Motor choice

[RallySnake]

Ken,

Glad to hear you changed your mind on tearing apart the BMW. That's a nice car and much more practical than a Cobra in your hot climate. Can't you find a wreaking yard where you can pick up a rolled car with a good engine and transmission? Maybe you remove the whole AC system intact, too.

Unlike my firends here who have no idea of the difficulty of building a car there, I have been to S.E. Asia a few times. When the humidity is 95% and the low temperature is 90 degrees at night, just being outside is tough. You have done extremely well to get your car running at all. If it's running well, I'd leave the 6 cylinder engine alone and just put all my energy into the bodywork to make it look as good as possible. I doubt that you'll run into many Cobra snobs in Jakarta!

The problem with the V8 in a small engine bay is that the heat from the exhaust headers or manifolds gets sucked into the air intake and causes runaway overheating. It takes a very powerful radiator fan to keep mine under control when creeping along in California traffic in hot weater. The six has more open area around it for airflow and generates less heat.

From the pictures of your car, I would suggest using styrofoam and fiberglass to reshape the body to more closely represent the shape of the longer and lower Cobra body.

Paul