Hey guys i just bought a 90 Cougar LS and i wanna bring the drive train up to XR7 specs. Will this be very difficult? Do i need to swap the entire thing or can i keep the same tranny. Also can i get headers for it? ive heard u have to have them custom made.

Also my friend has a 91 Cougar XR7 5.0. He too has been told he has to have custom headers made. Is that true too?>

Thanks for any and all help you give me will be much appreiated. PS i dont wanna hear from a bunch of ppl those cars are crap get a *insert car here* i like these cars alot and hope you all can help me
Thanks,
Will

it's crap get a civic
why bring it to xr7 specs? go beyond that it had a 5.0 already or a 6?

the 89 and 90 XR7's had 210hp 315ftlbs Supercharged 3.8V6's, and those V6's are different from the normal 3.8's. the 5.0 wasnt introduced till 91. although i could go as far as stuffing a 351 into it. but i dont want. i dont need to go all out performance because ill just kill myself. i just wanna beef up to the upper model thats all.

well how far DO you want to go. I mean 210 is ok.... for like most people who are just looking for a car. How fast you want to go cheif?

well i decided im gonna go 5.0....prolly not gonna do a whole lot to it prolly a cam, exhaust, headers(need to be custom for an mn-12 chassis?) posi 3.55 8.8 rear. ummm car needs paint.....i have a couple questions about paint.
I wanna paint everything on the car glossy black...you know moulding, grill except for emblem.

how much would this cost ....i just want it to look like it just came out of the factory.

for the interior i wanna get some custom leather seat covers, you know u take off the old cloth and put it over the old foam, with the cougar logo on the head rest and make the rest of the interior black....how hard is it to do that..and ne idea on how much that will cost?

If your budget is $100,000, then you shouldn't have any problems! These days paint may run $3,000-$8,000 for what your looking for or $399 at Macco for something "somewhat close". That nice leather interior? I would guess at $1500-$3,000 or $49.95 a seat at Pep Boys. I would concentrate on one thing at a time, get it running then do the other things. Unless it is a real POS then you will have to start tossing coins.

well the car does run....very well. it only has 43,300 miles on it. i think i found out i have posi cause i did a tiny burn out and i left 2 tire marks at the same time.
anyway moving on...what would i get for about a 1500 paint job would it be any good? i really dont know a whole lot on how much effort things take and how much they cost

generally an el cheapo paintjob is not el cheapo, it's the prep work that is el cheapo. so if you do all your own prep work and ask the shop if you can do the masking as well, you could get a fine paint job out of a $499 maaco or miracle or any of those paint companies...

if you prep the car, and you mask it, and make sure they put a few shots of clear coat on it, you should be all smiles...

and for a cougar, hell, just do it cheap. it'll look fine. now...if it was a 1968 cougar enforcer, that'd be a different story, as the people eyeballing your car would be taking a far closer look.

oh, and did you do that burnout on pavement? if so, you've got a posi, if not, it's a coin toss..

jason

if he jacks up the rear of the car and spins one wheel and the other spins the other way wouldn't thayt mean he has no posi or would a posi spin opposite as well? or is it only a fully locked diff that would both spin the same way?

that wheel spin test doesn't always work. a spool, they will both spin the same direction. a posi, you spin one, and if the tranny is in neutral, the driveshaft will spin. an open in that situation will spin the other wheel backwards. if you have the driveshaft stationary and spin a posi, the other wheel should spin the same direction. now, if you have the driveshaft loose, and spin one wheel forward and they both spin, then you've got a spool.

jason

yeah i did it on pavement but it was very tiny....i dont wanna beat the shit out of the car. and really if i do all the prep work i can get a pretty damn good paint job for 500? there are no dents in it but there are some minor scratches because it was my grandfathers and it sat around for weeks on end. the trim needs some paint and there this thing on the bottom of the drivers sides fender ill have to take a picture of it. also i want to make it all monochromatic like the xr7. is it possible to paint all the mouldings even though they have chrome

Edited by Satanismycopilot (Thu Oct 24, 02   8:55 PM)

Make sure you get a DA sander if you prep it yourself, me and my bud prepped his CRX, albeit half the car, and it was a bitch even with one.

-Ben

hey thanks for all the help....i only have one burning question left and its about exhaust. For christmas i wanna get a complete exhaust system, cat back dual exhaust though. i want headers and all my friends that are big on fords, mn-12 chassis cougars especially, which is what i have. They all have told me because the steering coloum(sp?) i need to have them custom made for any engine you have in it. I have a 3.8v6. Is this true, and how much does this cost?

hey satan,

e-mail this guy, but don't say anything that would piss his christian folks off as he shares an e-mail with them: petra50@earthlink.net

he's a very close friend of mine who has spent a lot of time on his mid 90's mn-12 cougar with the sohc v8. it's as fast as i'd assume you'd want a car. runs a good 15.2, handles great, easy to kick the ass end out in a controlled fashion, etc. drop him an e-mail.

jason
i'll race you to 109mph....

hey man thanks. i dropped him a line i hope to hear from him soon. i need all the info i can get on these cars