[KingChronic]

The 2003/2004 SVT Cobra "Terminator"

If you own one of these cars, then you already know how responsive to mods, and how mod friendly they are. so no need to give much of a history on this car.

It starts off with a SVT hand assembled motor. The motor uses a forged crankshaft that is good to alteast 1500HP, SVT by "Manley" 4340 forged H beam rods with ARP hardware, and Mahle 8.5:1 CR pistons, all tucked into a strong cast iron block. The specs pretty much speak for themselves, this motor can go for over 100K miles and safely push 700RWHP. It can go any more, but that would be its limits on pump gas, and would require a turbo to do it. It uses 39LBS injectors fed by a baffled fuel tank with 2 fuel pumps.

Its uses the "improved" C heads, same as Mach 1's, and features 03/04 cobra specific cam's. on top of the heads is mounted a Eaton M112 supercharger pushing 8PSI. For a transmission it uses a Tremec T56, and followed by a alluminum driveshaft, and a improved IRS with stronger halfshafts over the 01 cobra.

You can already tell this is the car to buy if you want the most bang for your buck.

Not much more really needs to be explained about this car.

When you pick one up, is one the fun really begins, bolt on mods are everywhere for this car, and it responds great to them.

For the person that doesn't have the $$ to drop for a twin screw setup, or turbo's, you can still get a lot of power, for not a lot of money.

Basic bolt on's would start as follows:

Cat-back exhaust
CAI (cold air intake)
IRS brace
Pulley
Tune

For a Cat-back system, there are many to choose from, but i would recommend no other than Bassani, Borla, Manaflow, or SLP. they offer the highest quality, the highest power gains, and all sound great. a Cat Back exhaust only on one of these cars can pick up 10-30RWHP. yes, that's a lot for just a more free flowing exhaust.

Cold air intake. this is another 15-30RWHP mod. a monster like itself needs to breath. the best you can buy for it is JLT, its proven to make the most power, and is relatively inexpensive.

IRS brace. this is used on the differential cover to give it extra bracing. with the power this car has, it is very easy to pop the cover even at stock power, so this is a relatively inexpensive way to make your rear end withstand the power. Billetflow is simply the only brand to buy for this.

Pulley. this is possibly the single best mod for this car, but still requires the other supporting mods, aswell as a tune for the added boost. at minimum you want to go with a 2.93 pulley which raises the boost approx. 4PSI. with a 2.93 belt slip really isnt much of a issue, but if you choose to go with the 2.80, or 2.76 you need to get a upper idler to help with belt wrap, so it doesn't slip. Billetflow is very highly recommended for both the pulley, and the upper idler.

Tuner. this is needed ad this point for the added boost, it will also require a tune, which a mail order tune from any of the top guys is fine for a pulley only, you wont benefit much from a dyno tune, and is 100% safe with mail order. Amazon Tuning Solution's in Anderson, SC comes very highly recommended for this task, these guys know what they're doing, and have done several. last time i checked, a SCT tuner, with a custom tune ran about $400.

at this point you have added enough power to the factory under rated car that typically dyno's 355-395RWHP 100% stock to a 440-460RWHP beast that is feared by most on the street.

stay tuned for a few more writeup on this car including ported blower, twin screws, suspension, and builing the IRS, very shortly.

[KingChronic]

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[KingChronic]

save 2

[Smoothgrandmama]

Save?

Nice Writeup!

[KingChronic]

the saves are for adding info later, im pretty much done for today, but tomarrow im going to do a beyond basic bolt on's thread, and a few other things.

[Smoothgrandmama]

So there like Future Edits?

[03 R Code]

Originally Posted by Smoothgrandmama So there like Future Edits?

Not any more. There is a time limit on how long you can edit your posts. It will be up to a moderator to change these now.

[KingChronic]

yes, its reserved space for future information. ill just type it up, and have a moderator add if in for me

[F8LBITE]

Pretty Cook King. This site is pretty nice.

[Justin00Stang]

I've had experience tuning and modding many of these cars, so I will add a few things.

Here is my repository of some of the 03-04s that I have dynotuned:
03-04 Cobra Dyno Results - VMP Tuning Message Board

There have been a few cars make very good power, but these were also on very good air days (high barometric pressure, decent temp, low humidity). One car with stock pulley, exhaust, intake, tune made 450RWHP.
Rick's 04 Cobra Vert 450rwhp/418rwtq - VMP Tuning Message Board
I've had several cars with the addition of a pulley make 470-480rwhp with the stock blower.
Jason's 03 Cobra with bolt ons 484RWHP/495RWTQ - VMP Tuning Message Board
Mike F's 03 Cobra 477rwhp/496rwtq - VMP Tuning Message Board

Originally Posted by KingChronic Cold air intake. this is another 15-30RWHP mod. a monster like itself needs to breath. the best you can buy for it is JLT, its proven to make the most power, and is relatively inexpensive.

From my experience, the JLTs have not made significantly more power over just a cone filter on the end of the stock MAF (like steeda, KN, C&L, etc.)

The JLT intake is a very tight fit.

The JLT also makes the car run slightly richer and the maf peg slightly sooner, due to the way they have you position the MAF sensor with a bend after it. This can be accounted for to an extent in mail order tunes.

Originally Posted by KingChronic Pulley. this is possibly the single best mod for this car, but still requires the other supporting mods, aswell as a tune for the added boost. at minimum you want to go with a 2.93 pulley which raises the boost approx. 4PSI. with a 2.93 belt slip really isnt much of a issue, but if you choose to go with the 2.80, or 2.76 you need to get a upper idler to help with belt wrap, so it doesn't slip. Billetflow is very highly recommended for both the pulley, and the upper idler.

For a stock blower car, I would just do a 2.7 or 2.8 upper pulley. For a ported blower car I really feel you need a lower+upper to get the most out of it.

Originally Posted by KingChronic Tuner. this is needed ad this point for the added boost, it will also require a tune, which a mail order tune from any of the top guys is fine for a pulley only, you wont benefit much from a dyno tune, and is 100% safe with mail order. Amazon Tuning Solution's in Anderson, SC comes very highly recommended for this task, these guys know what they're doing, and have done several. last time i checked, a SCT tuner, with a custom tune ran about $400.

On supercharged motors like the 03-04 cobra, getting the air/fuel ratio just right plays a big part in how much power the cars will make. A/F can not always be dialed in perfectly on a mail order tune. That's where a dyno-tune comes in.

At a recent dyno-day I ran and datalogged an 03-04 cobra that was tuned by its owner with sniper's DIY package. He had no wideband on the car. It had way too much timing (25-26*), the a/f was lean at low RPMs, rich at high RPMs, and the car only made 430rwhp with a ported blower (it should have made close to 500rwhp).

Originally Posted by KingChronic at this point you have added enough power to the factory under rated car that typically dyno's 355-395RWHP 100% stock to a 440-460RWHP beast that is feared by most on the street.

I would agree with that.

Also, like any supercharged car, the cobras are very sensitive to heat soak. When I have one on the dyno I have two 2000CFM carpet blower fans on the engine and HE.

[F8LBITE]

I can add to the JLT comments. Yes the JLT will make more power in real world circumstances. A dyno is one thing. An under the hood filter has higher IAT1's and IAT2's. I've datalogged on the street with a 9"-12" open and a 12" JLT in the Fender. Same day back to back. The 9" filter on said application would have IAT1's in the 110's and IAT2's would hit 200*plus. The 12" help some IAT1's in the 105*range and IAT2's would hit the high 170*-185* range. Then the 12" JLT in the Fender would have IAT1's in the mid 90*s and IAT2's were in the 145-150* range. Also on my 9 sec car with the JLT in 95* air and about 4000ft DA when I use my Ice box on a 1/4 mile pass my IAT2's hit a max of 133* on 28psi of boost. Under the hood would be cooking!

Also on an unported or ported eaton for drag racing purpose and lowest ET. A lower pulley is benifical. You will see anywhere from 25-50lbs of torque. You just have to cool down alittle more.

[SVTRocket]

Originally Posted by KingChronic The 2003/2004 SVT Cobra "Terminator" The motor uses a forged crankshaft that is good to alteast 1500HP, SVT by "Manley" 4340 forged H beam rods with ARP hardware, and Mahle 8.5:1 CR pistons, all tucked into a strong cast iron block. The specs pretty much speak for themselves, this motor can go for over 100K miles and safely push 700RWHP. .

OK, 700 rwhp with over 100k miles people, how many of you out there can verify this loft claim? How about 600? 500?

[JayC]

Don't forget the asshole factor goes up 150% the second you own one

[Black02GT]

well i can tell this thread was a bad idea. everyone has their own opinions. watch out king. but good job great descriptive right up. im not a cobra owner but appreciate the knowledge

[B0B]

nice write up +rep.

anyways, another thing we should point out is some of the other differences the cobras have with the GT's since some people dont know..

obviously the hood, side skirts, front bumper, grill delete, and rear spoiler. are different

no, the cobra does NOT come with a cobra emblem in the grill. it comes with a pony.

the cobras have 13 in. rotors in the front with cobra brake calipers.

most of the other differences have already been thrown out by KC, such as iron block forged internals, T-56 tranny, eaton blower, and IRS.

this thread should become a sticky, and i'm going to make a new thread right now that goes over the differences between the 99/01 and the 03-04 cobras.

[SVTRocket]

Originally Posted by JayC Don't forget the asshole factor goes up 150% the second you own one

If asking people people to comment on their personal experiences about something posted makes me an asshole on this site, then so be it. I've heard plenty of other people make warrantless claims and a misinformed decision can end up with a hatched motor.

There are plenty of articles about 500-700 hp Cobras, but the King is the first person I ever heard say 700 rwhp was safe with a high mileage motor. If he's an engineer, shop owner, or forum guru, I didn't mean to offend.

[JayC]

Originally Posted by SVTRocket If asking people people to comment on their personal experiences about something posted makes me an asshole on this site, then so be it. I've heard plenty of other people make warrantless claims and a misinformed decision can end up with a hatched motor. There are plenty of articles about 500-700 hp Cobras, but the King is the first person I ever heard say 700 rwhp was safe with a high mileage motor. If he's an engineer, shop owner, or forum guru, I didn't mean to offend.

No not at all. FYI "the King" just blew his 3rd motor so I doubt he should be the guy to give anyone advice. Please read.....http://http://www.moddedmustangs.com/forums/clubhouse/60052-god-d-mn-motherf-ck.html