Below is a pic of the Families Thunderbird it is a 1984 , 3.8 , and is a grey color (still orig paint). It was purchased locally from an elderly woman (orig owner)and we got it w/ 39,000 orig miles , the car now has appx 85,000 and has been a daily driver for 6yrs and still runs well, its still amazingly rust free and only has a bit of rust behind the rear wheel wells (which it had when we bought it.
The last pic is of my old Mustang Mach 1 which is also a daily (nice weather) driver
AJ[/QUOTE
Those are nice!...including the neighbors Bronco; is that '78?
I am in central Illinois and at my wits end. I have some 87-88 Cougar-Bird stuff up to possibly including an 88 Cougar XR-7.
Crane Powermax 2020 roller cam, very low miles $150 shipped 86-88 Speed density underhood wiring harness $80 shipped power steering pump $30 shipped black magic flex a lite electric fan for 5.0 radiator $85 shipped (no relay harness; easy to fabricate) low mileage stock replacement electric fuel pump $25 shipped stock 5.0 HO aluminum valve covers $35 shipped 2 lower 87-93 5.0 intake manifold $40 shipped each
I am sure, more to come. Please call or text Tim @309-706-3970 for pictures
The "Compact" designation is from the EPA which uses the total passenger and cargo volume (total cubic feet) to reach their pre-determined classification. They do this to try and make it easier for the consumer to cross-shop classes of cars and their corresponding fuel mileage. It's not a perfect system, but we are talking about the government. :rolleyes:
The next size up in the classification is "Mid-Size" and I would bet that our cars are at the top-end of the Compact range and very close to the Mid-Size classification because an '87 Grand National is classified as Mid-Size by the EPA. A friend of mine has GN and I've ridden in it many times. I will say it does seem to have a little more room in both the passenger compartment and the trunk, but overall it's very similar. But of course, our cars have more style. :)
Yes...but...Grand National and G-body have a full frame underneath. I wish these cars were the same.
That 255 is a weird motor, I cooked mine due to loss of internal oil pressure with no sign whatsoever. That was 20 years ago, but it was quite the weezy motor from the get go. I bet everything Ford put into that motor was oddball, I wonder what they had parts left over from to use for the 2 years they ran the 255?
I have a 1988 cougar GST/Blacknight2. The only difference in cougars is options. Mine has the police interceptor 5.0 with digital dash and every other option you can think of. Like a few are keyless entry, power moon roof with shade, ac, cc, am/fm cassette with stock amp and graphic eq, Auto dim headlights, leather 6 way power seats with lower leg support it's an option I have never seen before, pw, pl, pw mirrors auto dim rear view mirror. And many more options. Bought the car for my sons 16th birthday and he drove it for about a month and wanted a truck instead. So I traded my truck for the car. If you would like me to post or send pics let me know. I can tell you it's fast. My son and I took it to drags trip and did 11.5 in 1/4 mile needing a tuneup.
The v8 fox-body Cougar/Thunderbird came from the factory with Standard Output 5.0L 302. They never made anymore horsepower than 155or so with dual exhaust,stock. Your's might have had some upgrades done before you got it.
Being a fox chassis, there can be lots of things done with lots of donors available. Sn95, fox mustang, coil spring conversion etc. I'd be excited to find a good one and have the money. My abs never caused me problems in my old Continental with 200k miles.
I had a 1984 Continental hardtop with the 5.0 CFI motor. All electronic with lots of bell and whistles! That car was very comfortable but started having problems with air ride and the steering rack lost power assist to one side of the rack. I got it with 194k miles and it ran great for a CFI motor, I unloaded it with around 210K miles.
These were availble till 1987, only came with either a 4cylinder diesel and the 5.0 V8 in either CFI or SEFI; only Standard Output motors (302 firing order). I would love to have another one, with low miles and preferabbly the SEFI motor and convert to HO.
ABS pumps and air ride can be very expensive to fix for these cars along with the digital dash and trip computer/automatic temperature control. One cool feature is the 1/4 windows in the front doors are power and roll down before the big window goes down if I recall. They definitely have that fox chassis feel to them.
The ethanol dries out the small section of rubber hose that goes between the pump and the where it plumbs into the assembly. That's one thing to look at when you take out the old pump. It's a good idea to make sure the code on the EFI fuel line is up to date to resist the ethanol.
