Project Phoenix (94 Cobra)

Labora

Founding Member
Jun 11, 2000
1,849
25
69
Dallas, Texas
(If You want some back story on this project check out this thread.) RICEKILLER.COM FORUMS

Super short version is my 95 is totaled and I'm using the parts from it for this 94 which is a roller and was also previously owned by somebody here on stangnet. :D

Started some work clay bared the whole car (around 10~ hours car had overspray type residue on it clay bar did wonders), quick hand wash for some pics. Still plan to buff/wax but will have to wait because I've got some other work to do.

Time for a rim change.....
Before
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After
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Gotta track down some center caps now, and the brakes look horrible need paint pretty bad will have to wait till later.
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I'm diggin the new rims, had planned to use them with a red car but still look cool on black to me.
 

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Update today and more work tomorrow.

I threw a new fuel pump in the car, I've had a new 255 Walbaro setting around forever decided to ditch the external pump to make things less complicated. Also painted my old gas cover black red cover wasn't my style....
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Also had to spend some time in the trunk, decided to clean it out and sand/paint to cover up some rust due to PO had a acid battery make a huge mess and it caused some surface rust. Next step is mount my optima in the trunk and put it back together more on that later....
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Today I went ahead and changed out the steering columns, my black wheel was in better shape and I also plan to get back to a all black interior...
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Car doesn't look to need much work wiring wise I discovered this week it had a alarm that was still semi hooked up went ahead and yanked it out (I don't have the remotes anyhow), only left one wire on the steering column harness I will have to splice back together so really not bad at all.
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And last thing of the night I did was yank the carpet. Plan to clean up my black carpet (in really good shape) and put it in this car.
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Tomorrow I will be working on getting the black carpet back in the car and interior back together, battery in the trunk and then maybe get the motor on the engine stand.
 

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Put most of the interior back together had to clean my black carpet power sprayer and vacuum did wonders it had alot of glass/trash on it.....

(Yah I need new floor mats)
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Looks way better then the tan IMO.
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Removed the rear seat belts and put in my Rear Seat Delete.
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Finished the trunk too my camera battery went dead. Have to post those later. The carpet is still loose because I didn't bolt it all down yet, still have wires to run on driver side....
 

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Hey man looking good! That black carpet and steering wheel do look much better, that was something i had always wanted to do.

(For those of you who don't know, I am the previous owner of this car). About half of the work that had been done on the car was by the previous owner, and i did the other half.

But its good to see she found a great new home with someone who's putting work into it! Although i wasn't there for the sale (i was at school in NY), this guy came a long way for this car so i'm glad it worked out for both of us.

Keep us posted!
 
Hey man looking good! That black carpet and steering wheel do look much better, that was something i had always wanted to do.

(For those of you who don't know, I am the previous owner of this car). About half of the work that had been done on the car was by the previous owner, and i did the other half.

But its good to see she found a great new home with someone who's putting work into it! Although i wasn't there for the sale (i was at school in NY), this guy came a long way for this car so i'm glad it worked out for both of us.

Keep us posted!

Thanks for checking out the post man. :) I am liking the interior now, I will probably end up removing the pass airbag for a black one too even thou it looks awesome the way it is. (I need to sell the air bags in a set not 1 of each color. :( ) Thinking of switching to a 99-04 center console and then painting everything.

Btw I meant to ask you do you know if this car has stock gears or what? (Next time it is up in the air I will have to double check for sure!) I've got a set of 4.10s from my other rear end which may have to be swapped over depending on what I find out. :p

So today I left the car under wraps to attack the parts pile.

Goal today was to get the motor on a engine stand so I could start to break the motor down. Was a bit hard to do by myself but I manged anyhow went pretty smooth actually.
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Once the tranny was off I had a look at the pressure plate and clutch looked to be in pretty good shape. I will probably end up putting in a new clutch anyhow thou.

After a trip to the hardware store I was able to get the motor bolted to the stand.
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Then started breaking it down first upper intake and front brackets.
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Then the lower intake and Valve Covers. (I have a new set of covers. )
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BTW this thing is a bitch. Left it soaking with oil hopefully it will break loose tomorrow I want to paint most of this stuff so gotta break it down.
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Motor looks pretty clean on the inside.
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Went ahead and called it quits after wrapping the motor up.

Tomorrow I will drain the oil and check out my rear main seal leak. Would have torn down the water pump/timing chain cover but left my balancer puller at home.

After I've torn it apart I'm going to order whatever I need gasket wise, then I am on the fence about a comp 2031 cam/spring kit (dunno what push rods), and maybe new king cobra clutch kit.

Mostly done with the inside of the car need to put on my clutch quad, cable, pedals, and wire up shift light.
 

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The gears in the rear are 3.73's.

I didn't know you had a cobra motor in your other car, but then again i see that it was a cobra and i was thinking that it was a GT.

there may also be a chip in the computer, i forget if its the superchips one or if there is not one in there, so you may want to look at it before you fire it up to see.

Looking good!
 
I don't remember that piece needing more than a big wrench to get off. This may be a good time to redo the rest of your gaskets! If the head gaskets were good before, I would probably just leave those. But there's no reason not to do the rest.
 
The gears in the rear are 3.73's.

I didn't know you had a cobra motor in your other car, but then again i see that it was a cobra and i was thinking that it was a GT.

there may also be a chip in the computer, i forget if its the superchips one or if there is not one in there, so you may want to look at it before you fire it up to see.
Looking good!

oh yeah, i forgot to mention, that thing you soaked in oil, whatever that sensor is, is a b*tch to get off. I've almost always bent the collant line bracket there when taking mine off. did you get it off without bending it?

I ALMOST bought a 95 GT roller, since I have all the parts to a Cobra anyhow glad I didn't...

Awesome I liked my 4.10s but 3.73s are pretty good for road course/autox too so I will have to see how they work out. :) I will be sure to check and see if it has a chip or not.

And that thing came off easier after soaking overnight, I'd like to figure out a way to get rid of it all together. Would be nice to mount the sensor directly to the intake, then run soft lines around to the heater core. I think that would end up looking cleaner.

I don't remember that piece needing more than a big wrench to get off. This may be a good time to redo the rest of your gaskets! If the head gaskets were good before, I would probably just leave those. But there's no reason not to do the rest.

One of the main reasons I'm taking the motor apart is for new rear main seal and oil pan gasket. Looks like I will end up doing everything but the head gaskets if I order a cam.
 
Lot of pics here to help out in another thread....

Today I removed the water pump, timing cover, balancer and oil pan.

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Pretty straightforward job, if you do not have any leaks on the timing chain cover side you will not need to remove the balancer. My stock pump was actually fine 2~ years ago when I installed that one but after a long 4th gear pull I blew out the gasket between the timing cover and block so I had to do the 2nd half of these pics to replace it.

Also took off the pan, the inside of the motor looks great. I'm thinkin about taking off the oil pickup tube to hose it out but other then that don't plan to touch anything else on the motor other then the rear main seal.
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Spent the last 2~ weeks working on another car. R&Red motor on a 96 vert upgrade to PI so progress slowed down a bit, also it is getting COLD. :notnice:

Anyhow. Got some parts in. Some new/upgrades.

Motor mount/tranny mount. (Tranny mount broke in the wreck.) Double roller timing chain, new plug wires and some "wire looms" should clean up the engine bay with some other stuff I have planned.
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New comp 2031 cam, with springs, retainers etc.
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I took the intake to a friend to have him do some minor port work on. Mainly the Throttle Body opening.
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When I went to pick the intake up, I was very pleased to find he had spent some extra time and port matched the upper/lower and ported the lower some also! Thanks man!
(Pic of one of the corner runners which are usually restricted by where a bolt goes in for the fuel rail.)
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Tomorrow I will be dropping some parts off to get powder coated. Hoping these valve covers turn out good, I like them better then the stock Cobra VC the intake needs a new look BAD.
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Looks good man!! I wish i had all the parts to knock all that out on my car in one swoop :) I'm having to do it in the part-by-part method :notnice:

Currious if you have the tan seats that were in that car, and if they're in decent shape :shrug:
 
Well was finally able to do some more work.

First I replaced the old valve springs, retainers and locks. The stock locks/retainers where a real PITA ended up having to use a socket to beat on the locks to loosen them up since they have been on this motor a long time. After we did the first few it went pretty smooth.

You can see the new springs are much beefier compared to stock.
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After this was done I removed all the valve train and installed the new cam and timing chain setup.
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Stock chain was fine about 2 years ago but was pretty loose now so I'm glad I ordered a new one.


Next move will be to clean up the valve train bits and start putting the motor back together completely. Need to find some engine paint, also got a broken intake bolt stuck in the head. (You can barely see it in one of the pics in this post.)

Looks good man!! I wish i had all the parts to knock all that out on my car in one swoop I'm having to do it in the part-by-part method

Currious if you have the tan seats that were in that car, and if they're in decent shape

Nope car came with some race seats, I do have a ton of 94-95 parts. Really need to clean the shop out ugh.
 

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Your project looks great, its the pics that provide inspiration to the rest of us hoping to follow in similar footsteps...So where are you at with this now. Any new pics of the powder coated parts, finished engine? Nice work keep us posted!