It'll spin it's *tire* from a stop. If I push it to the floor it'll go squeek :burnout: . Then it accelerates as slow as an old lady walking :hick: . I still can't figure why Ford bothered to put the 3.8 in these things. It's waaaaaaaaay underpowered. Now I feel for you 3.8 guys (the few of you that are left, it seems most people on here now have 5.0s or 2.3Ts, I wonder why lol). The only upside is the 95 gets ~19-20 mpg in the city. The 88 gets ~13-14 mpg city, then again I usually don't drive the 88 like grandpa when I have it out. I like to let the 88, uh, unwind once or twice a drive ;)
yeah,, and you happen to have the simi good three point eight.:hick: Imagine the CFI version.
Hey...I have the CFI version. Throttle response is great. It's just short about a hundred ponies LOL! And yes, already changed the heads and head gaskets. Good for another 25,000 miles. Maybe. ;)
[SIZE="4"]STFU - 3.8L CFI PWNZ J00![/SIZE]
I've got two of them. I'm moving towards zero.
I had the CFI version in a fox mustang. It was teh sux! I don't think their was a single car on the road I could defeat. Well except for Thundercats with 3.8s, lol.
I remember this Acclaim I raced... well I wasn't "racing" per se... more like, I'm gonna accelerate ahead of you and get out of this merging lane when the light changes. The light changed and those hopes and dreams attached themselves to the tail lights of that Acclaim. Traitors!!! I'll never forget that 180 he did in his seat to see where I was...
The first week after I was given my '85 Cougar, I "raced" a box van - only he never knew we were racin'
I floored it as the light turned green and got the jump - for the first 5 feet or so. The van then passed me and kept on going. :(
3.8 are getting rarer....so that`s why i have one, hehehe....
Uhhh, the 3.8 was a good performer in the 80's. Remember, you can smoke some cars , mostly chevys (like buick 4.1 those have 100 hp or less, paliers, v6 camaro`s, citation`s, and heavier machinery like tractors or dumpsters). Some nissan`s , too. When i had my cougar in TOP condition (excellent carburetion, single 2.5 pipe and new exhaust, and transmision recently flushed) the car felt great and quick. But like Eric said, Ford still owed to us like 80 horses to get the 3.8 really fast. But well, at least the torque was pretty impressive, it was like 200 lb/ft at 1800 rpms or something. Those are like diesel numbers....
why dont you come hop into my stock ragged winter beater aero nosed 84 vert and itll change your mind:shakeass: , night and day is all i can describe for the difference in hustle from one 3.8 to the other(my tbird) and the other cars ive rode in with said motor.
i dont race it or anything but the car has an unusual amout of hustle to it for some reason.
dumpsters are quicker then you think...
My 87 3.8 TB will smoke the tires (tire) and slam you back in your seat. and if its the slightest bit wet out, i have to be careful when stepping on the gas.
I also remember having the exhaust repaired every 3-4 months. i kept blowing the pipes apart before the ler. The ler place was getting sick of me after a couple of years. but it was free. LOL
I cant wait to put in a 351 , and a Tc rear end. and Then some goodies.
I had more fun ripping around in my old 5-spd 1.5L Tercel Sedan than I ever did in my '91 3.8L. I just wasn't as stylin'.
3.8L's suck balls in pretty much every way possible.
they're better to be sucked than dragged. lol
Do a 4.2L swap from an F150. Same thing only bigger.
Just cause you can smoke the tires doesn't mean you have power. One time in my 88 cougar 3.8 I burned tires so long that when they collected up the rubber from the pavement it made a rubber ball about the size of a shot put ball just a little bigger. Does that mean my 88 had power? NO HELL NO! it means that I could waste some tires any time I wanted to.
Well notice he said tire not tires :hick: :burnout: <---We need a peg-leg one :giggle:
Ummm, I thought it was torque that spun tires?
Who here has or used to have that little saying in their sig:
"Horse power sells car, torque moves them."?
And mine would spin the tires whenever I matted the gas pedal, wet, dry, whatever. Until I put those BFG 215/60's on the back on the TC wheels...then it didn't spin near as easy on dry, not that I tried a lot.
I thought the 3.8 in my white car was a hell of a lot stronger
than the one in the maroon Tbird. (my first one)
nothing is equal in the world of motors
3.8L's made good torque and got decent fuel economy, but weren't meant for much more than getting groceries. That being said, mine would outrun my buddy's '86 Cutlass with a 305 TBI, but that's not saying much :)
They did? :wtf: Why didn't anyone tell my EFI that?
No, not really. The 305's only merits were the cost of parts and reliability.
my 3.8L had balls.... hehe
3.8L burnout (http://"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPVPi4ZAFrM")
Burnout2 (http://"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMo1p7yvGN8")
not....
Actually for a 3.8L that car was strong, I was happy with it, til a HG started to go....
Dumpsters with power windows and a sunroof! ;):D
Yes, these are heavier than standard versions ;) ....
My first car was an '86 GS with the CFI 3.8 V6.
With all of the customization I did to that car, I would have people try to race me every weekend.
With the glasspack exhaust, it sounded like a 5.0 at idle. As soon as I honked on it, it sounded like some ragged-out Ranger or something.
Nothing ever stopped me from hanging the tail end out around turns, though.
I made the car look fast.
Well tonight I had a 2000 or 2001 Montecarlo SS try to merge past me from a light. The Monte won, even though I had my foot to the floor:hick: . Those things have a 3.8 that makes 200 hp (0-60 in 7.3 seconds according to Motor Trend)..... I've run 'em with the 88 and wooped 'em bad :evilgrin: .................not with the 95 though :shakehead
My wife's 03 monte's got some gusto. but they don't seem to handle as good as you would think. comfort level is very low also. everything seems to be in the way when i drive it. and the seats are very uncomfortable. I'll keep my cougar.
FIXED!:D
My first Cougar was an '87 3.8. Slapped duals on it with custom 2 1/4" pipes, bumped the timing, flipped the airlid, even bought a chip for it (yes, they used to make them). The heads were milled too when my stepfather had it before me so an ever so slight boost in compression (warantee HG replacement).
Decent Michelins that handled well, 3.27's, and limited slip. It was faster than most four cylinders. Even in the late '90's. In '97 I absolutely wasted a brand new Saturn 2 door with the twin cam motor. It was about a month before I got rid of it.
I've yet to see non-restored Fox Cougarbird in as good condition as that one was the day I drove it last. Maybe Carl's. It was
THAT clean. Looking back I should have just swapped the motor out. My black car was in good shape when I got it (and is
MUCH better today), but the red car.....
I could waste my girlfriends Kia Rio with the 95 but that's not hard to do in a 15 year old Civic:hick: .
I think the 3.8 probably does a better job propelling the Fox cars than the MN-12s. They foxes are much lighter. My fully loaded (it's only missing the sunroof) 88 LX 5.0 weighs as much as my 95, and the 95 is not loaded...........
When I was in the market for an MN12, I told myself that I would never buy one with a 3.8 under the hood. Although, I almost bought one that had a supercharged 3.8 and a third pedal, but somebody got to it just before I showed up with the money.
In any event, I found my '96 4.6 and I've been very, very happy with it for the past 35,000 miles.
It's a fantastic car.
It's not that the 95 is bad. I like the car it rides nice and handles nice and all. It's just well, slower than the 88 T-bird. I was driving the 88 durring the summer alot since my 93 Buick was dying out. Since I've put the 88 away for the winter and I'm stuck just driving the 95 I guess I just miss the fun of slaming the gas from a stop, spinning the tires, and running to 60 in about 6.5 seconds. It's kinda fun ya know ;)
I feel the same way about the '91. It wasn't that it was unreliable, or uncomfortable. It was to date the best riding car I've ever owned, and was born to cruise the highway. It just couldn't get out of its' own way, and had no fuel sipping advantages to justify the lack of power. It was my first car with anything more than four cylinders (I traded my VW Fox in for that car, and at the time I'd climbed all the way up to 1.8L of motor), and still I knew that it was a dog.
Wow even in the summer you would have driven the Buick daily if it was doing better?
I wish I could have a beater for the salt, but in the summer? Hell no I drive the hell out of the cat. I couldnt do anything else. The thing makes me feel WAY too badass not too. Im actually REALLY awful I get a serious superiority complex (for all the raggin on ricers I do I aint much better!) crusing around in that thing. I'm blastin Thunderstruck or something pumped-up like that and holdin 1st, not foot to the floor but just to let the revs up and feel the powerband, and suddenly I feel like the king of the world. Mainly cuz these cars are so unique and I NEVER see another around my town.
Yeah....have fun with the 95 there :hick:
theres nothing like plain bad ass cruisin
don't forget the older the cars get, the harder it will be to find parts.
Ive seen 1 other 87 cougar and 1 85 cougar around in the last 5 years. and mine is mint compared to those.
come to think of it i haven't seen the 85 around in the last year
well duh! one has a 5.0L HO the other is 3.8L doesn't take very much brains to relize one is quicker then the other... (or SHOULD be).
You can tell people are getting board and not out working on their cars by the dumb ass posts appearing now....
guess it's that time of year again.....
I seem to be one of the few still out there in the SNOW working on my cars..... how is that Irony? What have you done to yours lately?
Next week my street glow neon light kit will be here and installed in the drive way, and by the weekend my Cross drilled rotors will be here, and a full front brake upgrade will take place in the driveway IN THE SNOW,
I pulled my engine last week, so I didn't have to do it in the ice this weekend, cause I got better things to do than work in the SNOW.
My ironic comment to yours was that you A. made kind of a "dumbass" post yourself, and B. i don't think that issue of power differences between 5.0HO and 3.8's has EVER been in question on this forum. :D
For that matter...oh piss on it...this is 2 minutes of my life wasted...
Sorry man some of us are just wimps :flip: Yep I came out and said it. Not proud of it but aint lyin either. Actually the garage is attached to the house so 90% of the time in the winter its about 50-55 degrees. Open up the basp00get door, put the 1500w electirc heater on for maybe 10 minutes, comes up to like 60, maybe a lil more, so I actually get quite a bit done out there over the chilly months.
My 88 3.8 is quick. Probably one of the quickest if not quickest of this message forum. ported lower intake. No silencer. Bumped timing. And a 5 speed. it was really fun with the 4.10's but I'm running 3.45's now.
Its fun to drive.. But already the Gold bird is heads and tails faster.
some of us aren't wimps. some of us work outside for a living.
so thats why some of us have a 100,000 btu furnaces in their garages.
I admit it I hate the cold
Here's your Hero cookie.
(http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/super_mario_cookie.jpg)
None of us are worthy.
You didnt get to drive my car at CJ didjoo? Shawn and Claude both know... that a 3.8 is definatly faster lol.
due to the shiotty gears and tranny :D
I know it's slow I just didn't realize how slow untill I started driving one every day :hick:
I'm still working on my 88, in the GARAGE, because I can ;)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sandy+c00ch
Ok?? is that suppose to mean anything? I was just wondering what the point of pointing out the obvious was? Who here doesn't know that 3.8L's are gutless?
Meh whatever.... guess it is that time of year again....
Yes. Relax.
This is a
lounge thread that basically pointed out what you said "Well DUH!" to. That's all.
Indeed:D
freaking 20 outside, so im stuck in from working on mine.
back to the topic, its a N/A 6cyl, did you expect anything from it?
It's really all about apples to oranges fellas.
A fresh orange will rip a rotten apple's ass everytime.
This case being that a pretty well worn 5.0HO is the rotten apple.
NOT that his 5.0HO is by any means in that kind of shape.
Some 3.8's are just quicker than others of the same format, eg N/A, forced induction whatever.
Fact: my white '88 was for sure faster and stronger than my maroon '88. Bother were 3.8 cars pretty identical, except my white car had the 16" wheels.
FACT: my white car held a speed longer w/o blowing up than my maroon car did (which did blow up, btw)
daminc understated it when he said all engines are not created equal, or words to that effect.
hell, fwiw, my white Bird would outrun my 92 F-150, and it's decently strong for what it lugs around.
So my thoughts on this are: if a bear shiznits in the woods, and nobody is around to witness it....does it really fall from a bear!? LMAO