The BBK twin 65mm throttle...
The BBK twin 65mm throttle body was carried over from the Bullitt intake manifold and is installed upside down as the throttle linkage on a Four-Valve is on the opposite side. There is a threaded plug in the back of the throttle body that had to be removed to work with the Four-Valve intake manifold. A stock Mach 1 throttle cable was also sourced to replace the Bullitt cable, as was a Mach 1 throttle cable bracket. Since the upper plenum now sits on a 1-inch spacer, said bracket was modified by removing the cruise-control tabs to clear the hood. We still have AC, heat, and all other power accessories.
If your lottery ticket comes through--and your luck continues to allow you to locate a set--the best choice of all is the '00 Cobra R heads. These are extremely rare, though, and an easier way to get a set is to find a pair of Ford GT or Shelby GT500 heads, as these are very similar to the Cobra R casting. All of these heads present various issues when it comes to intake manifolds, but that's another story altogether. The Terminator heads are considered the best cost-effective heads, and in the end, we chose to use a set of late-production Terminator heads. Early Terminator heads only had three or four threads for the spark plugs. Ford later went to nine threads to cure a spark-plug blowout issue.
The cylinder heads were sourced from Darrin Burch at BC Automotive, and shipped directly to Kris Starnes of Kris Starnes Racing Heads, in Hastings, Florida. Starnes has been providing some fast Mustang enthusiasts with his ported cylinder heads, and he came highly recommended by Papitto. Starnes worked over the Bullitt's Two-Valve heads that allowed it to run 10.01 seconds in the quarter-mile. The porting job on the Four-Valve heads was beautiful both aesthetically and, as you'll see later, functionally.
Kris first worked the exterior of the upper plenum and removed all the extraneous stuff that wouldn't be used. He then port-matched the throttle body opening to mate up with the BBK twin 65mm unit that we're reusing. We also had to remove an Allen-head plug on the gasket aside of the throttle body to allow routing of the idle air, as the Bullitt intake doesn't utilize this port. Next, the inside of the upper manifold was ported to smooth flow and increase the intake volume as much as possible. After streamlining it, Starnes dropped the upper plenum off to Bruce Birkett of Palatka, Florida, who applied a liquid-like, silver finish.
This intake manifold started...
This intake manifold started out life as your typical '01 Cobra long-runner intake. Kris Starnes, after a few gallons of epoxy, changed it into a short-runner intake, which should make it easy for our boosted intake charge to find its way to the cylinder heads.
The lower manifold of our intake setup is a huge departure from the standard Cobra intake manifold. Starnes converted the long-runner manifold to a short-and-straight runner design by applying a lot of machine work and epoxy. The bottom portion of the runners were removed and the areas filled with epoxy. This transforms the intake to allow a straight flow of air from the plenum area directly to the intake runners.
Starnes does not recommend this configuration on all applications, as it is particularly suited to high-rpm, forced-induction motors. The shorter runners will kill port velocity, and both torque and driveability will suffer on a naturally aspirated street car, or even a low-boost-level blower or turbo setup. Keep in mind that the sort of powerband change that a short-runner intake provides may require different gearing or, as in our case, a higher stall speed for our torque converter.
With the removal of the runners in the intake rework, we lost considerable plenum volume. Starnes supplied us with a fix for that in the form of a 1-inch aluminum spacer that he offers on a custom basis.
Fore Precision Works sent...
Fore Precision Works sent us these '03-'04 Mach 1 prototype fuel rails that came right off its CNC machine. Delphi low-impedance 95-lb/hr injectors work with an Acceleronics Versafueler and provide great driveability for such large injectors. With the coolant crossover tube so close to the ends of the fuel rails, the fuel system was modified so that the fuel deadends at the front of the rail. T-fittings at the back of each rail supply the rails with fuel, as well as feeding a Y-junction that pulls both lines back into a single line so an adjustable fuel pressure regulator can be used.
The Bullitt-specific aftercooler...
The Bullitt-specific aftercooler will not work with the Four-Valve engine as the inlet and outlet are both different. Vortech supplied us with the correct elbows to make the right connections. Tracy Grim of Speedfab (Orange Park, Florida) handled much of the fabrication on this project, and easily handled the aftercooler modifications.
In order to mount our Vortech...
In order to mount our Vortech T-trim supercharger on the new engine, we had to order this bracket from Vortech (PN 4FKO11-020), which is part of the '03-'04 Mach 1 kit.
Vortech also supplied numerous...
Vortech also supplied numerous bolts, pulleys, and other necessary components. It was a tall order, but the Vortech guys were up to the challenge.
The Vortech aftercooler connects...
The Vortech aftercooler connects to the Cobra's oval throttle body with this aluminum elbow and assorted components.
We replaced the Two-Valve's...
We replaced the Two-Valve's Kooks Custom Headers long tubes with another set of even nicer Kooks headers. The new stainless steel headers feature 1 3/4-inch primary tubes and 3-inch collectors. Kooks also sent us a 3-inch to 2 1/2-inch X-crossover pipe to connect the exhaust to our existing 2 1/2-inch Dynomax Ultraflo welded mufflers. Fitment was perfect with no clearance problems even with the car's 4R70W automatic transmission. To make the exhaust more thermally efficient, we sent the headers and X-crossover pipe to Jet Hot, where they gave the components its Extreme Sterling coating, or MC15 as it's known in house. According to Jet Hot, the regular Sterling formula is rated for 1,300 F, but it starts to lose shine at 1,200 F and comes off around 1,350.Extreme Sterling will hold its shine to 1,400 F and can withstand short bursts to 1,700 F. Extreme Sterling has greater insulation properties, too--about 100 degrees cooler than the standard Sterling).