate the work that goes into getting parts like that to work. Nothing like getting your hands dirty, eh?

I'm close to you man, need to hit you up for a ride in one of your cobras!

To the OP, nice work! any guy nowadays can put a blower on a basically stock 302 and make 300hp, but you are doing it NA with a lot of hard work that you did yourself.

I would love to run you with my coupe, it's basically stock with a S-trim and supporting mods, full exhaust. Should make around 300-330ish, nothing special.. but a 300hp fox sure does make a fun street car doesn't it?
 

BHAM

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very nice numbers but those are very rare for what your mods are most people only make around 240-290rwhp with exact mod list as yours.
thanks, i put alot of time and effort to make it happen, i knew you could make numbers like these, and even higher with the correct setup. heck the nmra factory stock class runs unported gt40 heads and unported gt40 intakes in the 10's on 302's with no power adders:D

very impressive...
thank you sir!:banana:

Thanks for the detailed thread!
anytime, i have a few more comming soon!:coolman:

Hats off to you. You old school guys grinding away on iron heads makes appreciate the work that goes into getting parts like that to work. Nothing like getting your hands dirty, eh?
you said it, i think putting in some hard work on your combo, taking time to research, and doing it yourself gives you 100 more times the satisfaction than swiping a credit card!plus when you whoop up on some aluminium headed trickflow kit, it really makes it worth it/:rolling::rockon:

I'm close to you man, need to hit you up for a ride in one of your cobras!

To the OP, nice work! any guy nowadays can put a blower on a basically stock 302 and make 300hp, but you are doing it NA with a lot of hard work that you did yourself. thanks alot man, im glad everyone liked the setup so far:beer:

I would love to run you with my coupe, it's basically stock with a S-trim and supporting mods, full exhaust. Should make around 300-330ish, nothing special.. but a 300hp fox sure does make a fun street car doesn't it?
without a doubt! it is super fun on the street, but traction is a huge issue for me, if im on it hard i cant hook up till 4th, that is no joke! i think ill post a vid of me on the highway loosing traction all the way through 3rd:dancenana:
 

TX93Cobra

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those numbers you put down without the porting are pretty much dead on with my car... makes me want to do this so bad lol
 

carrew

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Dude I love this, this is the coolest thing I have seen in awhile

intake.jpg
 

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