TeddyKGB

Amazon Racing is one of the VERY best shops in the Southeast. I know of plenty of people from teh VA/DC/MD/DE/PA that drive down there to go see Rick et al. I am sure you will be very pleased with them.

mike2004cobra

Wow, that's fantastic! I guess I am really lucky then. I found them
via a search on the SCT website for 'find your closest local tuner'.

Usually I like to do my own wrenching when possible but that
blower is an expensive part and the pulley puller is an expensive
tool as well. Having the tuner do it might be actually cheaper
even if nothing went wrong.

I'm not even sure what size pulley I want to run. The amount of
boost the car makes now is pretty great so I may end up keeping
the current pulley. From what you guys are saying getting the
car tuned properly first is my main concern and I happen to be
prettyclose to a good tuner..

It looks like it would be pretty easy to spend a lot of money on this
car real fastat that tuner shop so I am going to have to be careful
with the funds and try to get the most for my money.

xxkazp3rxx

They're really not hard to take off... but if you've never seen it done, or never done it before yourself it's very easy to screw up... unless you take it straight off, you can damage the front snout of the blower... now I like giving Steigmeier business and all that, among others - i just dont want to have to fix it, if i dont have to, lol....

Also, to the OP.. what you might want to do before you go to your tuner, is measure your pulley see how big it is first off... if it's anything bigger then a 2.93, I would swap it out... You're leaving precious boost on the table....

Oh fyi... Just from left field... to a new Terminator Cobra owner - DO NOT DO HIGH SPEED RUNS STAYING IN BOOST FOR MORE THEN 12-14 SECONDS... You run a risk of popping your heads without aftermarket cooling... and staying in boost that long with the Eaton, you still run a high risk of doing that.... just a FYI...

mike2004cobra

Man, that is a really good fyi! I really do appreciate tips like this, I am
sort of old-school in my knowledge about cars and have never owned a car with a
supercharger until now..

I drove today actually staying totally out of the boost. That was sort of challenging.
Lots of shifting, but the motor has so much torque it just doesn't seem to care if I
short shift whenever.

Ok, so I got my digital calipers out to check the pulley and here are the results. I
am not sure where I am supposed to measure to to get the pulley size. The actual OD of
the pulley is 2.968 inches and to the top of the ribs in the pulley is 2.783 inches.
This seems like a fairly small pulley...

xxkazp3rxx

Ok.. that pulley seems like either a 2.76 or a 2.81 which really doesn't change the boost enough for you to feel it... but yes, definatly stay out of boost because a pulley that small - basically lets us know that if its not tuned you will be running incredibly lean and make it a priority to get to a dyno, or somewhere with a wideband asap... I dont even know if i'd drive it honestly... if you have another vehicle to drive daily, I would drive that until I got it looked at...

post a picture of your whole motor... see if they have anything else on it..

mike2004cobra

The trip to Amazon Racing will be my next drive in this car hopefully. I am going
try to get an appointment with them monday or tuesday.

I need to think about what I am going to spend there because I could see myself
getting in trouble needing everything. Given a budget of around $1k or so, what
should I have them do/install? My goals are power and reliability. This car is
my daily driver so I need it set up for just street performance basically.

I think at the least I need dyno tune, a/f ratio testing and diagnosis, and a
handheld tuner to backup the tune?

I have taken lots of photos, I'll post a small overall engine bay pic visible
here then a link to a 6mp version which you can zoom in on (2.2mb). If you want
a better shot of any part, just let me know. Thanks again for all the help!


http://www.superturbo.com/04cobra-pic05-dsc_3718.jpg

TeddyKGB

Is that a true CAI that goes into the fender well or just a replacement box that allows more air? If it isn't a true CAI I would replace that. I would also look to begin with cooling mods such as a better heat exchanger and possible the even flow head cooling mod. I have a similar pulley setup as you and those are my next modifications once I get my subframes on.

Amazon will dyno tune your car and get the a/f just right based on your setup. I am sure they have SCT XCal2 in stock that you need to have in order to tune so between that and the tune it will probably eat up a big chunk of your 1k budget.

xxkazp3rxx

yeah they will dyno your car, and probably tune it. You will need to buy a tuner from them also... so you are probably looking at a big chunk of change... the next mods i would do is find either a fenderwall or ram air open intake... and a midpipe/catback setup... get the car sounding nice.. and that should put you in the mid 400s...

mike2004cobra

Yeah, the intake seems to be somewhat unique -- conical filter but sort of
closed up. You can see the best pics I have of it in the first few posts of this thread.
Whatever it is, it will be replaced.

I am pretty happy with the flowmaster cat-back setup the car came
with, so I'll probably stick with that for now as far as exhaust goes.

As I am looking for reliable power, the cooling mods sound like a really good
idea... But more power is always nice...

xxkazp3rxx

The cooling mods keep you from overheating, thus allowing you to keep your power for longer periods of time, lowering heatsoak....