IRS vs live

[Selo]

Just purchased the blankets, but still plan to install heat shields

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Selo

Just purchased the blankets, but still plan to install heat shields

FWIW, I haven't burned my leg in years. But I always use the blankets for guests.

[olddog]

FYI ceramic coating will still burn you bad. The heat shield is way more effective. However they usually do not cover the entire side pipe. Depending on the design, there can still be hot spots. So they are not a 100% solution. Patrick's blanket is a good solution.

The only 100% solution is under car exhaust, but heat shield and blanket should protect most mentally competent people. Toddlers and the mentally challenged can still get burned.

You as the owner need to keep an eye out for toddlers. Most young parents are so dazzled by the car they quit thinking.

[Selo]

Valuable info, thx.

[RUFdriver]

IRS for handling and road courses, a live axle better for drag racing, but live axle can be made to handle well. I would just leave what the car has and work with it.

[olddog]

Originally Posted by Selo

What's the next easiest, and hopefully safer way to add horsepower?

How to get more intoxicating Hp. Man started this quest before Henry built the Model T. Assuming correct air fuel mixture (AFR) and timing, to make more power you need to burn more fuel per unit of time.

An AFR, timing side note. ~14.7:1 AFR is the correct ratio to completely burn all the fuel and have no oxygen left over. Around 12.5:1 makes the most power but leaves un-burned fuel in the exhaust, as it ran out of air. The reason is that the fuel is expanding into a high pressure gas making more pressure even though it is not burned. That high pressure un-burned fuel actually lowers the temp of combustion. WOT at 14.7 AFR will melt engine parts. Here is the important part. Ford engineers target 10:1 AFR at WOT. Why. It saves engines (cooler combustion). They understand they are giving up about 10 Hp by burning too much fuel, but since they cannot control what grade of fuel is put in and how someone drives, it saves them money. Timing is also retarded to assure that the crappiest fuel sold will not go into detonation and destroy the engine. Again they are giving up 10-20 Hp but it saves them from replacing engines. I am assuming from what you said that this is a factory EFI set up. So if you put the highest grade fuel you can get, reliably, into your car and have in tuned on a chassis dyno, a good tunner will be able to get you another 20-30 Hp. All the factory safety factor will be gone, and it is up to you to never dump in a lower grade fuel. If you hear pinging get off the throttle, especially when the engine is hot (running hard).

Personally, my butt cannot feel much less than 25 Hp change. I would save the tunning until after I slipped a cam in or added better heads or both.

Back to burning more fuel per unit of time. Since the AFR has to be correct, you have to pump more air through the engine to burn more fuel. Hence the old adage, there is no replacement for displacement. The more cid the more air you pump. There is an alternative to displacement, Forced Induction. Turbo charger, centrifugal blower, lobed blower, screw compressor, these will all push more air into the engine. If you bring the intake manifold up to 14.7 psig you will have double atmospheric pressure (at sea level). You can then burn twice the fuel and make twice the power, minus whatever power was consumed to power the air pump used.

High boost levels has many issues that has to be done right or the engine is easily destroyed. Lot's of heat is added to the air that if not delt with, will auto ignite the fuel before the plug fires. Ford has mastered this with the turbo charged ecoboost engines. Today the standard tiny 4 cylinder engine in the Mustang makes more Hp than the GT with the old 5.0 or 4.6 modular.

There are many forced induction options that will bolt on to your 5.0, but fitting them into a Cobra can be a challenge. A mild 5-8 psi boost would get you well above the factory 225 Hp. North of 300 fairly easy. Getting to 400 hp without changing internal engine components is not very realistic. Well it would run for a while and then you could replace what is left of the engine.

Someone else mentioned stroking the engine to 347 cid (which includes 0.030" over bore). You cannot go wrong there. No replacement for displacement. Good heads make the engine. Factory heads are a huge bottle neck in the power making department.

Understand that your engine likely has 19 Lb/hr injectors. To burn more fuel you will need bigger injectors somewhere north of 300 Hp. Not too much north of that you will need bigger fuel rails and a bigger fuel pump. Your fuel lines may be too small too.

Also understand that if you stroke the engine and put good heads on it, the existing intake manifold and throttle body will be too small. If you go forced induction they can stay.

The biggest point I can make is that if you start adding a piece at a time to make a little more power here and there, start with an end goal in mind. The best heads for a 302 is not the best for a 347. Someone may recommend a great head for your 302 but if you are going to stroke it to 347 better to buy those heads, unless you can toss $2000 to a set of heads you are only going to run for a while and the toss another $2000 again later.

Food for thought anyway.

[Selo]

Wow, thank you for that. My takeaway is this:
Since the current owner has already done some work with heads and induction, drive it for awhile and see how it feels.
If it needs more power, carefully analyze the goals. If only a bit of tweaking is needed, ok to add piecemeal. But if serious hp is needed, best to make a wholesale change all at once.

[olddog]

Originally Posted by Selo

Wow, thank you for that. My takeaway is this:
Since the current owner has already done some work with heads and induction, drive it for awhile and see how it feels.
If it needs more power, carefully analyze the goals. If only a bit of tweaking is needed, ok to add piecemeal. But if serious hp is needed, best to make a wholesale change all at once.

At least have a plan of where you ultimately want to end up and make sure you are getting things that will meet that end. Understand that this can leave you with something that is less than ideal in the short term.

Don't be buying things that you will have to replace again, when you can ovoid it.

You certainly need to understand what you have before you start making changes. When you do not know what you have and you ask for generic advice, this means the person who is giving the desired advice has no clue what you have and is likely to give bad advice as a result. That is why I have tried to stick more with theory, as I have no clue what you have for an engine. I have mostly assumed a factory stock 5.0 from what little you have explained, but now I see it has modifications.

[mptech]

After my dad and nephew burnt their calves, despite warnings every time they exited, I bought Drummer Mike side-pipe Polished Stainless Steel heat shields. They look great and no one has burnt their legs again in the last 4 years.
If you haven't visited the Factory Five Forum, I recommend it and you can search for FFR specific info.

[Selo]

If my car has stainless pipes, what will look better, chrome or ceramic heat shields? I plan to go ahead an order.

[mptech]

If you have Polished Stainless Steel, either will look off.
Drummer Mike sells raw steel (you finish) or Polished SS, which I can highly recommend.

If you want the best, the Gas-N Pipes are a very good upgrade of the side-pipes. The FFRs are harsh and the mufflers will blow out.

[Dwight]

In my experience chrome and stainless pipes get the hottest and stay hot for a long time after you turn the motor off.

Ceramic pipes are the coolest and cool very fast after the engine is shut down.

I love ceramic pipes.

If I had stainless pipes I would have them ceramic coated.

[patrickt]

… and if your leg is really wet with sweat, you can usually pull it back off the side pipe quickly enough to prevent a burn. It just adds to the allure.

[Dwight]

I just remembered I do have stainless pipes and I did get them ceramic coated.
But I have not driven the car yet. Hoping to late spring.

[Jaydee]

Is there a big difference from linkages to leaf spring set up? JD

[t walgamuth]

Yes. But if you want more details you'll need to give more info. Mechanically? Durability? Ride? Handling?

[Jaydee]

Mechanically it's the easiest set up and probably the strongest. So I'm interested in the ride and handling? Thanks. JD

[xlr8tr]

Originally Posted by Jaydee

Mechanically it's the easiest set up and probably the strongest. So I'm interested in the ride and handling? Thanks. JD

A 4 link will be far more tune-able than leaf spring. Moving where the links attach to the chassis and axle dramatically changes handling. Front and/or back of the links can be moved (up/down, what degree of triangulation). Also easy to swap in new spring rates with new coils.

This is all not necessarily a good thing as you can really screw up handling with a bad linkage setup if you don't know what you are doing Ask me how I know 4 links for a cobra have some design challenges as there is not a ton of room for long links, and suspension changes happen quickly with short links.