Recommendation for motor work in San Jose?

[vanoochka]

Hi,

I'm the new owner of a used Superformance car in San Jose, and want to have the engine worked on. I plan to have a stroker kit installed to take the 351W to a 427. The Does anyone know of a dependable, capable shop that will do this for a reasonable price in the San Jose area?

Thanks,

Van

[shelby racer]

Welcome to cobra ownership! First I would reccomend joing the northern california shelby club (www.norcal-saac.org) - the largest regional shelby club after the national club which happens to be centered around san jose. They have a yahoo group for members with questions. Your quest luckily is a relavtively simple one. I was just talking with a csx4000 owner the other week end who has been using a shop in campbell, but I can not remember its name.
Have fun and good luck
John(;-)

[anchor2]

Try Elliott Franklin at Mustang Corral in San Jose 408-271-2895. He built my motor about 4 years ago. The car has about 15K miles. He was always very honest and stands behind his work. It has been driven very hard on the track many times and has never given me a bit of trouble or leaked a drop of oil. Good luck.

[Tony Ripepi]

Hi Van,

Elliott has built a large number of engines, fitted out SPF Cobras/Coupes and has always stood behind his top quality work.

Welcome to the madness..

Tony R.

[Greg tripp]

Elliott is no longer in san jose as he has moved up to Auburn.

[Randy Rosenberg]

Hi Van,

My only experience in San Jose has been with Mustang Corral (Elliot Franklin), however he moved to Auburn. My other experience is with Top of the Hill in Livermore - Craig Hill knows the in's and out's of SPFs very well, since he's been working on them for about 10 years now, and with his recent partnership with Ted Yamashiro, TOTH can build you a killer motor to your liking, fulled spec'd, dyno'd and broken in, ready to go. TOTH ain't in San Jose nor are they inexpensive.

In my opinion, you need to look for a shop that can R/R your engine with some knowledge of SPFs, assuming you don't R/R your engine yourself. And I suspect that any local engine builder will want to use their own supplier for stroker parts, so if I were you, then I'd shop builders, not stoker kits. Many owners have had good luck with buying crate engines - they seem to be consistent and a good value for the money spent. The only down side is if you have any problems with a crate engine, then who will fix it, and if the engine needing R/R and shipping back to the builder, then you're dealing with added expense and down time. So, finding someone local to do it all has some conveniences, however in the short term a local builder will most likely be more expensive than purchasing a crate - the long term may include a risk.

Last, if I were to need a new engine, I would have TOTH build me an engine and install it. That why if any problem arises, then I only have one place to go to get "whatever" broke fixed.

YMMV,
Randy R...

[shelby racer]

The shop is Campbell Auto Restoration - ask for Kevin or Mark - tell them John O'Boyle and Richard Ravel sent you.

Kevin will be at SEMA next week so it may be a few days before he gets back to you.

phone: 408-371-5522

I have no personal experience with them, but they have a great reputation. I was going to reccomend elliot of mustang coral, but I knew that he moved over a year ago. I agree that expeience with cobras (they are kind of "different" to work on) is a big plus. Ted makes great motors (not cheap as mentioned) and Top of the hill is the local superformance source it would be worth while talking to every one you are considering and getting quotes and prices and a feel for them and what ever after sale support they do.
John(;-)

[LETSRCE]

There's Mike Braun in San Francisco. He has built a few motors for us.
He's real good and real slow (busy) 415-810-7863

[RodKnock]

Mike Braun is great, but he has a day job at the fire department. He has a ton of FE knowledge.

The two Cobra shops that always seem to be highly recommended in Northern California are Top of the Hill/Techcraft in Livermore and Hall Fabrication in Benicia. Both are a distance from San Jose though. Also, Kevin Sittner of Precision Machine in Lodi has a great reputation.

I just remembered that there's another great shop that's actually in San Jose. Their name is Valaya Racing. www.valayaracing.com. I believe they work on everything, but they're huge with exotics, Vipers and newer Vettes. The owners, Ted and Al, are very nice guys. If I remember correctly, their hourly rate was around $119/hour.

Good luck.

[Randy Rosenberg]

Also at the very high end is Canepa Design - http://www.canepa.com/ - we visited them in Scotts Valley during the End of Summer Cruise. Very high end mostly (all?) original stuff. They speciallize in Porsches (like being the national leader in 959 DOT convervsions), however they had 2 Cobras in the shop during our visit: 32xx Roadster (valued @ $1.2M) and a 4xxx full polished.

Good luck,
Randy R...

[4pipes]

Randy, they use T.O.E Performance in Suisun City for their engine work, same as Hall Fabrication and Racing. I asked Bruce Canepa when we were there.

[vanoochka]

Thanks for the information, everyone. I really appreciate the welcomes and your willingess to help a woefully mechanically declined new owner out.

Earlier today, a friend recommended Clark Auto Repair and Machine Shop in Cupertino. Have any of you heard of this place?

[Got the Bug]

Van - Were you driving north on a Hwy 1 a couple of weeks ago? I was coming back from Davenport South on Hwy 1 and gave a wave to a Yellow Cobra w/Black stripes.

John - What color is your car? Just wondering, in case I see a Cobra tearing up the streets of Santa Cruz.

[shelby racer]

classic blue with bright white stripes. Still in my shop. Oddly my neighbor has a red with white stripes in his garage. I have not had a chance to meet him even though I moved in about 5 months ago. We should try to figure out how many cobras are in Santa Cruz and get together some time.

[Jon Miller]

Hi Van,
You may want to talk to the guys at Mustang Ranch on El Camino in Santa Clara, or Apex Motor Sports a mile up the road on Lafayette. Both Have SPF experience, and they are close by. I can't give you much in the way of first hand experience with either company since I do my own work...for better or worse , but they are close by!

Good Luck,
Jon

[vanoochka]

Doug,

That was me and my wife on our first drive, on our first day with the Cobra. It had just been delivered the previous evening.

I actually wrote about your amazing greeting in another thread. It was a great way to be welcomed to the "Cobra Club".

By the way, how do you manage to drive and half-stand up to wave like that? We got a big kick out of that stunt.

van

[Got the Bug]

Van - Too funny! I normally post if I see a Cobra prowling the streets of Santa Cruz, but forgot all about it until I saw your avatar.

I live a minute from Hwy 1, so driving up the coast to Davenport and/or cutting over through Bonny Doony is a fun drive.

Are you planning to take your car through SB100 or is it already registered in CA?

All off topic...so sue me

[vanoochka]

Doug,

Mine is titled as a 1965 model year, so I'm smog test immune. I just showed up at DMV, showed them the title and bill of sale, wrote a big check for CA tas, and picked up my plates.

[Randy Rosenberg]

Originally Posted by vanoochka

Doug,

Mine is titled as a 1965 model year, so I'm smog test immune. I just showed up at DMV, showed them the title and bill of sale, wrote a big check for CA tas, and picked up my plates.

Hey Van,

You may want to look into changing the title to SPNC and getting an SB100 Sequence number. When you have an hour or so, pull up a comfortable chair, do a search on posts by Morgester and read about 1965 Titles in CA, specifically this recent thread: California: Is your kit car registered as a 1960 vintage vehicle? There are other threads as well.

Regards,
Randy R...

[vanoochka]

Yikes!

Thanks for the information, Randy. Looks like I have some paperwork to do. (sigh)