I've had my V6 Cougar for a few years now and am always amazed how strangled the engine is. I know there's plenty of stuff on here for how to upgrades but personally I like to take things apart and see what I find.
Based on tips here and other V6 forums I've been dabbling for a while to make it better.
But I don't want her to look modified, oh and I'm a cheapskate.
Last year I fitted an ST200 air box, a cat removal link pipe and I removed the horrible exhaust box that has the u turn in it by cutting and welding. I relocated the IMRC away from the hot spot too.
Result, Yup seems better, exhaust noisier but not too bad, certainly feels more responsive.
I bought an st200 upper inlet and throttle body last summer and planned to fit it over the winter. Seems like I've already got the bigger lower manifold.
Then just before Xmas the damn alternator failed.
So I thought if it's going to be jacked up in the garage for a while and I'm fighting round the back of the block then I might as well do the headers too.
So thanks to Lucid, second hand toyo headers bought, and after many hours crawling around I've now fitted them
I've also cleaned out the lower manifold ( I couldn't believe how much crap was in the secondary inlets )
Fitted the ST200 upper manifold and throttle body along with the necessary throttle cable and modified the old bracket to suit the new cable. The headers happily don't have the link pipe that joins to the inlet manifold so the valve linking the two has been left off and a blank plate fitted hopefully that'll keep the manifold a bit cleaner internally.
I drove her very briefly yesterday. Wow I'm impressed, now she feels like she's got a 2.5 V6 under the bonnet. Much much more responsive even on just smaller throttle openings.
Disadvantages of the set up is,
A. no cats at all now so a small problem at the MOT but that's not till September so minor issue at the moment.
B. She's too noisy. I actually think she sounds good but I don't want her to draw attention. With just a minor amount of throttle she has a lovely sharp rasp. But it's too much. Plan is to refit the main cat and see if that takes the edge of it.
C. She seemed to be revving by herself at times, not whilst driving but I pulled up to reverse into the drive and instead of dropping back to tickover she was running at about 2.5k revs, then she settled back down. Maybe the throttle spring is a bit slack, or maybe something else is causing it.
I've never really liked the gear lever, it's a bit too far away when I'm sitting comfortably. So today a I took it out of the car. I think there are a couple of types of lever but mine is the type that's a bent steel bar.
I layed it on the garage floor and drew around it, Then put the threaded part into the vice, grabbed a block of wood and my lump hammer and bent it a bit more. I was a bit afraid of it snapping so I've only added at the most an inch backwards. Refitted it and it seems better. Might do it again yet tho.
So there you go. my ramblings on a wet sunday afternoon.
Based on tips here and other V6 forums I've been dabbling for a while to make it better.
But I don't want her to look modified, oh and I'm a cheapskate.
Last year I fitted an ST200 air box, a cat removal link pipe and I removed the horrible exhaust box that has the u turn in it by cutting and welding. I relocated the IMRC away from the hot spot too.
Result, Yup seems better, exhaust noisier but not too bad, certainly feels more responsive.
I bought an st200 upper inlet and throttle body last summer and planned to fit it over the winter. Seems like I've already got the bigger lower manifold.
Then just before Xmas the damn alternator failed.
So I thought if it's going to be jacked up in the garage for a while and I'm fighting round the back of the block then I might as well do the headers too.
So thanks to Lucid, second hand toyo headers bought, and after many hours crawling around I've now fitted them
I've also cleaned out the lower manifold ( I couldn't believe how much crap was in the secondary inlets )
Fitted the ST200 upper manifold and throttle body along with the necessary throttle cable and modified the old bracket to suit the new cable. The headers happily don't have the link pipe that joins to the inlet manifold so the valve linking the two has been left off and a blank plate fitted hopefully that'll keep the manifold a bit cleaner internally.
I drove her very briefly yesterday. Wow I'm impressed, now she feels like she's got a 2.5 V6 under the bonnet. Much much more responsive even on just smaller throttle openings.
Disadvantages of the set up is,
A. no cats at all now so a small problem at the MOT but that's not till September so minor issue at the moment.
B. She's too noisy. I actually think she sounds good but I don't want her to draw attention. With just a minor amount of throttle she has a lovely sharp rasp. But it's too much. Plan is to refit the main cat and see if that takes the edge of it.
C. She seemed to be revving by herself at times, not whilst driving but I pulled up to reverse into the drive and instead of dropping back to tickover she was running at about 2.5k revs, then she settled back down. Maybe the throttle spring is a bit slack, or maybe something else is causing it.
I've never really liked the gear lever, it's a bit too far away when I'm sitting comfortably. So today a I took it out of the car. I think there are a couple of types of lever but mine is the type that's a bent steel bar.
I layed it on the garage floor and drew around it, Then put the threaded part into the vice, grabbed a block of wood and my lump hammer and bent it a bit more. I was a bit afraid of it snapping so I've only added at the most an inch backwards. Refitted it and it seems better. Might do it again yet tho.
So there you go. my ramblings on a wet sunday afternoon.
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