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1994 Cobra Plumbing, Wiring, and Firing - Driving The DreamPlumbing, wiring, and firing our next-gen, 5.0-powered ’94 Cobra From the October, 2011 issue of 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords By Michael Johnson Photography by By The Author
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In part one of our Coyote Cobra saga, we showed you how we installed the '11 GT Coyote engine into our '94 Cobra project car, and the products and manufacturers we used to make it happen. As we found out, and as you read, physically installing the engine and AMP Performance-sourced Tremec T56 Magnum transmission went off without a hitch. The BBK Performance headers pretty much fell on the car. The Maximum Motorsports tubular K-member was stout, yet also easy to install. However, after those components were installed, the fun began. The air, fuel, and lubrication systems proved to be the most time-consuming projects. Each day we had small victories as we crossed off items from the to-do list. We had to come up with plans for the fuel lines, radiator and heater hoses, oil filter-relocation kit, and the cold air intake, just to name a few of the issues we ran into while trying to make the car road-worthy. Additionally, we had issues with fully operational power steering and brakes, but had to wait a little bit to get that part rectified. Not to skip ahead of the captions, but the Coyote Cobra was running and driving as of March 4, 2011. The car made its show debut at the Waterford Lakes Mustang show in Orlando, Florida, with Lamotta Performance's Jake Lamotta shaking it down prior to us taking the car to the NMRA season-opener at Bradenton the next weekend. No, everything was not fully operational at that time, as you'll read in the captions, and it's still coming together as we write this, but it's a blast to drive, and it's only going to get better.  This is the harness that comes...  This is the harness that comes with the FRPP Control Pack. The great feature of the Control Pack is that it allows you to run a return-style fuel system. Therefore, we can run our ’94 Cobra’s existing fuel system. Jake ran the Control Pack wiring through the factory firewall holes. He had to cut a hole for the PCM just under the factory air intake hole on the passenger side framerail. That was the most logical place to put it since the wiring comes off the engine in that general area, as well.  There are parts of the factory...  There are parts of the factory harness that need to stay with the car in order for the stock gauges to remain operational. Jake and Matt (pictured here) had to chase and remove the wires we no longer needed. Basically, after that, we had a harness made of wires for the coolant temp, oil pressure, volts, speedo, fuel level, and tach.  We were able to use many of...  We were able to use many of the radiator and heater hoses sourced from Sansone Ford, but you will have to be creative like we were in making sense of the coolant and radiator hoses. The easiest connection was the heater hoses since they lead to the back of the engine. We just needed one length of heater hose to get them to play nice. A plastic junction connector between the factory heater hose and the added length of hose, and that part was done.  Like I mentioned at the outset,...  Like I mentioned at the outset, getting the engine, transmission, and driveshaft in the car was a piece of cake, but everything after that was a challenge. For the lower radiator hose, I was sent to the parts store to look through bins of hoses to find one with the proper angles. Plus, the Coyote engine’s water pump outlet was a smaller diameter than the lower radiator hose outlet, so it required an adapter as well. For the upper hose Jake had to fashion one out of two hoses to route it under the cold air intake. Remember, for this swap, we were pioneers, so Jake had his work cut out for him.  See that blue part right there?...  See that blue part right there? That is FRPP’s remote oil filter adapter. Why did we need one, you ask? Well, the factory Coyote engine’s oil filter would interfere with either mounting a power steering pump or a Fox/SN-95 sway bar, so this is the fix. However, Ford Racing only has the adapter, and nothing else. The oil filter relocation kit is left up to the end user.  We used an oil filter relocation...  We used an oil filter relocation kit, but we only ended up using the oil filter manifold. Jake made a custom bracket for the manifold so he could mount it to the framerail. Then we got -10 fittings for the adapter and the oil filter relocation kit from Summit Racing, and ran Push-Lok Plus hose from the adapter to the relocation kit’s manifold. We don’t usually like these setups because they oftentimes leak, but we’ve had no problems with ours.  The sweet part of the FRPP...  The sweet part of the FRPP Control Pack is that is enables you to run a return-style fuel system. That means we can run our factory fuel system, provided we have sufficient flow to feed the engine accordingly. More on that part in a minute, but for fuel rails Jake wanted to use Steeda Autosports Two-Valve fuel rails. His idea was to make custom brackets to bolt onto the engine itself. One can use the stock fuel rails, but we wanted to make sure we had optimal flow. Here you can see the custom brackets welded to the Steeda fuel rails prior to permanent mounting. The engine comes with stock rails and injectors, and since we weren’t going the power adder route, we stuck with the stock injectors.  Feeding the rails was the...  Feeding the rails was the next challenge. Jake estimated the length of hose we would need. We relied on Aeromotive and Summit Racing for the -6 fittings in this case. Aeromotive supplied one of the fuel lines adapters and the other we obtained from Summit Racing. These adapters go on the factory fuel lines that enter the engine compartment. In the corner you can see where Jake mounted our Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator and gauge. With this system, the return-style system drains back to the tank so when the car sits for any length of time, you basically have to turn the key to the On position and let it sit there for a second or two for fuel pressure to build up and feed fuel to the engine. Also, with this system it’s recommended to set base fuel pressure to 58 psi.  Here’s a close-up look at...  Here’s a close-up look at one of the Aeromotive fuel line adapters mentioned in the previous caption. Basically the adapter snaps onto the factory fuel line; then it’s all about fashioning a system of hoses and fittings to and from the rails. The nice thing is that the engine cover hides the fuel lines and heater hoses, and makes for a clean installation.  To make sure we had more than...  To make sure we had more than adequate fuel flow, we went straight for Aeromotive’s new 340-lph Stealth fuel pump. Yes, you read that right—340 lph. We’ve been chomping at the bit to try this in-tank pump. Combined with our Steeda Autosports rails and custom lines, it is more than capable of providing enough fuel to the engine. The 340 Stealth pump is designed for power-adder applications so if that route is taken, we should be set.  After driving the Coyote Cobra...  After driving the Coyote Cobra around a couple months without power steering or brakes, we finally found a sure-fire way to solve that problem. Lucky for us, the solution was just up the road from our Tampa, Florida office. S&R Performance in Tampa swapped a Coyote engine into a '01 Bullitt, and having a CNC machine on the premises, the crew designed and built a power steering pump bracket, which includes an alternator relocation kit. Here is the power steering pump bracket as it's finished up in the CNC machine.  Since our Cobra’s battery...  Since our Cobra’s battery was in the stock location, we diverted the inlet to the other side of the engine compartment. The Control Pack includes a stock ’11 Mustang GT airbox. However, we wouldn’t be able to use it with our arrangement. We had to get a 90-degree elbow, mass air housing, and air filter from JLT Performance. Then Jake had a piece of 4-inch pipe sitting around the shop, so he used that off the 90-degree from the throttle body to the housing. In this image, you can also see where Jake mounted the Control Pack PCM.  Here is the bracket with a...  Here is the bracket with a ’99-’04 Mustang Two-Valve power steering pump we sourced from Coastal Dyno (www.coastaldyno.net). Since we used a hydraboost from a ’98 GT, which is roughly the same for a ’99-’04 car, our power steering pump lines bolted right up. One of them wasn’t too friendly as first, but eventually it gave in and threaded. See the lower radiator hose? S&R had to remove the one we initially installed, and make this hose and tube combo for it. Think of it like the Fox Vortech supercharger kits with the metal tube between the two hoses.  From the bottom, here’s a...  From the bottom, here’s a look at the S&R Performance alternator-relocation bracket. Since the power steering pump bracket mounts in the stock alternator location, S&R moves the alternator to the front of the engine using existing threaded bolt holes. There are empty mounting bosses on the front of the engine, but S&R wanted to make it easy for the end user to install, so the shop used existing threaded bolt holes for the alternator bracket. S&R provides a new alternator pulley and idler pulley as part of the bracket. Also, the appropriate hardware and spacers are also included. All you need is a belt, which in our case was an 84-inch belt. We remember that because it took three trips to the parts store to finally end up with the right length belt. Trust me—S&R’s power steering bracket and alternator relocation kit made life much easier. The Coyote Cobra is a joy to drive with power steering and brakes. Now about that A/C...  We’ll leave you with this...  We’ll leave you with this photo of SCT’s Chris Johnson tuning our Coyote Cobra on Lamotta Performance’s Dynojet. We still have to figure out the A/C, fix a stalling issue, and get the car to the track. Stay tuned.
 | Embarking on a Coyote 5.0 engine swap into our ’94 Cobra |  | Fighting off the bugs and rocking the rollers with our 5.0 SN-95 |
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