KM647 is here! (lots of pics)

[mreid]

Andrea put mine in, so no big deal!

[RestoCreations]

Quit showing off your trophy.

[Mando]

That's a big one!!

Regards.

[FUNFER2]

Originally Posted by Avmaviator

Thank you so much everybody! I was telling my wife that now I actually don't mind the wait to get one (although it is not nearly as long as mreid's wait), it makes it that much sweeter when it comes in!

Resto: Messaged you

*13*: I'm going to look at the suspension set up today but it as to do with the spring rate they put in there (maybe Tom can answer too). I believe the suspension is on the harder side, so the spring do not give as much as other set ups. I was crawling under the car last night and man that suspension set up is a work of art.

xlr8or: I thought about the thickness of the steering wheels, and you make a good point. One problem is that the car is going to have dark brown leather and carpet, so it might "clash" with the rest of the car. Maybe the upholsterer can recover it or something.

Here are a few more pics Can't get enough!

Fantastic Cobra !

But dude,.......clear out all the stuff around the car !
Can you imagine the go-kart,.... or dirt bike falling and smashing your beautiful aluminum Kirkham !
Just trying to help buddy.
I had a shop broom next to mine with foam covering the handle, but when it fell it hit my cobra. The tiny,..... brad nail that attached the handle hit the paint and chipped it ! Good lesson !

[mreid]

Arno,

Now that you are close to receiving your engine, here are a couple of pointers that I had to learn the hard way.

1. Remove the tranny tunnel before installing the engine. It is held on with about 10 screws. You have to take the seats out, but it makes it much easier, plus you have to remove the tunnel to get the driveshaft in (well, at least I did as it was the only way to get the rear flange past the differential enough to slide the yoke into the tranny).

2. Remove the clamshell tranny mount from the frame and attach it to the tranny with the two bolts, then when you are in position, slip the single large bolt through the mount and secure it to the frame and finish tightening the other two.

I wish I noticed how easy it was to remove the tunnel at first. Not noticing it at first cost me an additional couple of hours. Good luck!

[Avmaviator]

Originally Posted by FUNFER2

Fantastic Cobra !

But dude,.......clear out all the stuff around the car !
Can you imagine the go-kart,.... or dirt bike falling and smashing your beautiful aluminum Kirkham !
Just trying to help buddy.
I had a shop broom next to mine with foam covering the handle, but when it fell it hit my cobra. The tiny,..... brad nail that attached the handle hit the paint and chipped it ! Good lesson !

Thanks for the advice. The kart is gone of that location as it's race season and I was tired of moving it in and out of that place. The dirtbike won't move, it is well secured on that stand. The best solution would be to get another garage, but I can't do that, so it will have to be like that.

Originally Posted by mreid

Arno,

Now that you are close to receiving your engine, here are a couple of pointers that I had to learn the hard way.

1. Remove the tranny tunnel before installing the engine. It is held on with about 10 screws. You have to take the seats out, but it makes it much easier, plus you have to remove the tunnel to get the driveshaft in (well, at least I did as it was the only way to get the rear flange past the differential enough to slide the yoke into the tranny).

2. Remove the clamshell tranny mount from the frame and attach it to the tranny with the two bolts, then when you are in position, slip the single large bolt through the mount and secure it to the frame and finish tightening the other two.

I wish I noticed how easy it was to remove the tunnel at first. Not noticing it at first cost me an additional couple of hours. Good luck!

Thanks Mark. 1 and 2 have already been done the interior is all apart because it is getting upholstered and I need to install the carpet.
I'm still debating the engine install, install it with or without the tranny... I'm going to pick up the engine (and be there for the dyno) on the 30/31st, pretty excited!

[Avmaviator]

Dyno and engine pick up on Tues! Woohoo!

[mreid]

Congrats! That is very exciting! Here's to you!

[Avmaviator]

Engine is here!

What a day yesterday! I'll try to make it short, but no promises, I can get carried away talking about awesome stuff
My wife and I already were in MI the night before at our lake house, so in morning we headed towards the Detroit burbs to meet Barry (Survival Motorsports) at the dyno shop, JimKid Motorsports. Barry, Jim, and Mark were finishing hooking up the engine when we got there. Man this thing is beautiful! The size of it is pretty impressive too. Time came for the first start. After some cranking and troubleshooting we figured out that the EFI tach signal needed to be hooked up a different way. After that, it fired right up. I had forgotten how amazing the sound of a big block is! Following the break in time, Barry and Jim ran some constant rpm loads so that the EFI could "learn" and set it self up for the different rpm ranges. It is really really cool to see the computer go through its "learning". When you increase the rpms, it initially goes fat (around 10.0), then after about 45 seconds, you see the ratio start to go up, then it levels, another amount of time, then it goes up again, really neat. It is also very cool to hear the engine sound healthier and healthier as it figures it out. After a series of these rpm runs, and some good lunch, we did a couple of pulls. Pulls from 3 to 5700. I cannot wait to drive this thing, but I have to be honest, when you hear and feel that power during a pull you really start thinking about going easy on the throttle for a while, hahah. The power just went up every pull as the ecu was learning the WOT curves. Last one we did we got 541 hp, and 549 tq, just what we were looking for. Plus this thing is really responsive, and sounds great.
After the pulls we tackled the idle... oh man. The TWM stacks are great but not that easy to fine tune. Every time you adjust one, it screws with the others... it was a bit of a chase but then everything came together perfectly. It was idling at 850, +/- 20 rpm, super smooth.
Felt great with all the progress so we packed it, put it on the truck and drove back home to Chicago. Got home at midnight, we another full, albeit tired, smile on my face
I have to buy a few more things to make this engine work in the car but it shouldn't be a problem. Things such as efi pump, cable throttle linkage, fuel lines + fittings, and a couple more details.

Overall, it was just a great day. Thank you so much to Barry, Mark, and Jim for all their hard work to get this thing dialed in. They make one hell of an FE! Really good people which we were happy to finally meet

Here are some pictures and videos.

Me on the left trying to figure out what's going on, hah.






Barry getting it all ready for the trip home.





The videos. First start, break in, and the run.
Ford FE 454 EFI First start - YouTube
Ford 454 FE EFI, Break in and EFI software "learning" - YouTube
Ford 454 FE w/EFI Dyno run - YouTube

It's home!

[kgs365]

great looking and great numbers!....going to look great installed

[Avmaviator]

Originally Posted by kgs365

great looking and great numbers!....going to look great installed

Thanks! The valve covers are getting change to COBRA ones, same finish/color tho.

[mreid]

Wow...can I dance with your date! That thing looks awesome and the numbers are impressive! Can't wait to see it installed. Nice job!

[Jamo]

Sweet...

[FUNFER2]

488 TQ @ 3,000, very impressive. Looks and sounds awesome too.

Keep me advised with this self learning F/I, as time goes by and how you like it.

[Dimis]

Hot diggedie... You definitely got my attention!

Avmaviator - with so many 482 FE stroker builds, what made you choose to stop 454?
Is there something you know that others don't?

Kindest regards,

[FUNFER2]

I don't know about him, but since there's so many of the 482's (and there's nothing wrong with that motor) it's almost a crate engine. Mine is 527 cubes, just to be different.

Actually,....I'm thinking about this motor for my cobra. But I'm not sure, it will clear my hood.

[Avmaviator]

Originally Posted by Dimis

Hot diggedie... You definitely got my attention!

Avmaviator - with so many 482 FE stroker builds, what made you choose to stop 454?
Is there something you know that others don't?

Kindest regards,

A small part of it was to do something a bit different (Like Funfer mentioned, it is almost a crate engine now.
The main reasons for us was to get a responsive, reliable, and slightly less hp (then a 482) engine. With the shorter stroke, compared to the 482, it will be a bit more responsive and spin up quicker. With the lesser stroke angle, and things associated with a smaller stroke, hopefully will lead to being a bit more reliable as it is stressing the components less. By how much? I don't know, could be 1%, could be a lot more, it would be interesting to know. And like I mentioned the power achieve in this engine is just what we were looking for, around 420-430 at the wheels using the 20% drivetrain loss that most people use.

Anyways, so are our reasons... might not make sense to others but hey, we like it, and we're sticking with it, haha.

Take care

[Avmaviator]

Here is Barry's video of one of the pulls. The pull starts around minute 1:25

454 EFI FE Ford - YouTube

[elmariachi]

A few more engine purchases like that and Michigan's economy will completely recover. Congrats on the car and engine, both are awesome.

[FUNFER2]

Wait until you get the cobra running and scare the crap out of that Porsche !