Just bought a 97 Cobra now what?

[slojam]

I just bought a 97 Cobra with 50,000 miles. The car was treated like a baby its whole life. Its still 100 percent stock, for the next 48 hour or so. She has a 5spd tranny in her. What mods come first? I an new to the modular engines. I know with my 91 5.0 automatic first up was changing the rear gears to 4.10's. Does that hold true with the 97 cobra 5spd's? I am looking forward to what everyone suggests. Oh start small please on a budget.

[StoplightWarrior]

Congrats! You've got yourself a great platform to work with. You can start small, and go the bolt on route with great results. If I were you, though, I'd keep it really simple. My bud has a 98 Cobra and his only mods are Bassani X-pipe and a Vortech Blower. Total cost was about 4500 and there's not a car around that touches him. If that's too much, your cobra will respond very well to bolt ons. Try these:

4.10 gears at the least. $450
Longtube headers and offroad Hpipe $600-1000
Some kind of catback, maybe Dynomax $300
Underdrive Pulleys $200
C&L Meter $300
Sticky tires $300

With those mods, at about $2500 (including install prices) you could be in the high 12's!

Good luck

[SLOW 97]

Since the Cobra has a very high RPM power band you'll want some pretty steep gears. I think for the 4V Cobra 4.30 or 4.56 gears are the way to go. You may think I'm crazy for telling you to put such steep gears in a street car but it'll get you into the power band real quick. Many guys have had good results with these in their mod snakes. if you really want the most 'bang for your buck' than you should go with a blower. I personally like the procharger P-1SC due to the fact it is self-contained. A supercharger for your car is around $3500 which may sound expensive but with just that and some D/R's or slicks and some minor bolt-ons you'll be able to hit high to mid 11's without changing heads, cams, or the intake manifold.

[slojam]

Wow 4.30 or 4.56 gears seem crazy, but it makes since since i hear the engine loves the upper end of the rpm range. If i did bump all the way up to 4.56 gears would I lose much highway driveability or top end? Can you give me an idea on 65mph cruising RPM. Thanks again for your reply's and keep em comeing. My budget is under 2 thousand dollars, so blower is out of the question for now.

[SLOW 97]

I'm not too sure on your cruising speed with the 4.56's but I would have to guess it'd be about 3000 RPM. It depends on how much highway driving you do. Around town the 4.56's or 4.30's would be great. But again, the Cobra is made to run in high RPM ranges (7000 RPM Red Line!). Also, your gas mileage probably won't suffer as much as you might think. If you do a lot of highway driving go with something less steep like 3.73's. Talk to the other guy's that have Cobra's, see what they say.

[BlackOnBlackCobra96]

I'm pretty proud of what I've done with my car (see sig). Every part that I bought had been researched considerably. The only thing that I think I'm missing are subframe connectors, and maybe a Densecharger CAI or a MAF.

[waldoo28]

With a shifter, 4.30's, DrGas X, Magnapack Catback, drag radials (17") and March Pullies my car went a best of 12.89@108mph. Ive since built up the rearend(31 spline axles), added a ProM MAF, and a homemade powerpipe. In the next two weeks I should have longtubes, D&D front suspension, and an autologic chip(tune is set for 4/1 @ TrueBluePerformance). I should have new numbers this Saturday, weather permitting.

[slojam]

Wow waldoo28 thats great! Are you still running the IRS? I have a set of slicks i can bolt up when i go to the strip and I am almost afraid to really cut her loose off the line, but if yours is holding up ok i'll go ahead and give it to her. Let me know how things go Saturday.

[waldoo28]

Actually the 97's dont have IRS. As far as bolting up slicks and just going. I dont know how long the stock differential will last. I broke the spider gears in mine on 15" drag radials and a 5500rpm launch. Others have been 100+ launches at the same rpm with no problem. Its not a question of is it going to break, its a question of WHEN is it going to break?

[Venomrain]

Congrats on your purchase! There are a number of routes you can go with your snake, depending on your tastes of course. 4.10's and 4.30's would be a good gearing for a NA or cent supercharged (like vortech, paxton, powerdyne) cobra. You could elect to go with a positive displacement unit instead (Kenne Bell, Eaton) and add some much needed low end torque (and instant boost), thus not needing such an extreme rear gearing. After months of research I've decided on a stage 2 TDC turbocharger... basically 'free' horsepower witth decent gas milage (turbos don't react unless the motor is under load). The bottleneck in the cobra's motor is the exhaust plumbing: a Bassani x-pipe with good heads and exhaust will free up as much as 40 hp or more. You picked a great car, the 96-98s are IMO the best looking cobras around. You picked a great vehicle base to start with, now go spend some money and whup some stoplight ***...

[96SNAKE]

All good advice here.. Since you're on a budget, start with what you can afford and keep it going. You'll soon see it becomes very addictive and expensive. I prefer to avoid supercharging for now but maybe some day.


In about a month,(tax refund permitting) I should have my heads and intake ported & polished, valve seals finally fixed and a 5 angle valve job, degree'd cams, and the soon to be released Hooker longtube headers(made 11 rwhp and 31rwtq over off-road x-pipe on a 02 GT). I'm hoping and expecting to have around 355/360rwhp when all this money is finished being spent.