With the exhaust side of the turbo system in place, our attention returned to the front of the car. The first step to start hooking up the turbo to the intake is to mount the air-to-air intercooler. The intercooler is bolted on using existing holes. | 
The lower pipe connects the turbo to the intercooler. The upper pipe heads up to the engine compartment and will attach to another pipe that connects to the throttle body. | 
One of the last pipes to get installed is this one. Hellion designed a custom coupler to attach a round pipe to an oval throttle body. |
The MAF sensor is mounted sideways, and the K&N air filter sticks into the fender. There is plenty of cold air rushing around in that high-pressure area to feed the hungry turbo. | 
Due to the turbo's mounting position, the cooling system hoses are moved. Hellion uses a polished stainless pipe to aid in underhood appearance. | 
The completed installation certainly changes the look under the hood of this '04 Cobra. The '99/'01 Cobras will have a similar appearance. |
A few gallons of race fuel were mixed in with the 91-octane pump gas. This was used as a safeguard when tuning the Cobra's ECU for optimum performance. Maximum timing during all testing was 16 degrees. The low ignition timing didn't even come close to requiring anything but the 91-octane fuel, but we weren't taking any chances. | 
That isn't a heat exchanger! Our testing was conducted with the old Hellion air-to-air intercooler. Hellion now supplies all Cobra kits with a square cooler. It has the same core, but the housing is squared off, aiding in the aesthetics department. There is something about front mount intercoolers that screams "badass." | 
Nate handles the tuning of the Cobra using DiabloSport Chip Master software. He operates under the moniker Rocky Mountain Racing (505/263-6825). |
The Dyno Edge Dynojet chassis dyno uses a DiabloSport Predator to help monitor the sensors on the Cobra. It feeds information directly into the Winpep software. That information comes up in real-time on the screen for the dyno operator to view. | 
The Cobra was strapped down and a large fan was used to help run air through the intercooler. We encountered one problem and that was with the pipe clamp holding the inlet pipe to the throttle body. It wasn't strong enough to hold on at 20-plus psi of boost. Switching to a T-bolt clamp solved the problem. | 
The top graph represents horsepower while the lower graph shows the torque. This is a comparison of our test Cobra in stock form versus the Hellion turbo system. As you can see, the power is drastically different. The torque curve ramps up aggressively and keeps climbing practically until redline. It is not as aggressive on the low end like a Roots blower, but that does help traction on the street. Horsepower went from 383.9 up to 847.51, and torque shot up from a stock reading of 374.05 lb-ft to 789.17 lb-ft. Impressive. |
While on the dyno, Urist did a little testing with a new turbocharger from Turbonetics. | 
The compressor side remained 76 mm, but the exhaust housing increased in size. | 
He fabbed up a new downpipe due to the larger exhaust outlet on the housing. The lower exhaust pressure resulted in an increase in power despite showing less boost. More power at a lower impeller speed was expected, and this test was a success. As for the results--our lips are sealed, but expect a new upgrade to be available soon. |