Greg's 96 Cobra 1.5 Kenne Bell Build Thread

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the.greg

the.greg

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been there too. there right now. lol.
Yeah I feel you man. Sometimes things just don't end up right, even when you do your best to do everything the "right way". All the name brand parts, no half-assed shortcuts, step by step attention to details, but hey you live and learn.

If I could go back in time, I would buy this car again. Its amazing, the streetability is perfect, the power is a blast. Its nothing major, just the darn little things that Ive lost motivation to keep chasing down.
 

MustangChris

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yes. all of the above. lol.

i bought a fully-forged engine from the damn factory and it knocks.... name brand OIL FILTER for ****'s sake.... what more can you do? lol.

I'd do my build the exact same as well, except I'd skip the exhaust. should have lived with equal-length shorties and skipped the long tubes.
 
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Well today I replaced my air filter, just out of routine maintenance. Several days ago I ordered a replacement BBK filter from American Muscle. Old filter was pretty dirty, but not too bad. Also included pics of my throttle body. Back when I first got the car some guy told me that my meth would corrode my tb, but my tb looks very clean to me.
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Ok, so after some driving, tweaking, and googling I HOPE I have found the solution to my rattly clutch pedal. Some people call it the clutch freeplay mod. It basically allows you to take up the slack in the clutch cable that is often the result of having a aftermarket clutch, plus aftermarket firewall adjuster/quadrant by putting a spring between the clutch fork and the inspection hole wall to push the tob off of the clutch fingers and also reduce excess slack in the cable. Since I installed new firewall adjuster and quadrant with my tranny install, I think this resulted in excess slack in my clutch cable.
2387222ClutchFork.jpg

I ordered the spring, and should have it in 3-7 business days, so hopefully that solves my issues.
 
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12-16-12 Update:
Well I have mostly fixed the clutch pedal vibration. It turns out that I had left too much slack when I adjusted my clutch, plus the aftermarket quadrant, firewall adjuster don't have any sort of dampening which leads to a lot of noise/vibration transfer. Regardless I adjusted my clutch cable a bit tighter and most, but not all of the shaking I was experiencing is gone.

Then I was hit with more bad news, my car developed a massive coolant leak. Upon further inspection I found that I had a leak between the oil cooler adapter and the engine block. I ordered the gasket set from here-http://www.speedconcepts.net/product_info.php?products_id=967great deal, only $45.99. I followed this guide to replace, its fairly straight forward.http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/how-230/772115-how-repair-leaking-oil-cooler.html I also replaced the oil cooler's internal seals at this time, they are included in the above kit. I took a few pictures while I did mine, but honestly the link I provided does a better job of explaining the process.
Seals the kit comes with.
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After I got the oil cooler off and block adapter out I cleaned the block surface with sandpaper.
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My oil cooler had lots of crap in it?
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Cleaned everything back up and installed new gaskets. Good as new now. For anyone with a 4v, fill the coolant up from the coolant crossover tube so you have no air bubbles in the coolant system and you won't have to burp it.
 
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Also Ive been trying to figure out what I want to do with the exterior of the car. Ever since my transmission went down, Ive been wanting to draw attention to how much is actually done to the car. There is very little that hasn't been upgraded in some way. However the car's paint is really bad. Some areas are fine, mostly the roof, hood, and parts of the sides, but the bumper covers, sideskirts, and portions of the quarter panels nad fenders are literally flaking off! Its been that way since I got it, but my paint budget was spent on drivetrain/trans.

Since I can't afford paint, Ive gone a bit "ricer" with some vinyls. If my paint was decent, I would never do this, but since my car cannot pull off the "clean" look, I'm going for "track car" look. I also have a few more exterior ideas that I am working on, but I'm keeping them to myself until fruition.
I am proud to showcase some of the companies that Ive had positive dealings with. Also take note of my fat dog and my sweet wooden car ramps I made! Also visible are my import side mirrors, which I just discovered fold flat.
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Kenne Bell sent me all these for FREE.
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I'd like to find a more decorative battery cover, I'm not thrilled with my yellow battery under the hood.
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Mrstangerbanger

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How do you like that clutch >?? I can get one for under 100 new but I make more the 450flywheel hp so dont think it will hold but then again some people say they run more power then that through that model ??
 
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the.greg

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How do you like that clutch >?? I can get one for under 100 new but I make more the 450flywheel hp so dont think it will hold but then again some people say they run more power then that through that model ??
I think its a GREAT clutch. My car is a daily driver, never seen the track, but when I do hit it on the street it grabs great and is dd friendly. Its not too heavy, it grabs well without chatter too. It also slips out easy, Ive read other performance clutches are harder to slip out slowly/smoothly.

I honestly can't say if it would hold up to your power though? I'd think it would hold up for a while, but probably would fail/premature wear if you tried to launch hard with it. I'm only making roughly 420flywheel hp and this Ram HDX is only rated at 450 flywheel hp. I do know that Ram makes a powergrip HD version that is rated up to 550flywheel hp, but I have no idea how those drive.
 

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great ride man... thats strange that theres all that junk in the coolant lines...

(Where the **** is your sn95forums sticker???)
 
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great ride man... thats strange that theres all that junk in the coolant lines...

(Where the **** is your sn95forums sticker???)
Yeah I was surprised all the crap in the oil cooler, especially because Ive done 2 coolant flushes on the car in the last year lol.
From what I could see the cooler traps debris so I guess a flush isn't enough to clean out the cooler, idk?

Maybe one day I will represent with a sn95 forums sticker ;)

I really just want to help the community by documenting all the crap Ive done. Maybe one day someone can find some of this tech useful. -Greg
 
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1/26/2013 Update:

I'd determined that my clutch fork rattle/death shake was likely due to a broken throwout bearing retainer sleeve. Today I finally got around to pulling the t45 out of the car to verify and replace the bad tob retainer sleeve.

I dropped the trans and found this.
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Broken retainer sleeve on the left, new one that will be replacing it on the right. The base has snapped off.

Tomorrow morning I'm taking the trans to a Ford Specialist to have the new retainer sleeve installed and then its just a matter of throwing the transmission back in the car asap. Hope to have it back together by mid-week, but it will depend on the weather, my garage isn't heated.
 
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1/27/2013:
This morning I met with a Ford Specialty Technician(not sure if this is the proper term) but a very high-ranking, knowledgeable guy. He helped me remove my t45 bellhousing, press out the broken throwout bearing retainer sleeve, and reinstall with the new one. He has access to the Ford training center, so we had very nice facilities at our disposal. Only snapped a few pics, but the training center was pretty impressive!
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You can see the billet "slammer" 3/4 shift fork.

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Gonna start with the transmission installation this afternoon and depending on progress be driving the cobra by tomorrow.
 
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Got the transmission back in the car.

Before I put it back in, I cut off these portions of the transmission to free up additional clearance between the case and the transmission tunnel. Made it a hell of a lot easier to install/uninstall! Wish I would have done this the first time I pulled it out!


I used a sawzall to cut these two casting "ears" off the case.
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Made sure to tape off the shifter opening to ensure no metal shavings got in the case.
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I then filed down the rough edges so I wouldn't cut my hands while installing the bellhousing bolts.
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This made a significant increase in clearance between the t45 and the transmission tunnel!!!
Also I think I made a few ounces of weight reduction haha.
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Another tip I found: It is easier to "benchpress" the tranny back in, as opposed to how I've previously done it by using a jack to position the t45 into position.

All thats left to do tomorrow is attach the midpipe and add transmission fluid and she should be roadworthy again.
 
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Cars been up and running for several days now. Figured I'd throw up a little walkaround/interior vid, also I explain how my sct dashscan works because I've never seen another car on here using it, and its integral to my setup. Filmed with GoPro hero2, so I apologize for its quality.

[video=youtube;NZ8RhhlthtY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ8RhhlthtY[/video]
 

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