Quote:
Originally Posted by FredG
This engine has a tendency to run cool. I have an oil cooler on mine. The oil never gets hot enough. I will be installing a oil thermostat on mine shortly to get the temp of the oil up. |
I already did some of this in your other topic so I'll do it again. SEARCH will turn up more as many or most of the people that have had them and commented have moved on.
Mine was the 427IR - fuel injected but with the racing cam. I also agree that it ran cool but that is not the cause of the Roush cam or anything else. The primary cause is that the Cobra is "over cooled". The radiator (if it's the aluminum one that Shelby and others use) is oversized.
To add to the over cooling, the oil cooler acts as a secondary radiator. Indeed, had I kept mine another season I would also have added an oil cooler thermostat or completely bypassed the cooler (but left it for aesthetics).
The engine is lopey. I also raised my idle (with the DFI controller) to about 1100. It never died on me but it was just too bouncy. I didn't want my milk churned into butter.
The engine does not like to be run at low RPMS. But that is also probably true of any of the Windsor based high displacement engines and probably the FE too. It always felt that it was begging to run higher RPMs like it wanted the cobwebs blown out 2500 might be a threshold, I don't know - it's been so long. In this case I think the cam might be a contributor, but I asked others about 427s (both FE and Windsor) and everyone felt that the engine was oversized for street use. It was a race engine and wanted to be used as such. High RPMs for extended periods of time. I preferred to keep the RPMs up and thus rarely drove it any higher than 3rd in the city, 4th on the highway (except on the freeway then 5th).
I'll reiterate this statement. If I were to buy another Cobra (and I was going to for a while, but now toys are off the table) I would instead get a 289 based car. The smaller V8 can handle the street type driving with no troubles at all and the 289s won plenty of races before the 427 came along. I think most people get the 427 cars because they like the appearance, but you get most of it with the 289FIA. You're asking the wrong question. You should ask which engine, but which car.
I'll reiterate: If you want a streetable Cobra, ditch the 427 and get a 289.
PS. I have the R cam specs somewhere. It was a standard Ford cam used in Windsors found in either Lincoln or Mercury (can't remember which)