Going Ported Cobra Jet manifold on my 2018 Mustang GT A10

[Nos-pete]

I just went the Cobra Jet, long tube header route and could not be happier.

I am about two hours south of you in Jupiter Florida and I am waiting for a cooler/dryer weather to hit the track. I went with the Steeda mounts with the red bushings.

If you are still looking for a throttle body,I have a JMS ThrottleMax and Ford Racing Twin 65mm Throttle Body that I will be posting up later this week.

I have read your reply here and am seriously thinking of going CJ over my ported stock Mani on my 18 A-10 3:55 gear E-85 tuned 10s @127+ mph in Cali 97 degree 2000 DA weather day full weight w exception of passenger seat front sway bar delete....stock converter 10:90 @126 & change 1.60 short time.

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[Sammy123]

Sammy, I came across a FB post about the CJ intakes. Seems the FP intake is restricted when running any tb over twin 60s. Some guy ported the bellmouth ok the FP and saw better results from the intake. PMAS and large diameter intakes like 5” supposedly perform the best.

This image was a dyno between the FP and PMAS with a twin 67.

That's great and all, but the intake just has to fit in the first place. It didn't in my case. I would not recommend the PMAS to anyone with an 18+ going Cobra Jet. The FP racing CAI was also the quickest cobra jet intake I could find to get the car out of the shop.

Down the road I will consider other intakes, maybe the steeda cobra jet intake, but it just has to fit. Though as far as restriction, @Ricker has the exact same setup I do (2018 A10, CJ, VMP 69mm Twinjet, FP CAI with JLT housing) and car is noticebly stronger than stock manifold, especially in 4th gear spinning tires.

Unfortunately as I type this, I'm still waiting for my tuner (PBD) to get back to me. I've been avoiding driving the car, but it's really annoying 2 days now and no response. It's like the Gods are against me putting this thing on!

 

[Sammy123]

I have read your reply here and am seriously thinking of going CJ over my ported stock Mani on my 18 A-10 3:55 gear E-85 tuned 10s @127+ mph in Cali 97 degree 2000 DA weather day full weight w exception of passenger seat front sway bar delete....stock converter 10:90 @126 & change 1.60 short time.

You went 127+ in 97 degree heat in Cali? With full weight? That must be a factory freak car. With ported 18 intake manifold, headers and xpipe, JLT CAI I saw 123mph trap the highest in 95 degrees, no weight reduction.

 

[jmeiers]

That's great and all, but the intake just has to fit in the first place. It didn't in my case. I would not recommend the PMAS to anyone with an 18+ going Cobra Jet. The FP racing CAI was also the quickest cobra jet intake I could find to get the car out of the shop.

Down the road I will consider other intakes, maybe the steeda cobra jet intake, but it just has to fit. Though as far as restriction, @Ricker has the exact same setup I do (2018 A10, CJ, VMP 69mm Twinjet, FP CAI with JLT housing) and car is noticebly stronger than stock manifold, especially in 4th gear spinning tires.

Unfortunately as I type this, I'm still waiting for my tuner (PBD) to get back to me. I've been avoiding driving the car, but it's really annoying 2 days now and no response. It's like the Gods are against me putting this thing on!

I am following this thread with anticipation on your results. I'm thinking of doing the CJ too but I really want 10's on the stocker first and hoping the CJ will allow me to run 10's in any weather.

You probably won't get a tune update before Monday because everyone is probably at the Mod Nationals all weekend.

 

[HeavyHittersMaryland]

Thanks Ricker for all your help!


For those following, we got the lines sorted out. The biggest problem was the PMAS intake. This piece of garbage wouldn't fit at all. How can this be advertised for the cobra jet when it doesn't even fit?

- Doesn't clear with the coolant reservoir, even with trying to clear it.
- Plastic mouth doesn't mate with the VMP throttle body. Cant even try to stretch it because it's hard plastic. Junk.
- The filter housing is off by an inch or so. Like nobody did any measurements when designing this thing. Laughable this is advertised for 18+.

In the end I had to buy a ford cobra jet intake and overnight it.

I thought the motor mounts would be the hardest part but it was actually the easiest. Took only an hour to do, didn't have touch the headers or drop the cradle.

All the issues came we with the cobra jet manifold install itself.

- fuel rail needed to be bent for fitment and literally forced in
- Excess hoses with no clear direction on what goes where.
- PMAS shenanigans. Whoever sells this "cobra jet" intake with a straight face needs to be taken out for a good hiding.

if you want to use the PMAS intake you have to move the coolant tank.

 

[Sammy123]

if you want to use the PMAS intake you have to move the coolant tank.

We did try that, the tank wouldn't move in that position in your pic. Did you buy any new lines or additional hardware? We also had the problem of the PMAS mouth not big enough for the 69mm twinjet throttle body. It might be good for the stock 60mm Ford cobra jet TB, but that plastic wouldn't fit. Would have been much simpler if PMAS made a silicon coupler instead of hard plastic.


Currently I got a new tune for the FP racing CAI and the car is idling fine, no check engine codes. Waiting for the greenlight for datalogging a WOT pull.

 

[HeavyHittersMaryland]

We did try that, the tank wouldn't move in that position in your pic. Did you buy any new lines or additional hardware? We also had the problem of the PMAS mouth not big enough for the 69mm twinjet throttle body. It might be good for the stock 60mm Ford cobra jet TB, but that plastic wouldn't fit. Would have been much simpler if PMAS made a silicon coupler instead of hard plastic.


Currently I got a new tune for the FP racing CAI and the car is idling fine, no check engine codes. Waiting for the greenlight for datalogging a WOT pull.

The line on the tank is long enough to stretch in that position. I did not buy any new hardware although there are brackets. The PMAS slides right on a ford racing mono blade, I don’t know about the VMP throttle bodies. PMAS is very uninformative. I believe it’s a money thing, they do not tell you anywhere that the coolant tank has to be moved either through self fabrication or relocation brackets. People shy off products that involve more work. PMAS even makes the relocation brackets for the tank.
https://www.pmas-maf.com/product-category/pmas-air-intake-components/
Measure your throttle body dimensions and check out reducers/couplers by PMAS (https://www.pmas-maf.com/product-category/pmas-air-intake-components/) or JLT (https://www.jlttruecoldair.com/silicone-reducer/)
Or just look on amazon for your size, they’re everywhere.

 

[Sammy123]

Sent in my first logs to the tuner, which included WOT from 2500 to 8000. Can't say I felt a difference, but I'm still on the base tune. Should get a new revision soon.

Also, after all said and done with tuning I'll put it on the dyno. If the Ford CAI indeed proves to be a restriction I'll get a larger CJ specific one from either JLT or Steeda. Both of those are angled correctly. Not touching PMAS again.

 

[dn1984]

The PMAS intakes are great...if you want to fry eggs inside the intake tube

 

[jmeiers]

Sent in my first logs to the tuner, which included WOT from 2500 to 8000. Can't say I felt a difference, but I'm still on the base tune. Should get a new revision soon.

Also, after all said and done with tuning I'll put it on the dyno. If the Ford CAI indeed proves to be a restriction I'll get a larger CJ specific one from either JLT or Steeda. Both of those are angled correctly. Not touching PMAS again.

Is timing still the same as stock intake was? Still on same E85?

 

[Myshelby3425]

Sent in my first logs to the tuner, which included WOT from 2500 to 8000. Can't say I felt a difference, but I'm still on the base tune. Should get a new revision soon.

Also, after all said and done with tuning I'll put it on the dyno. If the Ford CAI indeed proves to be a restriction I'll get a larger CJ specific one from either JLT or Steeda. Both of those are angled correctly. Not touching PMAS again.

Try porting the velocity stack on the FP intake now that your going through logs. People that do pick up 1-2mph in the 1/4.

 

[Sammy123]

Is timing still the same as stock intake was? Still on same E85?

I haven't checked, but i figure the base tune is a safe tune even from when i was on the stock intake, which was pretty aggressive in timing.

I topped off my E85 by half a tank, it tested at 85 right on the money.

 

[Sammy123]

Try porting the velocity stack on the FP intake now that your going through logs. People that do pick up 1-2mph in the 1/4.

Velocity stack? Thinking if I need to do anything to the intake, I'll just a bigger one (that fits properly). I might even do it next week depending on black friday sales.

 

[Myshelby3425]

Velocity stack? Thinking if I need to do anything to the intake, I'll just a bigger one (that fits properly). I might even do it next week depending on black friday sales.

Velocity stack is what the filter clamps onto. New intake changes the tune all over again.

 

[Sammy123]

So on the base tune (no revisions as of yet), car makes 489hp. I went to the same dyno, which is a good for me because they're only 10 minutes away and $25 for 2 pulls.

Hopefully a revision will bump that up some more. I also asked my tuner if the Ford CAI might be restricting at the higher rpms. If so I'll grab one of the bigger intakes next week during black friday.

However, even as is, I can see there is a substantial power gain under the curve. The peak numbers might not seem impressive (476 vs 489), but that power looks to be holding at redline. At 7000+ the stock 18 manifold appears to fall of the cliff, with the CJ holds it much higher even right at 8000. I think that dip that does appear can be corrected with some further tuning or a bigger CAI.


Now that I can drive "normally" (which is spirited aggresson for me), I can honestly say there is more power everywhere. I'm almost positive I was also in 'granny mode' before when I first did some data logging, because the car feels totally different now after driving it more often and more aggressively. I guess it needed some time to learn after the install. I thought the CJ would have less noticeable torque down low, but it has MORE noticeable torque down low compared to the setup I had before. Just driving spiritedly at partial throttle the car feels like it has more pep and power in terms of torque. Maybe that's due more to the VMP 69mm throttle body, but the car is definitely more fun than before without having to go full on WOT.

Couple of minor issues:
With the steeda mounts, there is some vibration at lower rpms. Primarily below 2000 rpms. It's not bothersome, just faintly noticeable.

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