For many people, when the modular engine hit the pavement, that was the end of the shade tree mechanic. It was the end of working on your own Mustang out in the garage. Your author even knows a former Ford tech that quit the dealership life because of the modular engine. He opened a performance shop that continues working on Fox Mustangs to this day. Don’t ask him to do anything modular-related.

Central Florida Machine and Speed checked the original crank to make sure it could be used in the new combo. After judging it reusable, the crank was balanced for the new engine.

One guy who’s not afraid to jump into building a modular engine is Jonathan Pavia. He’s been around these engines for a few years now, but this time he is jumping in with both feet, and building it himself.

Jonathan has been as quick as 9.20s, but with this new combination he’s hoping to run in the 8s, and be the quickest 2003-’04 Cobra with a VMP TVS supercharger.

The basis for this new build is a stock bore Teksid aluminum block from a ’98 Cobra. His buddies Cal and Jake Hartline found the block at a race in Kentucky, and brought it home to Jonathan’s Palm Bay, Florida hometown. “The Teksid blocks have proven themselves over the years to be an excellent platform to build off of, and I had some goals in mind,” Jonathan says.

Just so you know, Jonathan didn’t just wake-up one day and decide to build a new engine. You could say it was decided for him. “Around July 4th, 2015, I was doing an oil change after a race and noticed the oil was coming out like a milk shake,” he says. As you know, that is not good at all. Upon teardown he found a cracked cylinder between 7 and 8. “I knew I had to do a full rebuild,” he adds.

Jonathan used Manley H-Beam connecting rods with Gibtech billet pistons and Total Seal rings. To hold everything together, he is using ARP hardware throughout the engine.

Once Jonathan had the new-to-him Teksid block, he sent it over to Central Florida Machine and Speed for machine work, which included a .010-in overbore, align hone, block decking, and balancing his existing ’03 Cobra crank.

“For pistons, I chose Gibtec billet pistons with a compression ratio of 10.5:1,” Jonathan says. His Cobra runs on E85 so he wanted a little extra compression to get the most of the new engine. Rounding out the rest of the engine is a set of Manley H-beam forged connecting rods, King bearings, ARP studs and rod bolts, H13 wrist pins, and Total Seal piston rings.

Jonathan says the Teksid block’s weak point is its 6mm dowel pins for the left and right side chain guides. Cobra Engineering makes converting to an 8mm stainless pins a snap with its drill fixture, and that’s what Jonathan used to strengthen that area.

Jonathan just finished up the short block so up next he’ll move onto constructing the long block, and add the VMP TVS supercharger. We’re going to follow along with Jonathan to see the fruits of his labors. He plans to have the car ready for the NMRA Spring Break Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park in March.

The finished short block is ready to go. Jonathan is waiting to receive the heads back from Total Engine Airflow; at which point he will put together the long block, and add the VMP TVS supercharger to the mix. Then it’ll be close to go-time.