Wynn

I've been looking for a Mustang lately.I was trying to decide between a fox and a 4Valve. I think I have made up my mind to a 96-98 Cobra. I was wondering a few questions about them though.

What are the weak parts of these cars. I know they have a forged crank, but hyper. pistons. What about these cars is weak/ prone to failure?

Where is the most power to be made? Full exhaust? Intake? Aftermarket heads? What holds these engines back?

5.0 cars are great candidates for nitrous. How about these? Do people like to throw, say, a 75 shot at these? Is nitrous more dangerous on these cars?

Finally- the T45. These are notoriously weak. Will they hold up to daily driver duty with a few mods (Bolt ons + 4.10s)? How much does a good replacement transmission cost for these motors.




I have been searching to try to find all of the information I can about these cars. I love the 4V power. I like the styling of these ones, and the menacing "Cobra" on the rear bumper.I am really considering one of these sn95 snakes.

SVTeeshirt

ok lets start from the top

Foxbody cobras are rare because they were only manufactured in 93, the year the Special vehichcles team was born, this makes them more expensive to start, the 96-98 internals are capabale of holding around 450whp, the trannys aren't junk really lol mines held up fine, espically with just a few bolt ons and rear end gears i see you having no problems with the tranny. As far as mods go i'd put those 4.10s in get an JLT Cold air intake,(the only downside to this is your strut bar wont fit but itsabout the best CAI you can get performancewise for these)LT headers and get rid of those cats, if you're looking for something a bit faster throw a s/c on, as ive mentioned before i knew someone who ran 432whp for about a year as a DD with a s/c on stock internals, that car was RAGGED hard and still managed to last over a year, if you don't rip on it everynight it should be fine with a modest amount of boost, as far as juice goes i know nothing in this department, IMO i'm not a big fan of it.

oh and 4v's just sound beautiful

98WHTSNAKE_AZ

I've got a 98 cobra. I must say, I love that car! It's my DD with the following upgrades, 4.30s, short throw shifter, fully adjustable suspension, cai, shorty headers with x and magnaflow catbacks, underdrive pulley, stage 3 clutch. I think thats it. The car is setup for nitrous, the only thing missing is I don't have a bottle for it. Not a big fan of it either but the kit was on the car when I bought it. As for how much nitrous, I myself wouldn't run over a 75 shot in mine if I ever do decide to add a bottle. The 4.30s don't really kill mpg like many will tell you. Over the next year I'm going to have the engine rebuilt with all forged internals and throw a s/c on it. That would be one fun car.

mfj

Just to comment on the transmission, the 96s, 97s, and early 98s were equipped with a borg warner t45... These transmission are crap and will only last on a near stock power cobra. Later in 1998 SVT switched over to the tremec t45, which was much improver over it borg warner counterpart, but still lacked some needed strength...

If you want to go aftermarket, for your goals, i would personally go with a tko 500... A brand new one can be had, from tremec, for $2200, well worth it IMO... Yes, they are rated to have a torque cap of 500lbs-ft, but they have been known to take well to abuse.

If you go the nitrous route, a 100 shot will be perfectly safe, so long as you get it tuned for nitrous, and retard the timing at least 2 degrees. Also remember, with nitrous, its actually better slightly lean than slightly rich. Although with most forms of forced induction, rich is safer, with nitrous, the opposite is true. Running rich CAN cause pools of fuel to collect, which CAN result in nitrous backfires. <- very bad!

StylinM6s

Check this link: http://www.svtperformance.com/forums...d.php?t=360437

JLT true cold air intake dyno'd 16 rwhp, 20 rw ft-lb on these cobras. Long tube headers really opens it up even more. The thing that holds up these 96-98 cobras are the stock gears. 3.27s for this is just not low enough for how much capable it could do for higher. 4.10s at least for this, 4.30s being perfect.

The T-45 tranny is actually not as bad as you think it is. Just get a short-throw and you'll prevent yourself from damaging the trans

alexr

screw these pieces, get a fox.

mfj

Thats what I have been saying for years... So much cheaper to go fast in a fox. Pushrod crap is soo much cheaper than modular crap... Build the motor, throw on a c4 transmission, build the rear end, turbo that son'bi+ch, and run 8's....

Dilireus

As others have stated, the T45 won't take much abuse. If you drive Miss Daisy, you don't have anything to worry about, but who buys a Cobra to drive like a wuss?

The rods and pistons suck, but good ones are not all that expensive. The Teksid aluminum block and stock forged crank will take anything you can throw at them unless you're Tim Lynch.

There really are no aftermarket heads or intakes for the 96-98 Cobras, but you really don't need them. You can go with later 4V heads, but you can make tons of power with the factory heads. My B-heads (Ford's name for the 93-98 4V heads) have been fully ported and supposedly flow 300/240 cfm @.500", which you would be hard pressed to beat with any other 4V heads. Sullivan is coming out with an intake for the B-heads soon. Other than that, you're limited to porting the factory intake and shortening the runners.

The DOHC engines love forced induction. The real problem with the heads is that they flow too well. The volume is there, but the air velocity is not, unless you spin it past 7,000 rpm, which you can do with appropriate cams, intake mods, and forged internals. Throw on a blower (or a turbo or two), and it will wake right up.

If you're looking to go the nitrous route, bolt on a full exhaust with long tubes, upgrade to forged rods and pistons, buy a stronger transmission, upgrade the suspension, and replace the 3.27 gears with 4.10. 4.30s are great, but they limit your 1/4 mile trap speed if you're making any real power.

I had four foxes before my current 97 Cobra. I'll take the 4V any day. To get an idea of what you can do with them, check around some of the forums to see how much power people are getting out of them. It's pretty sick. Show me a single 5.0 making 800 hp using factory heads, cam, crank, and block. People do that all the time with the 4V.

SVTeeshirt

don't get me wrong i'd love to have a fox cobra, but i ran a search on autotrader and found 5 ANY distance from my house, and the price average was 16k but the low milage ones 60k or less were 22K+, meh close to termi prices imo i think id rather have a termi or just dump the extra money into a 96-98, just my opinion tho. or maybe a 99-01

alexr

eh id buy a 93 cobra, but for 16k, ill pass. get a nice notchback with a decent amount of miles on it.

i would have bought another notch instead of a cobra if i could have gotten financing for a 20yr old car.