97 cobra: Eaton swap or Vortech kit?

[Sergio]

put a centri on it and be done with it. you will get the numbers you want with much less of a headache.

[Steve]

There is more to having a fun car to drive that makes peak numbers. A weak mod motor with a small weak centri blower isn't going to make much power and what it will make won't be much fun to drive on the street having to spin the shit out of it to make any power.

[SVT Lurch]

True, but if you doing "spirited" driving in a 4V how much time are you spending below 3500 - 4000 RPM?

[Steve]

True, but if you doing "spirited" driving in a 4V how much time are you spending below 3500 - 4000 RPM?

How easily you forget how slow your Shinoda was. lol. I don't have to wait for 4k for the the fun to start.

[SVT Lurch]

It was faster than the Cobra. I'm just saying for someone who has never had/driven either kind of car the wait you keep making fun of on centri cars would not be that noticeable and it's not worth the hassle of swapping a motor (or top half) to get it. How much trouble did you go through with your 98 to get it running right? And isn't this his daily driver?

[Steve]

It was faster than the Cobra. I'm just saying for someone who has never had/driven either kind of car the wait you keep making fun of on centri cars would not be that noticeable and it's not worth the hassle of swapping a motor (or top half) to get it. How much trouble did you go through with your 98 to get it running right? And isn't this his daily driver?

Now you're throwing shit against the wall to see what will stick. The 98 Cobra was someone else's unfinished project. When you take on someone else's project, you're going to have issues, especially when things were completely untouched to start with and you end up chasing things to finish up. None of the issues were serious, just small, tedious, time consuming things that had nothing to do with the blower. (Other than the lower crank pulley was broken and I replaced with a brand new billet 4lb lower)


But, being a person who has owned both blowers in question, (my 93 Cobra had a Vortech S trim and the 98 has a ported Posi blower) I can offer a very informed opinion from personal experience. Can you say the same?

The fact is, my 93 Cobra made more peak power than the 98 does. The 93 made 540rw and the 98 currently makes 491rw on a conservative tune (going back for a retune soon).

That being said, the 98 is MUCH more fun to drive around on the street and is even much faster than the 93 Cobra was. The powerband is much more useable and fun with the positive displacement blower rather than having to really turn some RPM's to get it moving.

Let's see, power from near idle all the way to redline or..

Power from 4k to 7k?

Seems pretty straight forward to me.

[LS1Goat]

Dual pumps and proper baffles. Some people who run gt/mach tanks have problems under 1/4 tank of gas during heavy acceleration.

So no 03 tank? just a different pump? what year?

You can use an '03 GT tank. And you can run dual SVT focus pumps in a modified stock GT fuel hat, if you wish. Most people don't usually like to go that route, but it's done quite often. And people have had pretty good luck drilling a hole in the fuel basket to keep it from getting sucked dry. I recently drove an '03 GT Vert with a P1SC1 w/39 lbs injectors and the fuel system was done exactly in that fashion. Didn't notice any starvation issues getting below 1/4 tank.

Just throwing that out there because I've seen it work that way with no problems to speak of.

[Cobraman]

Now you're throwing shit against the wall to see what will stick. The 98 Cobra was someone else's unfinished project. When you take on someone else's project, you're going to have issues, especially when things were completely untouched to start with and you end up chasing things to finish up. None of the issues were serious, just small, tedious, time consuming things that had nothing to do with the blower. (Other than the lower crank pulley was broken and I replaced with a brand new billet 4lb lower)


But, being a person who has owned both blowers in question, (my 93 Cobra had a Vortech S trim and the 98 has a ported Posi blower) I can offer a very informed opinion from personal experience. Can you say the same?

The fact is, my 93 Cobra made more peak power than the 98 does. The 93 made 540rw and the 98 currently makes 491rw on a conservative tune (going back for a retune soon).

That being said, the 98 is MUCH more fun to drive around on the street and is even much faster than the 93 Cobra was. The powerband is much more useable and fun with the positive displacement blower rather than having to really turn some RPM's to get it moving.

Let's see, power from near idle all the way to redline or..

Power from 4k to 7k?

Seems pretty straight forward to me.

I Definetly agree, and if I had $3500 and some patience, I would do the eaton swap. Let's face it though, that would be a very difficult task. If it takes a week to get stuff right, I don't have a car for a week. Which isn't ok. Tracking down every little thing I need for that swap would be a pita, especially all the front drive accessories and 03 heads when I have the money. And I only make about 2500 every summer meaning that I would owe my dad the difference. If I can save my self the debt of $1500, I can look at bottom ends next summer and turn up the boost.

[dville_gt]

400rwhp is weak sauce in today's world.

how much power are you putting down?

[SVT Lurch]

Now you're throwing shit against the wall to see what will stick. The 98 Cobra was someone else's unfinished project. When you take on someone else's project, you're going to have issues, especially when things were completely untouched to start with and you end up chasing things to finish up. None of the issues were serious, just small, tedious, time consuming things that had nothing to do with the blower. (Other than the lower crank pulley was broken and I replaced with a brand new billet 4lb lower)


But, being a person who has owned both blowers in question, (my 93 Cobra had a Vortech S trim and the 98 has a ported Posi blower) I can offer a very informed opinion from personal experience. Can you say the same?

The fact is, my 93 Cobra made more peak power than the 98 does. The 93 made 540rw and the 98 currently makes 491rw on a conservative tune (going back for a retune soon).

That being said, the 98 is MUCH more fun to drive around on the street and is even much faster than the 93 Cobra was. The powerband is much more useable and fun with the positive displacement blower rather than having to really turn some RPM's to get it moving.

Let's see, power from near idle all the way to redline or..

Power from 4k to 7k?

Seems pretty straight forward to me.

No I'm not, I'm giving him advice for his application. I'm not denying that a PD blower will bring on power sooner. I'm just saying for someone who has not had EITHER type of blower he likely won't notice the difference in powerbands because either route will be much faster than what he has now. I realize the 98 was an unfinished project, but a motor swap is a fairly indepth undertaking compared to bolting on a centri kit. The blower itself was not and is not the issue - it's getting the newer blower to work on his older car.

I have not owned both types of cars, but I've driven and ridden in several of both so I am speaking from experience. I've also seen numerous people (who had other cars to daily drive and the knowledge to do the build themselves) try to put an Eaton in a 96-98 SN95 and give up because it just wasn't worth the trouble. Again, I'm not denying that a PD blower is more fun on the street (that's your opinion - can't argue with that) or that the power comes on sooner, I'm just saying in his case at this point in his life I don't think it's worth the extra time and effort it would take to get it done.

[shumpertdavid]

I remember following the forum on Steve's car when KWClutch was putting it together. To do a 03 Cobra motor swap, or to just do a top end swap is no easy task. The car harness and the 03 harness don't work together without some major modification. The fuel system isn't the same.

It can be done and I still like the idea of it, but from a monetary stand point a centrifugal blower will be best for him given his time frame and $. As far as fun factor goes, with 4.56's it'll still be a fun ride. My 97 with a little novi 1000 and 4.30's was a fun street car with only 310 rwhp. If my 98 still had a stick in it, I could show you what a centri car could do. It was useless in first and second any rpm when you stabbed the throttle and it had a tendency to step the ass out at about 75 in third. The automatic has tamed it a lot along with some drag radials and also reduced my rwhp by about a 100. It's down to 560 from 655 rwhp.

[Sergio]

A weak mod motor with a small weak centri blower isn't going to make much power

and a stock bottom end isnt gonna hold much more than 400 anyways. for the budget and what the guys current goals are a centri is his best option.

[Cobraman]

I do need a ride in a Centri car still. Drag radials have changed my life. I can't break the nittos free, even with 4.56s from a dig.

[prochargedpony]

you can't run a 99up gas tank in your car, you have a return style system. You need to run either a stand alone or twin 255's in it. A vortech will make more power then a heaton!! It will just be alittle more fun down low, but a nice set of gears and you are always in powerband.

[eric 2v gt]

you can ride in my car its only got 420wheel