Trade Schools
Fuel System
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I ran the fuel lines after the body was on. This made it a little more work but a neater finish was accomplished as I knew where everything was going and what I wanted to do in the engine compartment. I reused the Mustang fuel clips which keep the lines tight and together. Everything was placed for easy access later. Certain areas had covering for extra protection from possible rubbing.
New Fuel System
September 2004
I was never one to like the look of the stock Ford 5.0 plenum. It never seemed "right" in the Cobra and I was constantly toying with what to do. I like the vintage carburetor look and had to decide what to do. I had looked at Edelbrock, Accel and Holley speed density systems. I also entertained the thought of the "stack" speed density systems, but rulled them out because I want more air filtration. I had my mind set on the Accel system until Chris Richards at Quality Roadsters came up with his "Mass-Flo" system, which utilizes the stock Ford electronics.
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I wanted to get this installed and tested before the annual "Snakes To The Lake" trip we take every year to Lake Tahoe. I feel this would be a great test for the system going from sea level to 9,000 ft. and back in a three day period.
With any new system there is always doubt on how it will work. This was no exception. I opted for the Victor Jr. manifold because I'm going to stroke the engine and wanted this for future use. This system also utilizes the stock Ford harness, computer and sensors, you don't have to get an entire new electronic system to monitor fuel loads.
All I needed to supply Chris was my engine size, cam and injector size. I did this by phone and an email. How easy is that! When everything arrived, I was quite pleased with the workmanship and quality of the product. The instructions were clear, but who needs those anyway, it was time to get busy!
I took my Cobra intake off and got the wiring out of the way. I taped off the ports in the head and then put the new Victor Jr. manifold on with four bolts to hold it in place. Now came the fun part, routing heater lines and fuel lines.
I used some 5/8" SS tubing for the water lines and was able to utilize my existing hoses to the heater and water pump. I installed a 90° water fitting in the intake manifold near the thermostat and then used a 90° hose to connect to the tubing. Using Earl's clamps, I connected the two SS lines together and they ran between the valve cover and fuel rails. Perfect fit!
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I used Earl's fittings and SS hose to make up my fuel lines. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the system, but wanted to do a clean install anyway. The initial connections are not permanent as of this posting but do make a clean look under the hood. Using my existing fuel feed and return lines, I ran the feed into the right rear fuel rail, looped the front around the distributor and then out the left rear into a Aeromotive 13109 EFI pressure regulator w/gauge, which I had mounted on the firewall. From there it left the bottom of the regulator and back to the return line on the chassis. I also installed a fuel pressure gauge in the regulator from Summit Racing.
I moved the computer temperature sensor to the left front manifold and the air temperature sensor is positioned in the #8 intake runner. Doing this meant I had to move some wiring (my favorite part) to other areas. I didn't want to cut up the harness too much at this time so the harness was sanitized enough to re-route the wiring without making it look ugly. I'll change it all later.
The manifold was drilled and tapped in the rear for my water temperature sender and for a fitting to handle the PCV routing.
The air cleaner and mounting of the MAF and spacer were more of a challenge. I'm usign the oval Cobra air cleaner system and purchased the "non drilled" bottom design from Tony Branda. Once I figured where the hole for the MAF was going, I used a hole saw to cut it out. I then installed a 3/8" breather tube for engine venting in the base. I then had to modify and tack weld in the "bridge" that holds the entire base down.
The throttle body spacer had to be drilled and tapped (6-32) into the throttle body to keep the unit from rotating, which I found out when doing some testing, the engine would vibrate the entire mass, so that was necessary to keep everything in place. Not a big deal, but had to be done.
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I'm using an A9L computer for this system as suggested by Chris. Once everything was connected, and I had no fuel leaks, I fired it up. It started fine and then it was on to adjust the timing and fuel pressure. I set the timing at 12° and fuel pressure at 40psi, which is what my Cobra intake system was set to.
I let the system cool down after running it for awhile. I need to see how a cold start was. Started the engine after a few hours and it purred to life. It smoothed out at a nice 1100 RPM to start off with and slowly came down to 800 RPM where it stayed. No hesitation and no stumbles during warm up. The system was better than my Cobra intake in that it didn't want to "hunt" when cold.
Once the engine got warmed up, it was great! Lot's of power, good throttle control (I adjusted my Russ Thompson pedal assembly) and the idle speed was great. No more hunting at idle! All I know is the engine wants more and it'll just have to wait until this winter for the stroker! When you hit the secondaries, you know it! It just wants more! I never got that with the Cobra intake.
I'll be doing another dyno run to see the difference between the Cobra intake the "Mass-Flo" system. The test will come after the STL trip in October.
July 2005
I just got through building up the new 331 stroker that'll power the Cobra. The "Mass-Flo" system will stay with the 30# injectors and recalibrated MAF. The engine started right up and when the computer re-learned the fuel mapping, everything worked great. I have to say, having the Victor Jr. manifold with the increased cc's really lets it breath life. I need to get some seat time to get used to the added power.
I plan to have another dyno run in the near future. I'm letting the engine get a few more miles on it before subjecting it to some extreme situations. I will have it on the STL trip again this year and can hardly wait to see how it performs again. I did take it to Hot August Nights again this year and did apply some "performance" situations, but nothing like what I'll be able to do on a track. That is coming up in October at Infineon Raceway and Willow Springs.
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Here are some new shots of my reconfigured air cleaner. The base is CNC and hard black anodized. The center hole fits the MAF and the holes for the MAF and double-stud were drilled by me. This is made for a double wingnut air cleaner, but it will work for a single stud as well. You just don't have to drill for the two wingnut studs.
My MAF fits below my air cleaner and I use the lower configuration filter from K&N.
Snakes To The Lake 2004
The trip to Tahoe was great. NO PROBLEMS! NO ISSUES! NO NOTHING! This system works GREAT!
Driving up the mountain highways, the engine ran without problems. Every one thousand foot marker I stomped down on the throttle just to see if it would want to go faster. Yep! It did. Pulled and pulled and pulled until I ran out of engine. I did this all the way past 8,000 ft. before I felt comfortable about it's capabilities and just drove the car.
Another test was the first morning at lake level (6300 ft) and 32°. Hit the key and "varrooooommmmmm", she started and idled just fine. Cold driveablility was no worse than a stock EFI system at that altitude. In other words, it wasn't an issue.
Pushing the car through a lot of twisty's and hill climbs and downhill runs, it didn't miss a beat. In fact, I didn't even think about what was under the hood anymore, it just worked flawless. Response on the system is better in my opinion than the Cobra setup I was using. I do know it sure wanted more when you hit the secondaries.
I know there will be some who doubt what Chris at Quality Roadsters has done, but I'm not getting paid and I really don't care what the doubters think. All I know is it works, and it works well. If you're thinking about something other than the Ford EFI intake setup, the "Mass-Flo" is a good option to use with your existing Ford EFI electronics. The benefit is a clean looking "vintage" system and plenty of no-hassle driving.
I was in contact with Chris throughout the installation and testing period. I'm sure the feedback was helpful and if you had/have any issues, he's more than willing to help.
As a side note, I got over 22mpg. on the trip. I put over 650 miles on the system and was tickled to get that kind of mileage. Remember that a lot of the driving was well over 5,000 ft. for three days while driving the car hard at times and in the 3k to 6k rpm range quite a bit. Mileage in the Sierra's was over 17mpg!
Can this system be tuned beyond what it does? I think so, but it's not needed. You can drive it right out of the box!
I'm sure some of you carburator users know what it's like at 9,000 ft. and your engine won't run right. There were a few of them with that same issue. I didn't have any with the "Mass-Flo" system. Thanks Chris.
I'm checking with Chris right now to see if he would like to use a Cobra computer and setup a MAF unit for that combo. This should give him more to do.
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Check out the dyno information here: dyno run.