Tuning 04 Cobra Questions

[Bootys04Cobra]

As you can see I'm fairly new to posting on SVT. I just purchased an 04 cobra in december, not perfect, needs some TLC. History of the car is a little vague.
Car has CIA,exhaust (no cats), pullied (not sure on size), stock eaton and drivers side head replaced. Anyways... getting it tuned in march to see where I'm at hp range, and make sure everything is good before I drive hard this summer. From what ive read, stock eatons can make about 450ish. Will adding BAP and 60lb injectors get me any higher hp numbers with what I have, or am I wasting money.? Ive read some old posts and stickys but unable to find the answer. Thanks for your help. :beer:

 

[weaselp1]

As you can see I'm fairly new to posting on SVT. I just purchased an 04 cobra in december, not perfect, needs some TLC. History of the car is a little vague.
Car has CIA,exhaust (no cats), pullied (not sure on size), stock eaton and drivers side head replaced. Anyways... getting it tuned in march to see where I'm at hp range, and make sure everything is good before I drive hard this summer. From what ive read, stock eatons can make about 450ish. Will adding BAP and 60lb injectors get me any higher hp numbers with what I have, or am I wasting money.? Ive read some old posts and stickys but unable to find the answer. Thanks for your help. :beer:

the tuner at the shop you are getting tuned at can tell you if you will need a BAP and or 60s - I make 485 to the wheels with just a BAP and no injectors

 

[JuStAkId]

Rule of thump is the stock maf sensor, injectors, pumps(no bap) are good for about 500 wrhp. Although you have to remember every car is different. If you go to get it tuned and you need something your tuner will tell you.

 

[T-Pain808]

At least your smart enough to get it tuned first
Let the rest take car of it self, that's what your paying for
Let the tuner tell you want you need, or don't need
And no bigger injectors, and boost a pump won't get you more power
Bap and injectors are for when you ready to make more power. :burnout:

 

[Bootys04Cobra]

the tuner at the shop you are getting tuned at can tell you if you will need a BAP and or 60s - I make 485 to the wheels with just a BAP and no injectors

Good to know, Ill contact my tuner and go from there Thanks

Rule of thump is the stock maf sensor, injectors, pumps(no bap) are good for about 500 wrhp. Although you have to remember every car is different. If you go to get it tuned and you need something your tuner will tell you.

Thats the info I was looking for, I can only hope for 500. Thanks

At least your smart enough to get it tuned first
Let the rest take car of it self, that's what your paying for
Let the tuner tell you want you need, or don't need
And no bigger injectors, and boost a pump won't get you more power
Bap and injectors are for when you ready to make more power. :burnout:

Also info i was looking for, I bought BAP already from member. Ill save it for new blower if and when that happens. Saved me money too Was ready to pull trigger on injectors:rockon:

 

[MalcolmV8]

Will adding BAP and 60lb injectors get me any higher hp numbers with what I have, or am I wasting money.?

Just so you understand (maybe you already do) but the BAP and 60 lb injectors won't make anymore power. They may however be required to support more HP. In other words they don't add HP, they just support higher HP. They simply increase the fuel delivery should the motor make more HP than what the stock fuel pumps and injectors can handle.

 

[Bootys04Cobra]

Just so you understand (maybe you already do) but the BAP and 60 lb injectors won't make anymore power. They may however be required to support more HP. In other words they don't add HP, they just support higher HP. They simply increase the fuel delivery should the motor make more HP than what the stock fuel pumps and injectors can handle.

I do understand about BAP and 60lb injectors, I was trying to get ahead of the game by purchasing this stuff if the need came for it when i was getting it tuned. I didnt know if the stock eaton could produce more than the stock fuel system can handle. I know all cars are different, Ill contact my tuner and get his thoughts as well. Thanks for your help

 

[MalcolmV8]

I do understand about BAP and 60lb injectors, I was trying to get ahead of the game by purchasing this stuff if the need came for it when i was getting it tuned. I didnt know if the stock eaton could produce more than the stock fuel system can handle. I know all cars are different, Ill contact my tuner and get his thoughts as well. Thanks for your help

Very cool :beer: just wanted to make sure you knew based on how you asked that first question.

When I had my ported eaton with a 2.76 pulley and other misc stuff like CAI, exhaust I made around 487 whp and 505 ft/lb on the stock pumps, injectors and MAF. As others have said your mileage will vary as every car is a little different.

 

[Jay15COBRA]

I just had my 03 Redfire tuned by Lidio at Alternative Auto in Michigan. He told me there is no reason to upgrade the injectors or bap on a stock eaton. He says the most you could hope for out of a stock eaton is 460 rwhp depending on how many miles are on the car. He put on a 2.8 pulley on mine with everything else stock. NGK plugs and a safe tune 442 rwhp. 38k miles on my car. Price was good too.

 

[b_dike]

On a stock eaton, it's usually the the maf that's first to max out, then pumps. The injectors have been known to support close to 550 rwhp.

 

[Bootys04Cobra]

Very cool :beer: just wanted to make sure you knew based on how you asked that first question.

When I had my ported eaton with a 2.76 pulley and other misc stuff like CAI, exhaust I made around 487 whp and 505 ft/lb on the stock pumps, injectors and MAF. As others have said your mileage will vary as every car is a little different.

Thanks for helping out. I have 68,000 miles on car. So 400-450 is more a realistic number

I just had my 03 Redfire tuned by Lidio at Alternative Auto in Michigan. He told me there is no reason to upgrade the injectors or bap on a stock eaton. He says the most you could hope for out of a stock eaton is 460 rwhp depending on how many miles are on the car. He put on a 2.8 pulley on mine with everything else stock. NGK plugs and a safe tune 442 rwhp. 38k miles on my car. Price was good too.

CRT Performance out of Norwalk, Ohio is the shop I'm dealing with, they work mostly with mustangs. My first initial conv. with owner was good. Very helpful with the mass of questions I had for him.

 

[Bootys04Cobra]

On a stock eaton, it's usually the the maf that's first to max out, then pumps. The injectors have been known to support close to 550 rwhp.

Save injectors for new blower :burnout: If that ever happens Thanks

 

[R.D.P.]

On a stock eaton, it's usually the the maf that's first to max out, then pumps. The injectors have been known to support close to 550 rwhp.

I agree with this. You should upgrade your MAF prior to going in for the tune. The stock MAF may or may not peg, but most agree that an aftermarket MAF will make the tuners job easier and allow for a more spot on tune. Your car might even already have an aftermarket MAF or Diablo MAFia. Also - you may not realize this as I see no mention of it - you need a handheld tuner to hold your tune when you go in. You need to find out if your tuner works with SCT or Diablo's. Those are far and away the two biggest, with SCT by far the biggest out of those two. So my recommendation would be to confirm he works with SCT, then get a SCT 2600 MAF and SCT Tuner before you go in.

As for BAP or larger injectors, neither are needed on a stock pulley only Eaton. When you see people running a BAP and larger injectors with the stock Eaton, it's because they are running a ported stock Eaton. The ported blower moves more air, so more fuel is needed. Whether or not you need both a BAP and larger injectors with a ported Eaton appears to depend on how hard you want to push it with the pulley setup, or if you wanted to go to an e85 setup with a ported Eaton and really push the blower hard you would definitely have to upgrade injectors.

The amount of power you can expect with an smaller upper pulley stock Eaton will depend on the size of the pulley - smaller the pulley, harder the blower spins, the more air it moves. The size is sometimes engraved on the pulley, if not post a picture of your upper pulley setup - hopefully there is a larger "idler" pulley just to the lower right of the pulley on the blower. We'll be able to give you a guess on the size, or you could of course take the belt off and actually measure the pulley's diameter. Also - post a picture of your CAI. We'll be able to likely identify it and tell you if it's OK to use. Some are notorious for problems and you will want to switch to something else prior to going in for a tune.

 

[Riddick]

On a stock eaton, it's usually the the maf that's first to max out, then pumps. The injectors have been known to support close to 550 rwhp.

+1 for this. In my experience your MAF will be the first thing to max out.

 

[Bootys04Cobra]

I agree with this. You should upgrade your MAF prior to going in for the tune. The stock MAF may or may not peg, but most agree that an aftermarket MAF will make the tuners job easier and allow for a more spot on tune. Your car might even already have an aftermarket MAF or Diablo MAFia. Also - you may not realize this as I see no mention of it - you need a handheld tuner to hold your tune when you go in. You need to find out if your tuner works with SCT or Diablo's. Those are far and away the two biggest, with SCT by far the biggest out of those two. So my recommendation would be to confirm he works with SCT, then get a SCT 2600 MAF and SCT Tuner before you go in.

As for BAP or larger injectors, neither are needed on a stock pulley only Eaton. When you see people running a BAP and larger injectors with the stock Eaton, it's because they are running a ported stock Eaton. The ported blower moves more air, so more fuel is needed. Whether or not you need both a BAP and larger injectors with a ported Eaton appears to depend on how hard you want to push it with the pulley setup, or if you wanted to go to an e85 setup with a ported Eaton and really push the blower hard you would definitely have to upgrade injectors.

The amount of power you can expect with an smaller upper pulley stock Eaton will depend on the size of the pulley - smaller the pulley, harder the blower spins, the more air it moves. The size is sometimes engraved on the pulley, if not post a picture of your upper pulley setup - hopefully there is a larger "idler" pulley just to the lower right of the pulley on the blower. We'll be able to give you a guess on the size, or you could of course take the belt off and actually measure the pulley's diameter. Also - post a picture of your CAI. We'll be able to likely identify it and tell you if it's OK to use. Some are notorious for problems and you will want to switch to something else prior to going in for a tune.

Thanks for that info. He is actually an SCT shop and he mentioned I would need to purchase one from him or find a used one. I dont recall if he mentioned MAF. But will bring it up when I talk to him.
For the CAI, its a Steeda. And looking at MAF if appears to be stock. The blower pulley is Apten Performance and idler pulley is bigger and looks aftermarket. Now just measuring across the blower pulley with tape measure its 3". I dont have any precision measuring tools for exact size, and not sure this is how there measured. I will try to upload pictures later. I appreciate everyones help:beer:

 

[CobraBob]

Thanks for that info. He is actually an SCT shop and he mentioned I would need to purchase one from him or find a used one. I dont recall if he mentioned MAF. But will bring it up when I talk to him.
For the CAI, its a Steeda. And looking at MAF if appears to be stock. The blower pulley is Apten Performance and idler pulley is bigger and looks aftermarket. Now just measuring across the blower pulley with tape measure its 3". I dont have any precision measuring tools for exact size, and not sure this is how there measured. I will try to upload pictures later. I appreciate everyones help:beer:

Wow, now THERE'S a name I haven't heard in many years. Apten Performance. They shut down in late 2003 or early 2004. Brian, the owner, was a great person to work with. I contracted Brian back in 2003 to port my Eaton. The actual porting was done by Stiegemeier. The rest is history.

 

[HandBanana]

What MAF would you guys recommend? I'm also looking to get tuned by the end of the month so the car is ready to go for spring. Any good tuners you can recommend within a few hours of me here in Nashville? I know Kurgan is in the ATL and I hear nothing but good things about him.

Also, GL with your setup OP. Hope you get all the kinks worked out.

 

[MalcolmV8]

What MAF would you guys recommend?

No one answer. Size it to your combo. I tried just getting the largest BA5000 and figured I'd never need to buy another one. The problem was it was made for such large air flow volume the car idled like crap. I struggled for ever trying to tweak my idle but the resolution on the MAF was just so course at such low air flows such as idle it wouldn't work.

I switched to a smaller sensor and wow what a world of difference. Idled like a champ and the car responded to the tune the way I would expect.

To throw in additional complication each MAF sensor will also be affected by the diameter sized tube its in. The larger the diameter the more air flow, and HP, it will support but the lower the resolution goes and if the resolution on the sensor gets to low then low end driving and idle will suffer.

So if your sensor was in a 4" housing and you were about maxing MAF counts you could switch to a 5" housing and retune on the same sensor as long as idle and low end was still good.

Myself I'm running a stock 07-10 GT500 slot sensor in a 5.1" diameter housing. The car runs fantastic but I'm hitting around 980 MAF counts at WOT at the top of 4th gear. This means in the spring when I swap out my 3.5" pulley for a 3.0 there's a good chance I will peg the MAF. At that point I can either use my MAFia or switch to the next size up sensor in the SCT family like a BA3000 possibly. I need to see which is the next size up from the stock GT500 sensors.

 

[R.D.P.]

No one answer. Size it to your combo.

Way to help out and contribute.

Banana - Get a SCT 2600 assuming your not planning to go past a ported Eaton, or even a used 2400 if you can find one. Also - you don't have to buy it with the aluminum housing, it's just a little extra bling, mine just has a plastic housing. Or if your going to go with a JLT big tube, I think you can just buy the sensor with no housing.

 

[MalcolmV8]

Way to help out and contribute.

I think you missed the rest of my post. I went on to explain it a little further and even gave my own personal setup as examples. Quite simply he asked for a recommendation for a MAF without a single detail as to his combo or what he has. His sig lists nothing about his car except the build number. I had nothing to go off of except a HP number below that says 489 and if that's true then the stock MAF is more than enough and he wouldn't be shopping for one. How can you blindly recommend a BA2600 for him?