Dick & jo's most excellent cobra adventure

Don · #1 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 10:37 AM

Dick......after leaving ERA/New Britain CT, what route did you follow heading South to FL ? Would you use the same route again or ? Hopefully, you cleared the normally heavy traffic in Southern CT into NY w/o difficulties.

.......thanks

CobraDan · #2 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 10:45 AM

Dick,
I tried to get a picture of all the cobras that attended the Nav-A-Gator run. Yes the snowbirds are leaving, I-75 is a parking lot heading north and a trip to a restaurant for breakfast this morning meant an instant seating and no long lines. Have a safe trip home.

lamaluv · #3 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 12:55 PM

Don the route we took down to FL was I-84 out of CT through NY and into PA, then I-81 to I-83 into MD and I-695 around Baltimore to I-95 and I-495 around DC. We then stayed on I-95 into FL. We didn't have any traffic issues but were not in any of the bigger cities at rush hour. Our rig with trailer is large enough (65+) that we have to plan our travel pretty much like we were truckers on the road.

Dan we really enjoyed our winter in Florida and meeting cool Cobra owners. When your summer temps get up above 95 with 90% humidity bring your Cobra up to Idaho for a visit. Cruising through the forest on mountain roads will cool you off.

Dick

CobraDan · #4 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 01:13 PM

Dick,
When you know where you are going in the end, I figure the hotter the better now so I will be ready. At the end of the month I’m heading north to stay at my cousins Pensacola Beach house and then the following weekend for the car show at Fort Walton Beach.

http://burningupthebeaches.com/

SpecOp1 · #5 (**permalink**) 04-13-2011, 02:54 PM

Thank you so much for sharing this great adventure with us. I am now sure that getting into the Cobra culture is the right thing for me. Again thanks .....

lamaluv · #6 (**permalink**) 04-14-2011, 05:25 PM

The jinx has happened. Please excuse me while I vent. On February 10th I took my Cobra to Rob at Ford Speed Racing in Largo, FL because the car was running rough. He was busy but could fit me in around some other jobs. When I called them someone only answered 1 out of 5 calls. Left many messages only got one call back in 9 weeks. This should have told me something but what the hey maybe he was just busy working on customers cars. He told me that he was having trouble getting the ecu to take and hold changes. Then February 24th he tells me that the hard drive on MY laptop computer has crashed and he is having to wait for an adapter for his computer to come in to finish the tune. May 10th Rob tells me that the HALTECH ecu still won't hold the changes and he thinks the unit is bad and needs to be replaced. I then contact Bob Ream at Imagine Injection who recommends that we replace the Haltech with a FAST EZ system that he is now using on most of his FE systems. May 23rd the new FAST system arives and Rob installs it. April 1st Rob calls and tells me that the FAST ecu has failed. While on the Dyno the car just shuts down and hand held input screen is blank. The unit is sent back to FAST and tested. Test shows a burned mother board usually caused by by power surge. People at FAST and Bob Ream tell Rob what to look for so there are no further electrical problems. April 12th the replacement ecu arrives and Rob installs it. Puts the car on Dyno and notices amp guage is jumping arround. Shuts the car off and replaces the voltage regulator. Amp guage is now steady and he goes for test run. Car shuts down again and he pulls the car back to shop. Rob calls Dick with bad news. April 14 Dick has car towed from Rob's shop to our home. I then buy and install winch to pull the Cobra into our stacker trailer. The 17th of April we will leave Florida and stop the 26-30th in Memphis (the home of FAST) and link up with Toney Duncan who is a expert at trouble shooting the FAST ecu. Hopefully that will be when this story turns good again. The cost of this part of the adventure: new laptop $380, FAST EZ ecu & wiring harness $1,269, Ford Speed Racing bill $1,723 ($880 is Dyno time), replacement FAST ecu $586, Tow home from shop $125, winch for trailer $100. $4,083 worth of fun and car still doesn't run. At least it was running when it went to Rob's shop. Would I recommend Ford Speed Racing?

I think not. Sorry to vent but I do feel much better just getting this off my chest. I will let you know how things go in Memphis.

Dick

lamaluv · #7 (**permalink**) 04-30-2011, 07:53 AM

Well I am a happy camper again.

We left Florida the 17th and stopped in Atlanta till the 22nd then to Birmingham till the 26th. We headed for Memphis dodging all the tornadoes. Met Tony Duncan and went to FAST/ Comp Cams where they tested the ecu and confirmed that it was burned out by a power spike. Tony pulled all the ecu wiring and checked for shorts or miss wiring. Then checked the charging system. He found the voltage regulator was incorrectly wired and that the MSD box had a loose tach drive wire to the ecu. (when the wire worked loose the injectors shut down) The FAST engineer recommended changing the alternator to a single wire internal regulated one for better voltage control. We did all the repairs and the Cobra started right up and with the self learning feature of the EZ system every time we drove it ran better. It now accelerates better than ever and is running like I had wanted since FEBRUARY 10th. We were able to cruise a bit in Memphis and even stopped by Graceland to offer Elvis a ride but were told that he had already left the building.

If you ever need help with fuel injection diagnostics or custom tuning and calibrations I would highly recommend Tony Duncan of EFI Diagnostics. He is based in the Memphis area but the FAST enjineer told me that he travels all over the country working for racers and car builders.

The adventure continues.