1994 GT $2000 challenge entry

AnthonyS · Jan 8, 2019

Yes I’m building a 94 GT for the GRM $2k challenge. No, I’m not a master fabricator. I’m just a regular guy in Dallas. I may need help from time to time so I will ask questions, etc. The best things right now might be some cheap parts or even trades is anyone wants to help.

PinkieT · Jan 8, 2019

Sounds like a fun project! I would help, but Dallas is a heluva long way from Cleveland.

evilcw311 · Jan 8, 2019

What parts you needing?? There’s a few of us 94-95 guys on here and we usually have parts to sell.

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AnthonyS · Jan 9, 2019

evilcw311 said:
What parts you needing?? There’s a few of us 94-95 guys on here and we usually have parts to sell.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a pretty straight car with good suspension parts from my parts car. It should autocross decently. I also have a built rear with 3.73s and an aluminum driveshaft. The tough part is going to be making enough power to hit 13s. I have GT40 heads and an Explorer intake. I also have full exhaust, shorties x pipe and slp catback. With all this on the car I have $500 left to get paint and power. I have a used e cam I have $140 in. I have timimg and gaskets covered at $100. I have $100 in a j4j1 ecu and $50 in 24 lb injectors. That leaves $110 in the budget. I still need paint and probably valve springs to run that cam. I really need a trade for valve springs, a less expensive used cam, or 1.7 cobra rockers for cheap. That would at least give me 94 Cobra power. I wouid also like to weld in torque box reinforcements another $80 or trade for battle boxes.

I have a stock 94 GT rear, PBR cobra spec brake calipers, airbags, fenders, a good headlight header panel and lots of misc to trade. Trading brake calipers for a cam and valve springs would make life a lot easier.

FZYONE · Jan 11, 2019

What is the challenge? I don’t understand.

AnthonyS · Jan 11, 2019

FZYONE said:
What is the challenge? I don’t understand.

grmchallenge.com will answer all your questions.

white95 · Jan 13, 2019

You likely have enough power to hit 13’s with the mods you’ve listed. My car made 243 at the wheels and ran high 13’s on street tires with my no-so-good driving. Let me dig around my stash and my buddies stash and see what I can come up with.

AnthonyS · Jan 15, 2019

white95 said:
You likely have enough power to hit 13’s with the mods you’ve listed. My car made 243 at the wheels and ran high 13’s on street tires with my no-so-good driving. Let me dig around my stash and my buddies stash and see what I can come up with.

Any advice or help you guys have will be great. I used to drag race my stock 97 Cobra way back when I was in the Navy. I think I can relearn how to drive again fairly quickly. I'm hoping the GT is a bit lighter and the lower rpm torque with the 373s will be successful. I'm trying to decide if I want to run the 24lbers with the Cobra computer or tune the T4MO. I'm also trying to decide if the e cam with stock slider rockers or the stock cam with cobra 1.7s will be better. I'm also pretty good on suspension for the autocross part once I get it all installed.

white95 · Jan 15, 2019

AnthonyS said:
Any advice or help you guys have will be great. I used to drag race my stock 97 Cobra way back when I was in the Navy. I think I can relearn how to drive again fairly quickly. I'm hoping the GT is a bit lighter and the lower rpm torque with the 373s will be successful. I'm trying to decide if I want to run the 24lbers with the Cobra computer or tune the T4MO. I'm also trying to decide if the e cam with stock slider rockers or the stock cam with cobra 1.7s will be better. I'm also pretty good on suspension for the autocross part once I get it all installed.

The 1.7’s will increase lift which will make more power. How much? I don’t know. Eventually you will need to tune either computer to get the most from your combo so, it’s your choice there. I’d give the Cobra computer a shot first. I’d strip that puppy of everything unnecessary and try to get below 3k lbs.

Wood's 5.0 · Jan 29, 2019

Hello and welcome to the forum. The '97 Cobra was a totally different animal from the old 5.0 so your driving style will have to be modified accordingly. We had a '97 Cobra and the 4.6 4V did well for what it was at the time but the naturally aspirated 4V modular engines didn't make very much power down low. You had to wind them up for the power to really come on. The pushrod (stock'ish) 5.0 makes its power from idle to 5,500 RPM then it falls off rather quickly. An "E" cam will make a bit more power and move the power band up to probably around 1,500 - 6,000 with the right supporting equipment I.e heads, TB, MAF, etc. The roller rockers, IMO, are the way to go; 1.6 or 1,7 is fine. The 1.7's will give you a tick more lift but I doubt you could tell the difference twixt the two. Back in the day, we would sometimes split the ratios; 1.6's on the intake side and 1.7's on the exhaust as the Ford heads notoriously needed help on the exhaust side. I don't know how much real-world difference it made. Run the #24 injectors. They will supply the naturally aspirated stock bottom end/GT-40 top-end combination you have with all the fuel it will burn. As you probably already know, the Explorer intake is a staggered port design similar to the '93-'95 Cobra setup. Of course the elbow appeared on the upper intake for the '94-'95 but the lower intake remained the same. IMO, and not to start an argument with the very knowledgeable folks who may read this, I'm just not a very big fan of the Explorer intake setup. I've seen a lot of Mustangs running one but again, IMO, I think there are better ways to go for similar money. If you work the Explorer intake I.e. port-match it from the TB to the heads, polish the runners, etc. it will flow pretty well but by the time you do that, an off-the-shelf Edelbrock, Cobra, or REAL GT-40 intake will do just as well if not better. Depending on where you want your power band to be for the type of driving you will be doing is how I would choose the cam. If you will be at high RPM long straight-away all the time then realize it will be a pig in the lower RPM range. If is short-straight/autocross, stopping & starting, and it won't see over 6,000 RPM then build it for maximum torque down low. Horsepower may keep you going, but torque gets you going. Once you have the combination sorted out, then tune it to make everything work together as a whole. The whole of your combination is greater than the sum of the parts. Research tried & true combos for the intended purpose of the car. Like white said (if it's only forever-more going to be a race car) strip every ounce of weight out of it you can without compromising rigidity especially off of the front end. The closer you can get to 50/50 weight distribution the better off you'll be. Oh, definitely weld your torque boxes and if I couldn't do but one thing to mine, it would be to install a set of weld-in sub-frame connectors. They made a world of difference on mine and I should have put them in the day I brought it home from the dealer. Attached are a couple pics on the setups I run. The GT40 is on my '90 and the Edelbrock is on my '95. Good luck and hope this helps.