Godzilla 7.3L Swapped Cobra

[jbmatth]

Well it has been a very long time since I've posted in here but thought I'd share my Godzilla 7.3L swapped Cobra. A little background, I've owned this car since I was 24 for almost 12 years now. It is a B&B that was built in 2001, it had a pretty sad 351w and T-5 trans. Here is a photo to get some attention before a lot of writing:


Through the years I've upgraded the brakes to 11" disks all the way around, QA1 coilovers, tubular control arms, 9" axle with 3.70:1 gears, re-wired the engine and dash area, replaced the dash and seat vinyl, replaced the trans 2 times due to breaking 3rd once and 2nd once.

I tried to breath a little more power in the engine by getting it rebuild 3 years ago and after 2 failed attempts the 3rd time was a charm but still only dyno'd 296 hp at the flywheel. I didn't want to spend too much on the rebuilds so just new bearings, seal, gaskets, and a bigger cam with new lifters. First engine only ran 20 minutes total before realizing the crank bearings were .010" too big. Yep I didn't even use plasti-gauge, shame on me. Took it to a small local shop, it lasted 700 miles when I whipped out a cam lobe and bent and broke a pushrod. The third rebuild was by a well known shop and switched to a roller cam but being cheap I kept the iron heads and just had them ported.

No, 296 hp wasn't going to cut it and the Godzilla had just been announced. I waited for a while until more aftermarket support was available and didn't have to do as much development on my own. Then early last year I found out Mast Motorsports was offering a mildly built Godzilla with controls and wiring for at the time $14k with an estimated 500-550 hp. It had forged rods and pistons, a few cam offerings, CNC heads, and was ready to install. I put my order in with them in early April of '21, and the wait began, and continued, and continued and eventually I got to pick out the CAM and saw some dyno numbers. I was stoked by the results on pump gas no less, what do ya'll think:


I made the trip down and picked it up, they have a very cool facility and I got to see some very cool stuff. Got it home and unloaded where I'd already pulled the old 351w and T-5, it was ready for the new engine and TKX full kit I'd picked up from Silversport Trans:


Here is a comparison of the T-5 to the TKX:


I got started test fitting the new engine and building engine mounts:


More to come,
JB