I am the proud new owner of a 2004 Mystichrome Cobra but am not sure what non-stock items it has. Would really appreciate any help and advice you guys can share. The mods seem to be just pulley, intake, and cat-back exhaust. The exhaust I have identified as a flowmaster setup. The car runs fantastic so I don't really have any problems just trying to figure out what I have.
The intake, I cannot find what brand it is. It appears to be a conical shaped K&N-style filter under the carbon fiber. Anyone by chance know who makes this and is it any good or should I look at something else?
And this pulley measures 3.00 inch OD. I know now that it is non-stock and appears to be of the quick-change variety? Anyone know the maker and where I can buy other pulley sizes?
Also, is there a way to determine if the tune is stock or should I just buy a tuner like the SCT or HyperPAC?
Team MF Member #5002 Posts: 5062
Joined: 12/4/2005 Status: offline
Well that intake looks wierd.. and that pulley ehh....
As far as your tune.. If the car didn't come with a tuner, get to the dyno ASAP and check your A/F... If you wanted to change the pulley, any pulley will fit fine.As far as the intake.. does it go into the fenderwall? I would either put an open one in, or one thats a fenderwall... that just kinda looks closed up...
The nearest dyno to me would be at least an hour away; would rather avoid that if possible. Is it possible to check the A/F ratio with something like the HyperPAC or would it require a wideband O2 meter type thing? I don't really have any plans for the car but it does seem like I read somewhere if a smaller pulley is used on the stock tune, it can cause an overly lean condition (therefore possibly dangerous to the engine) -- is this why I need to check the A/F?
Here is another pic showing the side of the intake, I thought it looked a little odd. All the ones I have seen for sale are, as you say; more open, or route into the fenderwell..
Team MF Member #5002 Posts: 5062
Joined: 12/4/2005 Status: offline
I honestly have never seen that intake.
You're right - if you put a smaller pulley on the blower it will cause a lean condition, possibly causing a lot of motor damage. You need to check the A/F with a wideband... That's your other option which are normally really expensive. but i would stay completly out of boost until you get your a/f looked at. We had a member here that thought he had his car tuned, but was running very rich... he caught it before he broke something - i'd hate to see something happen to your new mystic...
Driving an hour to get you car dyno tuned isnt a bad thing. If I want my car dyno tuned im driving at least an hour and this week my buddy is going 100+ miles to get his cobra tuned. Its just a few miles on the car. You scared to do that?
Understood! I have found a dyno tuning shop, as I guessed, about an hour away, they are expensive but look pretty good: http://www.amazonracing.com/
They actually seem to specialize in Terminators so I guesss I just got lucky...
I certainly don't want to take any chances with detonation. I'll stay out of the boost until I can get everything sorted out. Wait a minute, stay out of the boost? Wow, that is going to be hard to do.
Overall, the car is very tidy. It has just over 30k miles, still smells new, clean carfax, and seems to have been very well taken care of. Would have been nice to get a tuner with the car but no such luck.
I saw an ad for Lethal Performance in my most recent copy of MM&FF. Good to have a reccomendation, they have a lot of cool stuff. The JLT intake seems popular, I will take a serious look at getting it.
Those Billet Flow pulleys are very nice looking. Would the one BF pulley puller enable me to both remove my current pulley as well as install the new billet flow one?
Thanks for the advice guys! I'll report back some numbers after I get on the dyno.
Team MF Member #5002 Posts: 5062
Joined: 12/4/2005 Status: offline
Yes it will.. u can use the puller to swap the pulleys, but what i would do, is let the tuner do it... if your inexperianced in pulling the pulley off and you dont pull it straight off, you can damage the snout of your blower...
Yes it will.. u can use the puller to swap the pulleys, but what i would do, is let the tuner do it... if your inexperianced in pulling the pulley off and you dont pull it straight off, you can damage the snout of your blower...
from my experience its not very hard to pull it off. Atleast it seemed easy enough.
Amazon Racing is one of the VERY best shops in the Southeast. I know of plenty of people from teh VA/DC/MD/DE/PA that drive down there to go see Rick et al. I am sure you will be very pleased with them.
Wow, that's fantastic! I guess I am really lucky then. I found them via a search on the SCT website for 'find your closest local tuner'.
Usually I like to do my own wrenching when possible but that blower is an expensive part and the pulley puller is an expensive tool as well. Having the tuner do it might be actually cheaper even if nothing went wrong.
I'm not even sure what size pulley I want to run. The amount of boost the car makes now is pretty great so I may end up keeping the current pulley. From what you guys are saying getting the car tuned properly first is my main concern and I happen to be pretty close to a good tuner..
It looks like it would be pretty easy to spend a lot of money on this car real fast at that tuner shop so I am going to have to be careful with the funds and try to get the most for my money.
Team MF Member #5002 Posts: 5062
Joined: 12/4/2005 Status: offline
They're really not hard to take off... but if you've never seen it done, or never done it before yourself it's very easy to screw up... unless you take it straight off, you can damage the front snout of the blower... now I like giving Steigmeier business and all that, among others - i just dont want to have to fix it, if i dont have to, lol....
Also, to the OP.. what you might want to do before you go to your tuner, is measure your pulley see how big it is first off... if it's anything bigger then a 2.93, I would swap it out... You're leaving precious boost on the table....
Oh fyi... Just from left field... to a new Terminator Cobra owner - DO NOT DO HIGH SPEED RUNS STAYING IN BOOST FOR MORE THEN 12-14 SECONDS... You run a risk of popping your heads without aftermarket cooling... and staying in boost that long with the Eaton, you still run a high risk of doing that.... just a FYI...
quote:
ORIGINAL: white07
quote:
ORIGINAL: xxkazp3rxx
Yes it will.. u can use the puller to swap the pulleys, but what i would do, is let the tuner do it... if your inexperianced in pulling the pulley off and you dont pull it straight off, you can damage the snout of your blower...
from my experience its not very hard to pull it off. Atleast it seemed easy enough.
Man, that is a really good fyi! I really do appreciate tips like this, I am sort of old-school in my knowledge about cars and have never owned a car with a supercharger until now..
I drove today actually staying totally out of the boost. That was sort of challenging. Lots of shifting, but the motor has so much torque it just doesn't seem to care if I short shift whenever.
Ok, so I got my digital calipers out to check the pulley and here are the results. I am not sure where I am supposed to measure to to get the pulley size. The actual OD of the pulley is 2.968 inches and to the top of the ribs in the pulley is 2.783 inches. This seems like a fairly small pulley...
Team MF Member #5002 Posts: 5062
Joined: 12/4/2005 Status: offline
Ok.. that pulley seems like either a 2.76 or a 2.81 which really doesn't change the boost enough for you to feel it... but yes, definatly stay out of boost because a pulley that small - basically lets us know that if its not tuned you will be running incredibly lean and make it a priority to get to a dyno, or somewhere with a wideband asap... I dont even know if i'd drive it honestly... if you have another vehicle to drive daily, I would drive that until I got it looked at...
post a picture of your whole motor... see if they have anything else on it..
The trip to Amazon Racing will be my next drive in this car hopefully. I am going try to get an appointment with them monday or tuesday.
I need to think about what I am going to spend there because I could see myself getting in trouble needing everything. Given a budget of around $1k or so, what should I have them do/install? My goals are power and reliability. This car is my daily driver so I need it set up for just street performance basically.
I think at the least I need dyno tune, a/f ratio testing and diagnosis, and a handheld tuner to backup the tune?
I have taken lots of photos, I'll post a small overall engine bay pic visible here then a link to a 6mp version which you can zoom in on (2.2mb). If you want a better shot of any part, just let me know. Thanks again for all the help!
Is that a true CAI that goes into the fender well or just a replacement box that allows more air? If it isn't a true CAI I would replace that. I would also look to begin with cooling mods such as a better heat exchanger and possible the even flow head cooling mod. I have a similar pulley setup as you and those are my next modifications once I get my subframes on.
Amazon will dyno tune your car and get the a/f just right based on your setup. I am sure they have SCT XCal2 in stock that you need to have in order to tune so between that and the tune it will probably eat up a big chunk of your 1k budget.
Team MF Member #5002 Posts: 5062
Joined: 12/4/2005 Status: offline
yeah they will dyno your car, and probably tune it. You will need to buy a tuner from them also... so you are probably looking at a big chunk of change... the next mods i would do is find either a fenderwall or ram air open intake... and a midpipe/catback setup... get the car sounding nice.. and that should put you in the mid 400s...
Yeah, the intake seems to be somewhat unique -- conical filter but sort of closed up. You can see the best pics I have of it in the first few posts of this thread. Whatever it is, it will be replaced.
I am pretty happy with the flowmaster cat-back setup the car came with, so I'll probably stick with that for now as far as exhaust goes.
As I am looking for reliable power, the cooling mods sound like a really good idea... But more power is always nice...
Printable Version
Anyone know these Terminator bolt-ons? - 
