Hey all, I have an 88 Cougar LX. The car itself technically has about 160,000 miles on it. That said, it has 4 wheel disc with a 5 lug conversion, a 5 liter with aGT40P heads, mass air conversion, E303 Ford Racing Cam, 1.7 roller rockers, a 5 speed conversion, freshly rebuilt posi with 3.27 rear end, shaved door handles (and antenna), custom mirrors, paint, 15:1 steering rack, Mustang K-member, etc. My wife and I were at cat Cat Jam in 2005 with the car, so others on the board have seen it....the car is silver with blue pearl flames, a small wing and a black hood scoop.
The engine and tranny only have about 19,000 miles on them, runs great, no leaks, etc. The car is in great shape and fun to drive. It hasn't seen a winter in 9 years and is very clean. The car is not quite finished, there are still some small details here or there that need completing, but the list is pretty small.
Willing to send a few pics to anyone interested. I don't have to sell it right now, but have been debating as I just don't have time to drive it much anymore. I only put about 3,000 on the car all of last year. No idea on a price, I am sort of putting a feeler out there to see if anyone is interested.
A buddy of mine has a 1986 F-150 (speed density FI) and it has now blown 4 or 5 TFI modules. I have never seen more than one (the occassional going bad type) blow. Anyone out there have any experience with this? His tach doesn't work, not sure if maybe that is drawing amperage somewhere or what. I can't find my spare distributor, but he did buy a new one to try himself.
The only things I could think of that might do it would be a current draw or a short.
As stated above, as long as your threads in the intake are good and you run the bolts all the way down, you will have no problem. I have done it a few times with the 5.0 on a few cars and never with even the hint of trouble. If you do it right, there is no concern. I made a bracket of my own to sit on top of the intake out of two pieces of angle iron (welded together) so I could use all four upper intake/lower intake holes and put multiple holes on the backbone of the angle iron toward the center so I could adjust for balance when pulling and installing the engine.
We have resolution. Eric was kind enough to call Chuck yesterday and last night on the CHE site, the account status updated and she received an email from Chuck about shipping. He more than made things right, he is shipping it express so it comes by Christmas and gave her 10% off. Everything worked out in the end and I should have a Merry Christmas and now a merry summer when the Cougar gets back on the road!
Master Blaster, Yes, she already tried that and it's status is the same as the day she ordered it.
Hey Eric, Thanks, I appreciate the info and help. Jess has been getting really aggravated and that coupled with finals for one of her classes is driving her nuts.
My wife told me last night she ordered the upper and lower control arm set from CHE for me for Christmas (great wife, I know). The reason that she told me was that she ordered them around December 6th and they were supposed to ship next day. As of yet, they have not arrived and she has called and emailed them repeatedly just to try to find out when they might ship. They have yet to respond to any of her attempts to contact them. The big problem is that she has sent them payment, which was received (I believe she paid by credit card).
Eric, I was wondering if you or someone else on the board might have a good enough relationship to be able to contact them and see what's up? The order should be listed under the name Jessica Blanck. If anyone could help, I'd appreciate it.
Or if anyone knows that maybe they happen to be backlogged, or slow shipping and bad communicators, I'd appreciate the advice.
The problem with your Cat with the 5-speed is likely localized to your vehicle. My Cat has none of those issues with the mass air conversion and auto computer on the 5 speed. I know a few other people that have put manual trannies in their auto mass air fox mustangs with absolutely no driveability issues whatsoever.
Yes, that is what "chipped" means, you can put a custom chip in there to alter the parameters of the computer for better performance, etc. However, you do not want to get a computer for a manual transmission, from what I understand, it will not work in an automatic. If you have an auto now and plan on making it a manual later, you can buy a computer for an automatic and still use it after you put the 5 speed in. Trust me, my car is a 5 speed with an automatic mustang computer in it.
Hey Paul, it's nice to finally see someone else from the Capital District on the site. I have been coming to the site (with only an occasional post) for quite a while. I stumbled across Eric's site about 6 years ago when I got my first Cougar, an 88 Special Edition. Since then, I purchased one in perfect shape and have done some customization to it. If you have any questions, need any parts, help, or even just want to check out my Cougar let me know, I live in Niskayuna/Woodlawn. Just send me a private message.
If you are ever intersted in making the trek to CatJam, let me know as well. My wife and I went for the first time last year and had such a great time we plan on attending this year as well.
No, you can swap the wires that go into the plug for your computer harness. The number 3,7,2,6 cylinders fire in basically reverse order on the SO cam. I don't remember which pins you have to move off-hand....anyone else out there that made the swap and can remember?
Basically each cylinder will have it's own wire that goes into the plug for the computer and you have to swap those four cylinders. If no one else has the information handy, I will try to find my documentation tonight when I get home.
If it is just grids though, what's wrong with using Excel? If you have Word, I'd imagine you have that, use the borders and resize the cells until you get there, it will let you.
I misread too....sorry about that. Are you going to use the SO bloack and rotating assembly? If so with the HO cam you will just want to make sure you have enough piston to valve clearance beforehand. One of the main reasons they say not to use the SO to make an HO is because the pistons in our cars don't have valve releifs like the HO motors and with the HO cam having more lift, you can run into a problem with the valveshiznitting the pistons.
You can convert to mass air, but you have to, at the very least, move up to the 19lb injectors, make sure to install the mass air meter (and do the appropriate wiring) as well as making sure to change 4 of the wires that go into the computer connector (these four wires MUST be rerouted or the car will not fire with the proper firing order for the mass air computer.)
You also should get an HO Upper intake, egr spacer and throttle body. The place I got my mass air harness from had all of the wiring information with the harness for about $35, but you still have to have the other hardware....but the conversion CAN be done with no damage, you just can't really make your SO engine an HO, but if swapping the parts I listed above, it will make noticably more power until you can do something more.
