Club Cobra - WANABE.....the continuing story

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WANABE.....the continuing story

Been in touch with the local Cobra club President...John Redman. Good fella and very helpful.

Having thought about the Lexus engine more.........I dunno....not sure I like made in Japan under the bonnet. Not saying the engine is no good......just think I would like to keep the car true to label.

Spoke to a local performance shop,to convert a 302 over to injected, he reckons it is more expensive to do this, than to buy a new engine & gear box set up.!?

Is this right? 6-10K to change over! (his figures)

By the way saw a DAX machine. 302 3 speed auto. Small boot and tight foot wells Tubular design. Wanabe didn't know if this was good or not....so just looked impressed when told.

Can any one tell me what the best approach is to increase the power a 302 auto and what sort of ball park bucks we are talking. I have a stuffed left ankle hence the auto.

Wanabe**)

Wanabe,

There a lot of good guys in the Cobra Club NSW. It would be a good idea if you came along to a meeting to have a look.

If you do not have an injected car, I would not convert it - infact many people have removed the injection to suit the style of the car.

I would concentrate on getting a good car for a reasonable price. Any manual can be converted to auto if needed.

Hope this helps.

Ben

Engines: kW = $$

Howdy Wanabe,

I'm no engine guru but a quick surf around and few phone calls and you'll probably conclude very quickly that changing to EFI relatively expensive in terms of bang for buck.

If you've got EFi then that's great but there are plenty of people out there making lots of HP with a carby. Better to focus on the flow of gasses than which delivery method. So Cams/Manifolds/Heads/Exhaust maybe then balancing etc when you conclude that you have to rebuild.

You can easily check out the power output available by rebuilding or stroking your 302 by clicking on - say - the Keith Craft ads that appear here. If you don't want to import there are several local engine builders - many associated with local cobra clubs - that can give you realistic budgets for mods/buildups.

Other members may be prepared to help you DIY.

The last point would be not to assume that you need to increase the power right away. I have spoken to several club members who have 'peaky' engines that they'd prefer were more streetable. Often the suggestion is to put a blower on a 5 litre and get both.

LoBelly

Wanabe,
Dax vary depending on year of chassis manufacture - up to early '85 (including mine :CRY: ) the chassis was not actually made by DAX (only two were brought into Australia that I know of).
After that, they started playing with the design - in particular, ability to accept wider rear wheels ('85), and changed steering geometry/layout (about 3 different types - '85, '86, '88). There were quite a number brought in to Oz over that period.
Early to mid '90s John Tojeiro joined them and redesigned the chassis again. Then a couple of years ago they moved to the DeDion rear end as an option %/ .
There is a DAX forum on the UK Cobra Replica Club site and you can search for threads that discuss chassis differences. In general, DAX have a good rep in the UK.

Re: 302 - have one of them. Is set-up as a "Street Boss" - Cleveland Heads, "Street Boss" manifold, mild cam, 650cfm Weber. Idles rough, but plenty of low down grunt. Estimated 330hp. Would only trade it for a big block (and the DAX will fit one of them %/ ).
Re: Auto - have one of them too. 3 speed (C4) with shift kit, 2500rpm stall and Pro-shifter. Works well but I always think it would be nice to have a later model 5 speed with manual override.

As Lowbelly said 'blow it!':D That'll give your 302 plenty of GG's:eek: