Cobra lettered bellhousing

[MAStuart]

Hi Guys I have been looking for a Cobra lettered 5 bolt bellhousing. What kind of value do you put on these price wise. I found a nos one in the box with a big cobra logo on the box. It had a C40Z part number on the box. What year did they stop making this part? Its cool but what is it worth?

[Dan Case]

Send me your current email address in a PM and I will send you my slide show on the multiple versions.

[Blue66]

Didn't Jim Cowles from Wisconsin repo some ? (Shelbyparts.com)

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by Blue66

Didn't Jim Cowles from Wisconsin repo some ? (Shelbyparts.com)

At least two companies have made copies of the six bolt style.

Never seen a copy of any five bolt ones of any brand.

[MAStuart]

Dan Thank you for the info you sent me. I sent the guy a deposit. I will be picking it up sometime in the next 3 months. Will tell you guys more info when I get it.

Mark

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by MAStuart

Dan Thank you for the info you sent me. I sent the guy a deposit. I will be picking it up sometime in the next 3 months. Will tell you guys more info when I get it.

Mark

You are welcome.

[MAStuart]

Well the swap meet I was going to go to pick up my bellhousing got canceled. So a 1500 mile round trip and 27 hours latter and I have it home. The box is in poor condition. Mice used it for a home. Rust on the casting. But looks good for sitting in a damp leaky warehouse for many many years.

Dan it looks like its version number 3. But the boss for the alignment pin on the right side look like a number 1 or 2 version. Also the quotation marks on the left side are more like a number 4 version. Starter tab looks like number 6 version.

[MAStuart]

So Dan were these left as bare metal when they came on a factory car? Also do you know if anything else would have come with the Kit other than the bellhousing? If you need better pictures of anything let me know. Now I need to figure out if I am going to clean it up or not and how.

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by MAStuart

Well the swap meet I was going to go to pick up my bellhousing got canceled. So a 1500 mile round trip and 27 hours latter and I have it hone. The box is in poor condition. Mice used it for a home. Rust on the casting. But looks good for sitting in a damp leaky warehouse for many many years.

Nice, the prior owner(s) 'seasoned it' for you. EVAPO-RUST® will do an excellent job but it is not the only commercial 'safe' rust removal compound. About a week ago I soaked a fuzzy red Cobra suspension part over night and it looked great the next day when removed from the container and warm water rinsed.

That is a rare version.

Most got painted on the exterior either a dull black or a deep silver. The nos one I had for decades was painted dark silver gray (low gloss) before machining. The unrestored very early one on our black car is a dull black.

The new in the box one I used to have.

[LMH]

Very cool! Love the box too!
Larry

[MAStuart]

Larry yes it is. When I first saw it I think I thought the box was cooler than the scatter shield.

[Blue66]

Thats one hell of a find !!! Love the box to.

[MAStuart]

Dan the one you had new in the box. Did the box look like the one I got? Do you have a picture of the box?

There are some traces of a dark silver gray here and there on the casting. I though it was the raw casting finish.

There is a used 5 bolt Cobra scatter shield on the Saac forum. They want $1500.00 for it. Also there was another one for sale in the last year or so. It was offered on the Saac forum under parts for sale. It was offered for $2700 with no takers. After about 6 months relisted at $2500.00 and sold within a week. That one was NOS in the box. I did not get to see that one. Looks like there still out there.


Very excited to get the one I got!

[Dan Case]

The best I can tell all versions with a Ford part number on them were sold as the same Ford accessory kit number. "COBRA KIT" accessories was a Ford Motor Company endeavor. Ford published a flyer itemizing available items and Dearborn Steel Tubing Company was responsible for packaging and shipment. (DST doing the kit building was why fasteners and other small parts in retail kits for Cobra parts and accessories were not the same ones Continental Cars or Shelby American used.)

“COBRA KIT” packages received paper COBRA stickers as part of the advertising identification. There were several sizes of stickers from quite small (small enough to fit on a paper envelope pack an emblem was in) to large for big things like complete induction systems.

“COBRA KIT” parts came in a variety of types including:
1) Exact same parts used in new HP289 engines
2) Exact same parts used in a new Cobra or 427 Cobra
3) Service replacements of several types for production parts
4) Aftermarket accessories never used on any new car
5) Even complete engines

Some “kits” required at least one other kit. Example: If you bought a 3-2V induction kit for a Fairlane you also needed a designed and made for the purpose throttle linkage “COBRA KIT” to go with it.

[MAStuart]

Thank you Dan!

Has anyone seen any other box styles other than like shown above. Somewhere along the line I think I have seen a box that the Cobra label was different. The ones shown above are paper and glued to the box. The other one I think I saw was printed on the box. I think it was just red. Half of it was on the top of the box and the other half wrapped on the side . It was also offset to the left side of the box. The logo would have been about 6-7 inch across ……………………...Maybe I saw it in a dream?

[Dan Case]

You are welcome.

The stickers Dearborn Steel Tubing Company had were paper on large rolls. I suppose the intent was to apply one sticker per package but it was not rare to find some extras inside the package.



I opened up a kit in the 1980s that had about two feet of stock with these little gems. I kept two and gave the rest away.

[1985 CCX]

Great find and a great way to spend 27hrs.....

[cobrakiwi]

This one best I can tell is a version 2 from Dan's bellhousing info notes.
It's a little crusty but should clean up nicely.

[MAStuart]

Have you had that one long? I didn't need a NOS one but its what I found. If they made repos of 5 bolts I would have been fine with that. I think a repo if available would still be a big chunk of money. It would be nice if they could be SFI approved. New hydoformed ones just don't fit to good in a made to original spec Daytona coupe.


Makes me wonder if guys are using them or just have them in there collection of cool stuff!

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by MAStuart

I think a repo if available would still be a big chunk of money. It would be nice if they could be SFI approved. Makes me wonder if guys are using them or just have them in there collection of cool stuff!

If copies of any five of the bolt engine block COBRA or TIGER versions have been made it is a well kept secret.

Lots of 1960s Ford fans seem to have one in their collections of stuff. One situation that keeps fewer in use is that a significant number of 1960s Ford and Mercury cars these would have been used in were converted to some type six bolt engine over time. That is especially true of any vehicle used in any kind of competition.

The main market seems to be high end restorations of Cobras that were raced factory or otherwise in the 1960s OR folks like me that don’t want to be in an original car with the engine running without some kind of safety bell housing. I use to hit 8,000 rpm on the straights when I open tracked the black car and 7,000 rpm out playing. The original cast steel (SAE 1030) shields are tough. I have not yet seen a broken one but I have seen ones badly deformed (can tell with a tape measure) by events they contained. I friend of mine had his flywheel and clutch get loose after the fasteners holding the flywheel failed north of 9,000 rpm while he was racing is dirt track car. He was fine, the car was fine, but the engine block, flywheel, clutch, transmission, and COBRA shield all became scrap metal. The ring gear on the flywheel left circular internal knurling inside the shield where it ran around a few times before jamming up and stopping.

Another friend bought a shield that had contained a failure in the past for his original Cobra. It was not useable as it was deformed on the order of 1/8” around the block mount surface and the transmission mount face was not parallel to the front face any more. Looked okay just laying on the floor. The guideline here is to be wary of units that have already done their job before, they might not be useable.

There were at least three other five bolt cast steel safety housings in the 1960s for 221/260/289 five bolt engines. The maker of the COBRA and TIGER parts sold a version under their brand name, ANSEN made something, and RC Industries made something. I know of privateer original Cobras that used these other models. (Tip: Most privateer racers didn’t load their cars up with COBRA-Ford marketed goodies. Before the 1980s surge in rebuilding old racers into configurations they never race in period in you would see almost any brand of ignition, oil cooler, rocker arm covers, intake manifold, and or carburetor. 2-4V cross ram in SCCA B Production, yes. T-J mechanical fuel injection, yes. Any of the safety bell housings. Just about any version of 4V, 3-2V, or 2-4V induction system. Ford carburetors, yes. Carter carburetors, yes. All kinds of variations in Holley carburetors. Custom wheels made in steel, yes. Custom aluminum wheels adapted to Cobras, yes. Any kind of ignition distributor or magneto. So on and so forth. )