I have loud gasholes
New Jersey law does not allow open side pipes even though there is no law that I can find that prohibits exhaust loudness. Well, my pipes are technically "open" right now on the Cobra. I have been trying to find a way to make my pipes "legal" without hacking apart my pipes. I think I have found a way. I got the idea from a post on FFCobra.com . Basically you take a Vortex 3.5 inch "cone" and insert it into the exit of the pipe. This should quite the pipes down (but only a little) and technically, it is no longer an open pipe. I will also use this time to use some copper silicone to seal off the header slip joints (I mention in a previous post that I have an exhaust leak). So this means I will have to take the sidepipes off one more time before final install. Remember how painful that was?

The results are in:

So the cobra doctor is done with the analysis. Guess what......my clutch is NOT stuck. It seems that my pull type clutch slave cylinder is not strong enough to dissengage. I am going to switch to a push type clutch assembly like the one shown at the side (thanks to Paul...check out his blog too). I have a push type cylinder from Southern Automotive and the spring. I just don't have the clutch linkage rod. I have ordered one from Summit Racing. So next weekend, I hope to get an new clutch slave cylinder config into the cobra and hopefully I can take the car out for a spin....down the driveway.

Finalizing Electrical, Reverse Speedo Adapter, New Expansion Tank and Clutch Saga Continues:
When I last wrote, my high beam indicator was coming on regardless of the mode of light (high vs low beam). Turned out I needed to put a diode in the wiring in the headlight lead. This fixed it perfectly. So now I have a high beam indicator which will make the jersey inspection team happy.

As I was doing all kinds of crazy things to free my clutch, I noticed that my speed-o wasn’t working. I found out that I needed to procure a reverse gear. See, the speedometer is backwards in the cobras. As a result, you need to have a gear that the speedometer cable inputs and changes the direction of the revolution. This gear also inputs into the back of the gauge. I had thought that this reversal happened in the gauge itself (since the backwards gauge didn’t come with this unique gear…stupid me).

The expansion tank that originally came with my engine had a bunch of pin hole leaks. When I got the car up to temp, it was spraying out all kinds of places. Southern Automotive sent a replacement ASAP. So far, my customer experience with Southern Automotive Engines has been very good.

Ok…and now onto the clutch. I couldn’t get it unstuck. Southern Automotive had some great suggestions and so did the forums from Hurricane and Club Cobra. I had to resort to sending off the Cobra to my local mechanic. Basically, they will take out the trans, and bell housing to access the stuck clutch. They will pry off the clutch from the fly wheel and reinstall (that is if there is no damage). It was heart breaking being not able to fix this myself. I figured it would be to hard to get my car high up enough off the ground to work safely underneath and pull the tranny, bell housing, etc. It just seemed easier to do it on a lift. Oh well…I will have to just get over it. Now I have empty nest/garage syndrome. Since it was raining, I had to cover the dash, electrical and engine in plastic to protect it. I took some pictures this morning of the cobra going off to the “cobra doctor.” Hopefully the doctor calls with good news today!

One other potential issue popped up. The oil temp may not be reading now. I run the engine on the weekend and I noticed that the oil temp wasn’t moving (oil pressure is there). Granted, I only run the engine for about 5 mins so maybe it hasn’t had enough time to heat up. There is a lot of oil in there!

Pics below: