Finally got an 03 SVT Cobra Vert, now I want to know the best way to get to 500 RWHP without breaking the bank or the car. I know some of you have already made your mods, I want to know which ones worked and which ones you would not do again. Thanks in advance.

 

if you are willing to spend about 4k you can swap your stock supercharger for a kennebell supercharger.

 

K&N air filter / intake swap good for 25 horsepower. Saw an article on it in MM&ff's. They said it delivered as advertised on a stock '03 Cobra.
I've heard the exhaust swap will add another 35 horses. Everyone says the stock exhaust is very restrictive.
BTW, congrats on your ride!

 

check this link STEEDA click on "Tech Articles" then look for the June 2002 article titled "Performance Upgrades for the 2003 Cobra". That should give you an insight and you can search prices on parts.

 

InsaneMetalHead
"Future Garage:
2003 Mustang SVT Cobra, 10th anniversary edition, 6 speed, Kenne Bell Blower"

nice future car
i'm leaving mine stock-collector's item

 

I'd say the first things you will need to do is exhaust and intake upgrades. Something like:

• JLT Ram Air (basically a CAI)
• Throttle Body
• JBA Shorty Headers
• Dr. Gas o/r x-pipe
• Magnaflow Catback (or your preference)

after that, your going to need a tune, but might as well get a upper pulley as well.

After those you are going to be around 470rwhp or more. At that point you can send your blower off for porting at Apten Performance and that will get you at or past that 500rwhp mark.

 

Thanks. I rather have mine black with red stripes and a hardtop instead of convertible.

 

I have heard the Diablo Predator is also a worthwhile investment.

 

Find Car Craft December 2003 issue

In there they got an '03 Cobra to do 502HP at the wheels for like $2400

 

How much horsepower can you add without disabling the traction control on these cars? Don't mean to change the topic, just reminded me of that question.

 

With just a K&N FIPK, and a Magnaflow cat-back, my Cobra put down 415 to the wheels. I added a Billetflow 2.93 non-slip pulley and Diablosport Predator tuner for just under $500 total, which should bump the power up 50 to 60 horsepower and the torque up about 90 ft-lbs (I haven't dyno'd since the pulley, but a buddy of mine has identical mods and he put down 465/475 SAE). To get to 500 rwhp will require a ported blower, and probably a slight reduction in the pulley size to 2.8 or 2.76. And that's about all you can hope for with the Eaton blower, any higher will require a twin screw of some flavor. The blower just runs out of air -- you can make the torque pretty obscene on the bottom end, but it always falls off up where you make peak horsepower.

I've thought about a KB, but with the setup I have now I sometimes have trouble maintaining traction at anything under 60-70 mph (dry pavement), and I'm not sure I want to run DR's full time just so I can have more power.

REDFIRESNAKE-- I still have traction control with my setup. It works (as well as it does stock, at least, which is to say not very well).

Dave

 

Oh, you asked about mods that don't work. From everything I have seen so far (a lot of buddies of mine have Cobras, and I let them experiment first before I lay down any cash .... mid-pipe is just for sound, throttle body adds almost nothing in peak power (but apparently helps a lot with throttle response). Pulleys smaller than 2.93 seem not to do much unless you port the blower. Can't tell you how many folks I've seen with 2.76 pulleys that make the same power/torque as others with 2.93 pulleys. Why spin the blower any harder than you have to...

 

HairyCanary-Thanks for the reply! What are your 0-60 times with all the mods?? Just curious.

 

a 2.81 pulley from steeda

 

Thanks for the input. I have the cold air intake and MAC 3" catbacks. I think I will go with the pulley and Tune. What is the experience of Diablo VS Superchip? Do they each allow blower pulley changes?

 

I highly recommend the SuperChips Custom Tune software for tuning a car. You can get a chip or flasher from any dealer and feel good about having the support from some of the best stang tuners in the country behind you. Doug904 on this board is a dealer and I am running one of his chips in my 96. Its great. Either can be custom tuned to get the a/f back on par even after a pulley change.

 

I have no way of measuring 0-60, so I don't really know. Probably low-4, high-3, I'd guess. That's assuming the tires don't go up in smoke . 60 comes so quickly it's sometimes startling, but only for a few seconds, as you realize that you're crossing 100...

Dave

 

Thanks Dave!

 

How do you get the custom tune without putting the car on the dyno?

 

Well for one, you are in bham, and Doug904 lives here as well. He has a raptor datalogger and can easily see all sensor values and also he has a LM-1 portable wideband meter. He can tune the car to almost perfect while driving it around or whatever. Only thing you dont have that a Dyno does is HP and Trq numbers.

Also, using the SCT software, Jerry, Chris and the other guys there already have pre-built tune files for just about every combination car you can think of. All Doug has to do is load these files and load in the value files for any mod you have, and the initial tune is going to be really close from the beginning. The guys at SCT have tuned thousands of mustangs over the past years so they know what to do.