[Petty886596]

well today I drove my new to me 1996 cobra home...I paid $7000 for it with 90k miles. The reason I think it might need a tune is the guy I bought it off of said he had it tuned about a year ago, however the battery has been dead for over a month now.When I give the car throttle at low rpms it has a very very slight backfire and it does not do it all the time. The car has shorty headers, x-pipe and bassani mufflers, it also has a bigger throttle body bbk filter and intake tube, march underdrive pulleys,comp cams stage one cams, stock fuel injectors and maf sensor,tko 500 transmission, aftermarket clutch and it has an handheld tuner.So should I try to mess with the hand held tuner ( I have never ever touched one before)....and when is it time to upgrade injectors and how well do hand held tuners work or am i better off just taking it somewhere?
oh and here are some pics
Pictures by zpetty06 - Photobucket

[Buffalo02Z28]

With all of those mods, its best to go spend the money and get the car dyno tuned.

[Smoothgrandmama]

Your inj should be fine for those mods. it does sound like it could use a tune. but if the batt has been dead for a month it may need some running time to re-learn itself a little......

Also the car is kinda old. with the sit up time I would clean the maf and check the plugs before dropping $500 on a tune.

[Stroked03Cobra]

+1 for a Tune

[Petty886596]

So, I think Im going to have the car tuned this spring since I won't be driving it too much over the winter. I plan on buying longtubes, before I have it tuned and possibly injectors I used a injector calculator, but the only number that I have for horsepower was 315 RWHP.I'm pretty sure that the calculator I used was wanting flywheel horsepower.Does 315 RWHP sound right to you guys for the mods done to the car and what would be a good est. for that at the crank? I also have no idea what rpm that was at. Right now I'm really wishing he would have kept the dyno sheets...and all the other info. On another note I plan on throwing some 4.56 gears, subframe connectors, tubular front k-member/coilover kit a roll bar and possibly a panhard bar.Then building a motor after that...over the period of a year or so just as I have money to blow here and there.

[Thumbie]

Sick car dude!! I almost bought a 96 before an amazing deal on a '01 came up for me. I honestly like the 96-98 bodystyle a lil better.

I'm thinking Grandmama has the best advice for this one. Hopefully it works out! then you can post some 4v exhaust clips

[97mustanggt]

315 rwhp sounds about rite, even a lil low mayby, but best thing to do is get some dyno time.

[Trick Tuners]

I'd change all the fluids, plugs, etc before spending money on a tune that may not do anything. Or just return it to stock with the tuner and see how it acts. It should run fine on the stock tune, otherwise you have some other issue.

[Smoothgrandmama]

It should run fine with full exhaust and cams on the stock tune?

[Trick Tuners]

exhaust doesn't matter at all for tuning (maybe on turbos). Cams do requrie tuning, but stage ones should be fine on the stock tune. Even stage 2s will run decent on the stock tune. Stage 3 cams require tuning.

[smitty2919]

I would suggest a tune up/ a cleaning. I know after taking the battery off my 95 Mark8 for more than a half hour while repairing/modding, I would drive it after and experiance a hesitation/studder under normal accel.

It was the car relearning all the parameters. Clean everything, do a tune up and see where it is. If it still does it I would look into a tune.

[Petty886596]

Okay so I talked to the guy I bought the car from he said that he recently put a new maf sensor on the car and after he did that it started hesitating like it is...I plan on going through it here pretty soon since I now have electric in my shop as of today Rarrr! I'm really stoked about that. I bought some new spark plugs for it and am going to change the oil top off all fluids and change the fuel filter and clean the air filter on it probably this weekend I have been looking into long tubes and I have found some info on here but not a whole lot.I would like to see if i can get some opinions on what the best k-member/ header combo is (I'm going to do both at the same time). and one more question how difficult is it to get to the starter once long tubes are installed? I really want a header setup that I can remove the transmission without dropping a header. I have a Ranger edge as my daily driver it has an 8.8 with 4.10 gears in it I have read that I should be able to swap them out with a install kit. I have done a few gear swaps on a few foxes so I have the knowledge to preform it as long as it is actually possible.

Oh and thanks for everyone's input so far I'm new to 4v world here lol and on top of that my foxes all have carbs on them.... so if I ask stupid questions please excuse me....

[Mach Boy]

Good luck getting a transmission out with LT headers still in. And you know with that new MAF sensor you'll need a tune. As for what Kmember and LTs... You get what you pay for. I'm not just saying that the ARH headers are great from what I have read but they are pricey as well as a Maximum Motorsports K-member setup.

['97'Cobra]

congrats on the cobra. i sold my long tubes, they were just a PITA. Let us know the numbers after the tune. I put down 292 rwhp a few years ago with just intake and x-pipe believe it or not.