Great info thank you.
Just to clarify i can get any C head that will match with a supercharger from that year. Do i need a lower intake or does the KB supercharger take care of that?
Any 4V "C" head will work with any supercharger designed for '99 & '01 Cobras, Mach 1's, '03-'04 Cobras, and 4 valve Lincolns. A lot of the Terminator guys use the '99, '01 or Mach 1 intakes when switching to turbos or centrifugal superchargers.
The main difference is in the snout of the supercharger and the belt drive system.
I dont have a cobra yet. I feel like a fraud asking all these questions. lol. Essentially i'm making a build sheet for a future purchase. Im selling two cars (350z roadster being sold today, and a Volvo S60) picking up a Prius soon. Then switching jobs. After that im going to grab a 96-98 Cobra Vert. I use to own a 95, now im coming back for more.
Great! Welcome back! Can't wait to see what you get!
From what your wanting to do I would recommend trying to find a '98. They have a returnless style fuel system similar to the '99 and '01 Cobras. OR skip the hassle all together and go straight for the jugular with a Termy!
I was a mechanic in the Navy so im not too afraid to do the work. However seeing as that was 10 years ago and i dont have a very good tool kit im looking to make this as brain-dead simple as i can.
I can get a KB for the stock 96-98 SVT as you know but spending 4k or so for not much gain is frustrating and i dont want to use a procharger or vortech.
So im trying to work out the simplest head swap. Im not stuck on huge power numbers i just want a good value for money and intercooled so i can run more than 5lbs of boost. If i can just pick up some heads, get them cleaned up and bolted on then slap a blower on and go, that would make me very happy.
Yeah having no intercooler is what lead me to research and collecting parts for a Eaton style swap. I really want to go with a polished Kenne Bell 2.8 or Whipple 2.9.
No matter how you go, it isn't ever going to be as simple as one first thinks. As mentioned above if you choose to go with a '98 then you might be able to use the fuel rails and connections from the '99 & '01 Cobras. That would help keep some of the fabrication down.
But you can pretty much be assured that there will be some things that need adapting. Depending on the lower intake for the blower, you may have grind down the knock sensor bosses in the valley. Also you WILL need a tune. Things like the knock sensors and IMRC controls will have to be deleted as well as the normal tuning stuff. And don't forget about upgrades to the fuel system. And with a PD blower (even intercooled) will come increased intake air temperatures and therefore higher engine temps. So an upgrade to the cooling system should be a consideration.
Thing is the Heads are somewhat easy to find. In varying degrees of quality and price yes, but everytime i search, i find one. Its just a matter of which one to use. The TVS style superchargers are not as easy for some reason. Seems they didnt get popular until the 03-04 cobra which lands me in Eaton Swap land right? A Land i think i want to avoid do to sourcing parts and fabrication.
I can't in full faith say that going with a Kenne Bell (or other blower) for a '99 Cobra, '01 Cobra or Mach 1 will be the easiest / cheapest or least headache inducing route. I didn't do a lot of research on this method before deciding to go the Terminator style swap.
Yeah PD superchargers really got a "boost" in popularity when the Terminators came out. So there are a lot of options for the '03-'04 Cobras for a PD supercharger that aren't available for the other 4V cars.
There are a lot of info on both directions. Do your homework now and plan things out so you can get a sense of what is involved. The Mach 1 forums as well as several other should have lots of info that will help.