1996 mustang cobra fishtail 2nd gear

fastanger · 03-08-2009

hey guys hows it going. well i have a 1996 mustang cobra

convertible and barely got it like 5 months ago, i love the car, love to cruise with the top down

and well i hardly race it but these are the mods that the previous owner put as far as i know from my visual inspection, it has bbk longtube headers follow by o/f x-pipe with what i believe flowmasters mufflers, and it has a bbk cold air intake, i'm planning on swapping the mufflers to my mac flowtech from my previouse 5.0, i hope they sound better, anyways last time i punch it from a dead stop and well when i hit 2nd gear at around 6800 rpm the car felt nasty on 2nd but it fell like i was about to loose control

, the only time i felt that in a car it was in a 04 cobra with a whipple blower pushing 497 rwhp and it did that on 3rd gear too, but my car only does it on 2nd gear and 3rd and 4th is all good. so my question is am i shifting at a too high rpm my shift was at 6800 rpm or is it the tires. i haven't tried to shift at 5800rpm at least just for 1st to 2nd and hopefully i won't get that loose feel, and well honestly i feel that i go slower when the car does that nasty feel thing. here is a link to the video on my 1st run i did and i hope you could see it.

MustDangRider · 03-08-2009

Shifting at 6800 Rpm sounds like a GREAT way to blow your engine, and to get you on the market for a new transmission...

ITLRUN · 03-08-2009

Looking at the video, it didn't look like the ass end walked out on you and it didn't really sound like 6800 RPM. Are you sure, that your tach is right? And if your shifting out at 6800, I would hate to miss a gear. It makes one hell of a mess, rod or rods hanging out the side of the block or the bottom of the pan, oil all over the place well you know what I mean. The car sounds good, with the Flowmasters why change them. Good luck with it, I have a 96 convertible myself 402rwhp and 418rwtq N/A, Mike SCT Tuner.

whitesnake97PA · 03-09-2009

i have a 97 Cobra with a few mods (c&l full intake and magnflow magnapack cat-back) and i run it pretty hard. I shift at 6800 when i wanna get on it and the only time i have had real bad tire spin in 2nd is when i didnt get my foot off the gas pedal the whole way. This was when i first started drivin it hard and was not too good of a driver. I have improved though and she hooks up nice now with just a little spin. you should have more power than i do with the exhaust combo, however.

fastanger · 03-10-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by ITLRUN

Looking at the video, it didn't look like the ass end walked out on you and it didn't really sound like 6800 RPM. Are you sure, that your tach is right? And if your shifting out at 6800, I would hate to miss a gear. It makes one hell of a mess, rod or rods hanging out the side of the block or the bottom of the pan, oil all over the place well you know what I mean. The car sounds good, with the Flowmasters why change them. Good luck with it, I have a 96 convertible myself 402rwhp and 418rwtq N/A, Mike SCT Tuner.

yeah it is hard to tell but you do feel it inside the car, well today at work i shifted at 5800 rpm and it only spin the tires but it didn't felt the same as in 6800 rpm. as for the flowmaster i really like how my 5.0 sounded with the mac's and i believe it has a better flow than the chamber flowmaster's, well i'm guessing i still need to get youstyoo driving this car cause i was driving my 5.0 for 7 years.

2oo5GT · 03-14-2009

The 4.6's and 5.0's sound different. I've had both also. i still feel my 95GT sounded way meaner than my 97 or 05 Mustangs, not the 03 Cobra though, that car sounds like a beast on roids.
Shifting at 6800 to me is pretty high. You can get a dyno and see actually where your cars rwhp starts to drop off. that's how i base my shifts points for my car when i go to the track or so on. my 03 Cobra makes it's power max at 6300 rpms. my shift light is at 6K rpms, so by the time i shift, i should be at around 6300rpms. though from 6K rpms to 6300rpms is a 4rwhp difference.
like mentioned, if you miss a gear, your motor might not like that, or your valve train won't take the abuse for long. i would shift no more than 6500rpms.

The DOHC's power is in the top end, get some 4.10's to get it there quicker and second gear will be pretty fun too.