Tire Sizing?

[wraith_2006]

I just purchased my first Cobra it is a 96 White Coupe, with original white cobra rims,78000 miles, Saddle interior
But I just noticed that the tires that are on the front are 245/45 r17 and the rear are 275/40 r17 ....... now I was wondeirng would there be any reason that you would want to put a taller tire on the fronts? I was figuring that a person would put 245/40 on the front and 275/40 on the rear....am I wrong? Is there any gain on doing this, or is this going to cause me any problems?

 

[LaserSVT]

I have never seen white wheels stock on a Cobra. Look at my sig, do yours look like thatl only white? Those are the stock 96-97 Cobra wheels. To answer your question the tires side walls are virtually identical in height (110mm vs 112mm). The second number is a percentage of the first number to dictate side wall height.
Hope it helps. Your stock tire size is 245/45/17 and the wheels hold 255/45 perfectly so thats what I run all the way around.

P.S. Do you have pictures of the car and wheels?

 

[wraith_2006]

really... so that was the only stock rims offered with the cobra?... I guess I was wrong..
I thought that these were stock..... It is soooo clean.. the other guy that owned it was compleatly anal rententive....also .. it never went to wal-mart
here is a image with it in a shop... Low quality, however it started snowing outside... so I like this place. I hope to get some good pics soon

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/dustin.ostberg/MustangInShop/photo#5143257757130201218"><img src="http://lh3.google.com/dustin.ostberg/R2CFrhIEmII/AAAAAAAAABc/SD1n4yoCRV0/s800/Mustang.jpg" /></a>

 

[LaserSVT]

Thoes are factory style for 98 Cobras, only someone painted them white. They might be replicas But the car did not come that way from Ford. Looks good though, very clean snake. These cars are alot of fun

 

[wythors]

Those appear to be aftermarket wheels. Look at the center caps. It looks to me (bad picture as mentioned) that they have a silver snake on them rather than the red "R".

The front tires are the stock size. The rears are wider for more traction and an improved look.

 

[wraith_2006]

they must be after markets then, because... I have one place of curb rash on them and where it is ... it is white all the way through. Thank you for the comps... it is preatty... and really really fun... however I just noticed a miss when I stomp on it.... so another thing to fix beisded the fule filler gromet now. Totally off topic.....does that seafoam stuff work on cars..

What size tires can I put on a 17 x 9 rim?.

 

[LaserSVT]

Yes, and 275/40 no problem. Does the hesitation happen at 3200-3400 RPM?

 

[wraith_2006]

yes.... is that common?

 

[LaserSVT]

yes.... is that common?

Kinda, I only notice it when the car is real cold. Once it warms up it is hardley noticable. Its the secondary short runners opening up on the intake, I forgot the acronym (brain fart) Sounds like yours are sluggish. You can clean them by taking the plenum apart and cleaning the eight butterflys. They can get pretty gunked up. If you do a search there have been alot of threads on this subject and how to clean them.

 

[wraith_2006]

sounds like some time for some cleaning... I figured that though with it being a 96 and having 78000 on it....any other ideas that I could do to the car to get it up to speed so to say?

 

[LaserSVT]

Well IDK what mods you have. If you still are running the stock intake remove the silencer in the fender and get a couple horses. Make sure yours has had the cooling mod done to it. O/R H-pipes make a world of difference and they are cheep and easy to install. MGW short shifter is the best one out so go get it And look into a SCT tuner, my car has a Jet chip and when I pulled it off I could not believe how much performance the car lost. The chip is easy giving me 25+ hp so a tuner would do much better.

 

[wraith_2006]

what is the cooling mod?

 

[LaserSVT]

In 96 the Cobra got the GT radiator and its not enough. Ford put out a TSB where they change it to the 97+ Cobra style. They have to redrill the mounts because the new radiator is larger. If you remove the shroud that covers the upper radiator mounts you can see if they have been widened. If they are widened you will see the old mounting holes between the mounts and that meens your car has been fixed. If not I think Ford still does it for free