I have a customer with a Ferrari that also owns a 289 Shelby Cobra. He asked if I could take a look at it for him since he recently bought it and needed a “going over.” I tell people that I like to work only on Vintage Ferraris up to around 1972 because later cars have fuel injection and start getting into mechanics that I don’t prefer to do. I will, however make exceptions, and here was one of them.

I have always been a fan of the 289 V-8 version of the Shelby Cobra, especially the Ford small block V-8. I have a similar drivetrain in my ’65 Mustang Fastback, so Fords have been in my life since High School.

The work on this Cobra isn’t necessarily hard, but I could understand my customer’s hesitation in sending his 7 figure car anywhere. It’s not just the responsibility of keeping an expensive car at my shop, but also the network of people I use around these cars. My transporter that picked up the car knew the people of the storage facility that stored the car. They move high dollar cars all the time, and delivered the car without any drama. Sometimes using a “car club” like AAA, or a road side service tow company as part of your insurance plan will send a truck or driver not familiar with moving a Cobra, and may damage the car. I took on the job to make my customer’s worry out of the service.

The plan was to do a simple fluid change on the car and to see if there was anything else that needed addressing. The first problem I found was a nearly empty clutch master cylinder. Luckily, the clutch was still working, but we were probably days away from a complete failure.

What fluid was left was black and degraded, with crusty residue all around the reservoir. The leak was attributed to a bad seal at the master cylinder, so I ordered the parts for the repair.

The car was restored by a shop in the mid-west and done to very high level. Everything was new and cleaning refurbished, with only small leaks from disuse.

I removed the oil filter to change the oil, but found something strange near the oil pan that was not normal for a V-8. There seemed to be some kind of hose trapped between the oil pan and the block, so I traced it back to where it was coming from on the top of the engine.

I found the hose originated from the expansion tank of the cooling system, and hose was the outlet of the overflow tube! This tube was not supposed to drain into the oil pan, and was obviously a mistake. Luckily this was a relatively soft tube and must have inadvertently been trapped between the oil pan and the engine block when the oil pan was installed. The previous shop used silicone sealant to install the oil pan, so it not only did a good job at sealing the oil pan, but also this over flow tube!

Shops make mistakes, and it happens to all of us, but I spent some time considering what happened. The oil pan must have been installed with the engine already installed in the car, as I wouldn’t think the expansion tank was attached to the engine when it was inserted into the car. Perhaps there was a problem after the engine was installed that warranted the oil pan to be removed and reinstalled. With limited visual access the second time the oil pan was installed, they trapped the overflow hose between the block and the pan, glued everything in place and moved on. No damage would have occurred because the hose was pinched and couldn’t flow into the oil pan, but what’s interesting was no fluid would have been allowed to exit the over flow hose either, meaning this car had never been brought up to any significant temperature. If this car were driven normally, it would have expanded the coolant, and eventually burped out of the expansion tank. With no where for the expansion to go, it would have blown the hose off the end attached to the expansion tank and sprayed coolant all over the engine compartment. This would have caused further investigation which would have led to the pinched hose. This car was an auction car, and I wonder if there was a rush to complete this car in time for the sale. Whatever the case, we caught the problem before it got any worse!

Here’s a video of the car and a drive!