Cobra intake/FoMoCo throttle body swap?

Should I spend $175 for cobra intake/Fomoco TB?

  • Total voters
    11
K

KingJacobo

Active LVC Member
Joined
May 26, 2012
Messages
117
Reaction score
3
Location
Atlanta
I stumbled upon someone locally selling a cobra intake, coincidentally already bolted onto a 95 Mark VIII motor that my friend is buying for another project.

He wants $175 for the Cobra intake and FoMoCo throttle body. My friend (who knows and has built many ford motors) says the throttle body is "badass", but to do some research if the gains are worth the price to me. I'm doing research, and besides the fact that as of right now I have no idea which TB exactly he has, is if it would be worth it, price wise and the 4 hours of bitching he claims an intake swap takes on modular motors.

I know cobra intakes make like a 3 hp difference on the low and and a bit more on the high end, so that alone isn't worth the price except for "popping the hood" appeal. What kind of gains can I expect with a "Fomoco" TB and cobra intake on an otherwise stock 93 Mark VIII? This and JMod will probably be the only mods I'll ever do. Will I need a tune if I do this swap?

Whatchu' guys think? Vote and reply!
 
I say maybe, not because the swap would be worth your time, but because for 175 bucks I would buy the intake and flip it for $300. If you don't want to I will ride up and pick it up this weekend...

-Alan
 
It's not an easy swap on a gen 1. The K-member has to be spaced down for the hood to fit if you don't have a cowl hood. It's a great deal though. I'd buy it if you wanted to sell it.
 
98lincmk7lsc said:
It's not an easy swap on a gen 1. The K-member has to be spaced down for the hood to fit if you don't have a cowl hood. It's a great deal though. I'd buy it if you wanted to sell it.
Click to expand...

Arrggh! Can anyone else confirm the k member needs to be moved down for this swap?
 
sounds like you should buy it and flip it. you have 2 buyers lined up already. one even offers a pickup.

the gen 1 intake is decent. and to me is not worth the swap time.
 
No I would be interested at 175 to flip myself lol, I have beyond no use for it...

-Alan
 
KingJacobo said:
Arrggh! Can anyone else confirm the k member needs to be moved down for this swap?
Click to expand...

I had a friend that did the swap on his 94. He had to space the K-member down about 1/2" if I remember correctly, and he spaced the backside of the hood (hinge side) up another 1/8" or so to get it to fit without rubbing.
 
98lincmk7lsc said:
I had a friend that did the swap on his 94. He had to space the K-member down about 1/2" if I remember correctly, and he spaced the backside of the hood (hinge side) up another 1/8" or so to get it to fit without rubbing.
Click to expand...

Ah, didn't mean to insult your credibility but was just looking for confirmation. Well there is no way I'm messing with the crossmember just for a freaking intake and TB swap. Dammit!
 
Mine is a 97 Deep Navy/tan with Octastars pushing 130k mi. A nice solid good running clean car. I'm quite pleased with it. I have no real desire to modify it. But, I'd buy it & install it just for the under hood eye candy.

I sold my last hotrod to a "friend" who had been pestering to to sell it to him for a few years. He finally showed up with the cash in hand to tempt me. Since then I've been picking up parts off craiglist & the local pull-a-part on the cheap. I've been leisurely looking for a super clean notchback 90ish mustang to put a 351/5-speed combo in.

I actually prefer the old school big cam cackle sound to the new DOHC motors for hotrodding. Plus it's not that hard to extract a real 400 HP from a 351 with heads cam intake exhaust ontop of the FT4E block. I've done the modern fuel injection thing enough that I'm actually excited about doing a carb car once again.

Now if I got serious about modifying a my Gen 2 Mark I'd be at the insurance auctions looking for something like this https://www.iaai.com/Vehicles/VehicleDetails.aspx?auctionID=0&itemID=12679731&RowNumber=66 for a drive train swap. ;)
 
KingJacobo said:
Ah, didn't mean to insult your credibility but was just looking for confirmation. Well there is no way I'm messing with the crossmember just for a freaking intake and TB swap. Dammit!
Click to expand...

No insult taken. :)

I know a lot of people just "say" things that they thought they heard somewhere and present it as fact, when in reality, they're completely wrong. Lol. I just figured that I would offer up what I've seen with my own 2 eyes so you know that I'm not full of crap. ;)

It really wouldn't be all that hard to make it fit, but for the minimal gains on a Gen 1, it's probably not really worth it...

Let us know what you decide to do with that intake. For $175, I'd take it in a heartbeat. I don't live all that far away from Atlanta either.
 
chris2523 said:
the gen 1 intake is decent. and to me is not worth the swap time.
Click to expand...

THIS. Chris is spot on. The intake design between Gen1s and Gen2s are like comparing apples and oranges. If you had a Gen2, I would say hell yeah. Gen1, leave it.

On my Gen 2, I went from a 14.1 to a 13.59 going from stock intake to Cobra intake with the same pos mail-order tune.

I would expect any Gen1 with a stock intake and all of my mods to run similar times as me.
 
K member does NOT "have" to be dropped on a Gen1
There's a couple of options for aftermarket hoods that offer the needed clearence
 
Until Doug takes the throne, the fastest NA time was driller with a stock intake on a Gen1. <proof in the pudding??
 
Fwiw, I'll never buy another cowl hood for the mark. They are ill fitting, horribly wavy, and a smidge too floppy for my tastes.

Its not hard to drop the K-member, just takes time.

Quit being weenies.....
 
DLF said:
So, not "stock". :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Technically, no. A bit less turbulent, sure. Huge gain in power, no.

With that said, my Cobra intake is not stock either. It has minor dremel work on the ports and the extra casting on the lower plenum between all of the runners has been removed and ground back. But who knows. Maybe I would be running 14.0s without the dremel work. :shifty:

From what I recall you have about the same rwhp now as driller did with his NA setup on a stock Cobra intake with 8 less runners??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 90 (members: 0, guests: 90)
Back
Top