Dick & jo's most excellent cobra adventure - Page 4

lamaluv · #61 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 10:10 AM

Well some of you might be wondering what has happened with the cobra adventure. After settling into snowbird life in Riverview we went to cruise nights, a Christmas car show and a Deeper South Cobra Club cruise to the Nav-A-Gator restaurant. Enjoyed the warm winter weather and cruising in the Cobra.

I kept putting off finishing up the details of the cars history with her past owners that I promised. In January I started to work on it and my computer hard drive crashed. It had all my recorded conversations, notes and pictures on it. The local computer guy said it was all gone but my computer wizard at home says he can retrieve it all for me. When we get home I guess we will see. I can recreate most of the info but it will be a royal pain.

On our way back from the Nav-A-Gator the car started running rough at freeway speeds and acted like it was running very rich. I found a tuner that was a EFI expert and took the car to his shop the 10th of February. He was very busy but promised to work on it as time allowed. When he got around to working on it the ECU wouldn't seem to hold the changes he made. He played with it for several days and finally talked to the folks at HALTECH and they felt that the ECU unit was probably bad and needed to be replaced. I had been having trouble finding someone that could tune the system so was reluctant to put the same one back in. I called Bob Reem at Imagine Injection to see what he recommended. He told me that they now were using a FAST EZ ECU on his injection system and had had no problems. So I ordered the FAST EZ and wiring harness from Bob and had it shipped to the tuner in Florida that was working on my car. He installed the new FAST ECU and started the car up on the Dyno and it ran for a few minutes then everything went dead. He calls FAST and they tell him to send the unit back and they will test it. It is now April and we have no car to take to the 24 Heurs de Florida but more importantly we are scheduled to leave for home April 16th.

FAST puts a rush on a new ECU module (the original was fried) and we get it April 11th. The tuner puts it in the car and I'm supposed to pick the car up the 13th. Wow 3 days to spare. I don't want to say anything more as I'm afraid that I might jinx this.

On our trip home we are looking forward to doing some Cobra cruising in the cities that we are stopping in. We will be in Atlanta April 18-21, Birmingham April 22-25, Memphis April 26-29, Little Rock April 30-May 2, Branson, MO May 3-6, Colorado Springs, CO May 11-14 and be back home in Idaho the 18th of May. We would love to meet any of you along the way home.

Dick & Jo

Don · #62 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 10:37 AM

Dick......after leaving ERA/New Britain CT, what route did you follow heading South to FL ? Would you use the same route again or ? Hopefully, you cleared the normally heavy traffic in Southern CT into NY w/o difficulties.

.......thanks

CobraDan · #63 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 10:45 AM

Dick,
I tried to get a picture of all the cobras that attended the Nav-A-Gator run. Yes the snowbirds are leaving, I-75 is a parking lot heading north and a trip to a restaurant for breakfast this morning meant an instant seating and no long lines. Have a safe trip home.

lamaluv · #64 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 12:55 PM

Don the route we took down to FL was I-84 out of CT through NY and into PA, then I-81 to I-83 into MD and I-695 around Baltimore to I-95 and I-495 around DC. We then stayed on I-95 into FL. We didn't have any traffic issues but were not in any of the bigger cities at rush hour. Our rig with trailer is large enough (65+) that we have to plan our travel pretty much like we were truckers on the road.

Dan we really enjoyed our winter in Florida and meeting cool Cobra owners. When your summer temps get up above 95 with 90% humidity bring your Cobra up to Idaho for a visit. Cruising through the forest on mountain roads will cool you off.

Dick

CobraDan · #65 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 01:13 PM

Dick,
When you know where you are going in the end, I figure the hotter the better now so I will be ready. At the end of the month I’m heading north to stay at my cousins Pensacola Beach house and then the following weekend for the car show at Fort Walton Beach.

http://burningupthebeaches.com/

SpecOp1 · #66 (**permalink**) 04-13-2011, 02:54 PM

Thank you so much for sharing this great adventure with us. I am now sure that getting into the Cobra culture is the right thing for me. Again thanks .....

lamaluv · #67 (**permalink**) 04-14-2011, 05:25 PM

The jinx has happened. Please excuse me while I vent. On February 10th I took my Cobra to Rob at Ford Speed Racing in Largo, FL because the car was running rough. He was busy but could fit me in around some other jobs. When I called them someone only answered 1 out of 5 calls. Left many messages only got one call back in 9 weeks. This should have told me something but what the hey maybe he was just busy working on customers cars. He told me that he was having trouble getting the ecu to take and hold changes. Then February 24th he tells me that the hard drive on MY laptop computer has crashed and he is having to wait for an adapter for his computer to come in to finish the tune. May 10th Rob tells me that the HALTECH ecu still won't hold the changes and he thinks the unit is bad and needs to be replaced. I then contact Bob Ream at Imagine Injection who recommends that we replace the Haltech with a FAST EZ system that he is now using on most of his FE systems. May 23rd the new FAST system arives and Rob installs it. April 1st Rob calls and tells me that the FAST ecu has failed. While on the Dyno the car just shuts down and hand held input screen is blank. The unit is sent back to FAST and tested. Test shows a burned mother board usually caused by by power surge. People at FAST and Bob Ream tell Rob what to look for so there are no further electrical problems. April 12th the replacement ecu arrives and Rob installs it. Puts the car on Dyno and notices amp guage is jumping arround. Shuts the car off and replaces the voltage regulator. Amp guage is now steady and he goes for test run. Car shuts down again and he pulls the car back to shop. Rob calls Dick with bad news. April 14 Dick has car towed from Rob's shop to our home. I then buy and install winch to pull the Cobra into our stacker trailer. The 17th of April we will leave Florida and stop the 26-30th in Memphis (the home of FAST) and link up with Toney Duncan who is a expert at trouble shooting the FAST ecu. Hopefully that will be when this story turns good again. The cost of this part of the adventure: new laptop $380, FAST EZ ecu & wiring harness $1,269, Ford Speed Racing bill $1,723 ($880 is Dyno time), replacement FAST ecu $586, Tow home from shop $125, winch for trailer $100. $4,083 worth of fun and car still doesn't run. At least it was running when it went to Rob's shop. Would I recommend Ford Speed Racing?

I think not. Sorry to vent but I do feel much better just getting this off my chest. I will let you know how things go in Memphis.

Dick

lamaluv · #68 (**permalink**) 04-30-2011, 07:53 AM

Well I am a happy camper again.

We left Florida the 17th and stopped in Atlanta till the 22nd then to Birmingham till the 26th. We headed for Memphis dodging all the tornadoes. Met Tony Duncan and went to FAST/ Comp Cams where they tested the ecu and confirmed that it was burned out by a power spike. Tony pulled all the ecu wiring and checked for shorts or miss wiring. Then checked the charging system. He found the voltage regulator was incorrectly wired and that the MSD box had a loose tach drive wire to the ecu. (when the wire worked loose the injectors shut down) The FAST engineer recommended changing the alternator to a single wire internal regulated one for better voltage control. We did all the repairs and the Cobra started right up and with the self learning feature of the EZ system every time we drove it ran better. It now accelerates better than ever and is running like I had wanted since FEBRUARY 10th. We were able to cruise a bit in Memphis and even stopped by Graceland to offer Elvis a ride but were told that he had already left the building.

If you ever need help with fuel injection diagnostics or custom tuning and calibrations I would highly recommend Tony Duncan of EFI Diagnostics. He is based in the Memphis area but the FAST enjineer told me that he travels all over the country working for racers and car builders.

The adventure continues.

d_ford · #69 (**permalink**) 04-30-2011, 02:23 PM

Glad you got it all ironed out Dick. Now the ol' girl can run like she's supposed to. Have a safe trip.

lamaluv · #70 (**permalink**) 05-01-2011, 09:41 AM

Thanks Doug, we plan to do some cruising at our stops in Lawrence, KS and Colorado Springs where Jo has relatives. When I get home we will try to get the laptop back up and running. Then I will get all the notes that I took on our fall trip East organized and sent to each of you prior owners of EXP002 as promised. Many interesting stories and pictures to share. I am really looking forward to having the cars life history published this summer. Have you sold the Mustang yet or did you decide to keep her?

Dick

Don · #71 (**permalink**) 05-01-2011, 09:52 AM

Dick......nice to read a successful ending, as many of us can relate to the tribulations

At some point in the future with your recap, would help if you could itemize the final configuration of your FI set up and the electronics......thanks

Have noted the route you took after leaving CT to head South, will try it on the next trip.

d_ford · #72 (**permalink**) 05-01-2011, 10:29 AM

It hasn't sold yet Dick so I'm sure I'll be just as happy keeping it.

lamaluv · #73 (**permalink**) 05-27-2011, 04:16 PM

Well we are back in Idaho and the car is still running fine but the weather has been rainy and cool. Not cruising weather yet. I guess that the Florida weather has spoiled us a bit. We were able to get the car out and do some cruising in Colorado Springs. I had planned on taking the car to the top of Pikes Peak, but at over 14,000 feet, the rain in town the day we arrived equated to 12 " of snow on the Peak. Didn't have snow tires for the Cobra so settled for cruising in the Garden of the Gods.

Also the computer guy was able to recover the files off of my crashed lap top so I'm back in business for completing the history of ERA EXP002 and all of her past owners. As I finish the story of the birth of EXP002 in 1980 and follow with each of her owners I will post info to this thread.

Happy Cruising Everyone.