It's been a few months since I've focused on a particular build on Club Cobra, so I thought I would highlight this 496FE that is in between the planning and procurement stages.
This build is for a mid-Atlantic area Club Cobra member. He had contacted me a month or so ago to ask for advice on changing valve springs, and after he started doing some routine maintenance, he found out that things were a little worse for wear. We tossed around some options and he finally decided that he was just going to take the bull by its horns and go with a new engine.
His previous build was a 427 with some Stage 2 Keith Craft cylinder heads, a Tunnel Wedge, and a solid roller camshaft. His requirements for the new build include making a lot of horsepower (duh) and putting the powerband pretty far up into the rpm range. I normally don't like to do that for customers with street car builds, but I made an exception here. His previous engine was aimed at 7200-7300 rpm shift points, so he is very well accustomed to the low-end manners and maintenance schedules that a high strung engine would have.
With all that in mind, we'll get to the good stuff.
I'll be replacing his short block with a fresh piece based on a Pond aluminum block, a forged Scat crankshaft, Diamond pistons, and a set of Callies rods. Bore and stroke will be 4.310" x 4.250". 496 cubes.
I called Keith and told him to be expecting a set of Stage 2 heads in the mail, along with a Tunnel Wedge intake. The plan is to take the Stage 2's, snag some new valves, and do a Stage 3 upgrade. The Tunnel Wedge will be massaged to match. Once the heads are finished, then I can flow them, choose a camshaft, and order some pistons.
My workload is quite heavy right now, but as always, I will update the build thread as parts/info trickles in. Going to be using a lot of specialized, high $$$ parts in this build, so I promise there will be eye candy for everyone to see.
BTW, for now, my customer has decided to remain anonymous, but I'm sure that when the pictures roll in, he will surely lay claim to them....
