Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wood&#039;s 5.0" data-source="post: 1445681" data-attributes="member: 21775">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.  <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" />[ATTACH=full]637[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]638[/ATTACH]</blockquote>