Evolution...

[JeepSnake]

Most of you know that one of the things I've been aiming for over time was to bring the engine compartment on the FIA from the jumbled, "whatever fits" look to a more uniform, reasonably proper 289 form.

Anyhow, I just finished fitting custom cut black Ford Racing plug wires routed similar to stock and snapped a few pics. One is attached for comparison with the engine bay photo from when we bought the car. I've just changed out one part at a time for the last 4 years, and this is the difference...

A couple of tips that I've learned:

- The MSD black small diameter Chevy cap will fit a Ford MSD Pro-Billet distributor, if you remove the 80's style large cap adapter and buy the corresponding rotor.

- Mustangs Unlimited carries plug wire looms that fit on the factory valve cover mounting clips, but will hold an 8 or 9 mm wire. These can be found in their Late Model Mustang catalog. They aren't cheap, but I've torn up $20 worth of stock 7 mm looms trying to drill or file the holes out larger.

Now a question: One of the last remaining items in the engine bay that just looks out of place is the red & blue anodized AN fittings on the oil filter adapter hoses. Is there any way to remove the dyed color from the fittings (short of wire brushing or sanding)?

Thanks!

[sllib]

Zach;
Spray-on oven cleaner will take the color off of anodized fittings. I would experiment on junk fittings to get the timing down (too long will etch the metal) then polish the "new" fitting and put a clear coat on for protection. Jegs has a black fitting that looks good also.
Bill Stradtner

[Glenview289]

Zack,
Any way you remove the anodized color finishes will also remove the anodizing properties that protect then aluminum from corrosion. Anodizing is achieved by submersing the parts in an acid bath with electric current applied to create a very thin coating of aluminum oxide from the parent material. Dyes may be added to the acid for different colors. This oxide coating is very thin, about .0005" - .001" per side. Removing this protection may lead to corrosion problems in the future. Brian and I put Russell Endura fittings on our FIA. These fitting also match the braided stainless lines. It won't be cheap though, as these fittings are between $20-$30 each, but will definately give you the look you want. Good luck with your project, it looks better each time we see it!

Bill

[JeepSnake]

Bill,

I've been mulling over the various options today, and I may actually wind up replumbing the oil lines altogether, eliminating the oil cooler in the process. Since I never track the car, I really could do without the cooler; in fact, most of the time I could actually stand to put some more heat into the oil. I'm going to look at the Endura fittings for sure.

Now, some exterior photos showing some slightly more major modifications...

The Weavers performed a successful sidepipe-ectomy last month, followed by a perfect operation to install an all-new undercar system. This included a fuel line reroute from the outboard side of the frame rail to the drivetrain side to protect it from heat exposure.

The silver car now sports new headers (coated silver) and 2.25" undercar pipes with 12" Hushpower Series II mufflers (all coated flat black).

While Hushpower markets the 12" model as a resonator to use in tandem with the regular 18" Series II muffler, it is just perfect for use on a Cobra all by itself. I couldn't be happier with the sound - idle sounds like a big bore ski boat with the exhaust bubbling through the water, and acceleration is nice and throaty. At cruise, the sound is less than sidepipes I suppose, but it is mainly directed behind the car. Definitely less in-your-face than the sidepipes, but retaining plenty of aggressive sound. It shouldn't get mistaken for grandma's station wagon.

(I haven't tried feeling of the mufflers yet to see if their thermal-insulating qualities are as good as their claims!)

Oh, and I changed the parking light lenses out from white to amber. (While said tongue in cheek, it actually did change the looks of the car a lot!)

Anyhow, just a little of what we've been up to over the winter!

[Glenview289]

Zach,
The car looks great and it keeps getting better. We know what it is to find a diamond in the rough! You should not have any problems with eliminating the oil coller. We are running the transmission cooler in that spot because of the automatic tranny. The only wierd thing we encountered was after our initial oil change after 2000 miles, was significantly higher oil temps. Prior to the change oil was 220 degrees and water cycled from 160-180 degrees like clock work. Last spring we changed oil and put in synthetic and started experiencing higher oil temps. Now it runs at 230-250 degrees and can get to 270 if stopped in traffic or a very hot day. The water temp has not changed. I have a BMW twin turbo that runs synthetic at 240 degrees and is considered normal. We changed back to regular petrolium oil and the temps remain high.The only thing that could be different is when we did the oil change, we also dropped the pan to reseal a few of the small annoying leaks we had. I am thinking we could have bumped the temp pick-up sensor when we reinstalled it, or Brians favorite theory, that we left a shop rag in there that got sucked up by the pick-up, but I do think we are better than that! Our first though is to replace the sensor and then drop the pan and look around if the temp does not change. We have put an addfitional 2000 miles with no change. Any thoughts? I didn't mean to hijack the thread, but it is sort of on topic.

Bill

[JeepSnake]

Bill,

Yeah, I think you'd probably have some lifters tapping at you if you left a shop rag in there. (That's an insulting sound, too. After reassembly of a Buick V-6, I discovered that the extra-long oil pickup on those engines has to be filled with vaseline to ever get it to prime. I swear the lifters were tapping out in Morse code: "Y-O-U-B-I-G D-U-M-M-Y-!")

Sending unit is very plausible, though temp units are fairly robust compared to pressure senders.

I've never seen any numbers, but I wonder what the specific heat difference is between dino oil and synthetic? Conventional oil may be able to pull in more Btu's per pound without much of a temperature rise. And, too, on your "first fire" oil, you would have a lot of high-pressure assembly lube (molybdenum and zinc) components floating around to increase the specific heat of that oil as well. Just the first thing that comes to mind, but I really don't know if there'd be enough difference to account for the change you've seen.

Hmmmm - I'll keep pondering on this one!