What Have You Done to Your Cougar Today?

lunaticrik said:
Found out I've lost my little plastic roof tab things :( eBay here i come... suppose it doesn't matter what colour because they'll be sprayed black to match my vinyl black roof anyway....
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These are really hard to find. Many of us have glued them in so the don't come off especially when washing the car lol!!
 
Re-gapped my plugs.

This was a bit of a joke at Combe, but the original Ford spec was for 1.3mm. So when I got my proper Mororcraft plugs, that's what I made sure they were dialled out to. In fact, they were supplied at 1.3mm and I silently thanked Ford for being so diligent.

What followed was months of me trying to diagnose a coil pack or HT lead failure, thinking that the new plugs were tickling a problem I didn't know I had.

Dialled them back to 1.0mm today, and... pure awesome. She runs smooth as buttered velvet and all the power is back! Time to fit the Magnecors...
 
Magnecors fitted.

Honestly, the way this thing spins up now. The torque with no apology. To test it, I pulled away from a (near)stop - 2mph - in 2nd. Got a better 0-60 than a Clio Cup would've.

Rrrr! Guys, Don't neglect your ladies. They let us get away with far too much.
 
Mako said:
Re-gapped my plugs.

This was a bit of a joke at Combe, but the original Ford spec was for 1.3mm. So when I got my proper Mororcraft plugs, that's what I made sure they were dialled out to. In fact, they were supplied at 1.3mm and I silently thanked Ford for being so diligent.

What followed was months of me trying to diagnose a coil pack or HT lead failure, thinking that the new plugs were tickling a problem I didn't know I had.

Dialled them back to 1.0mm today, and... pure awesome. She runs smooth as buttered velvet and all the power is back! Time to fit the Magnecors...
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REALLY! this is very good info, my motorcraft plugs are 3 months old now and last week I fitted some Magnacor leads I picked up and it ran horrible! Lumpy idle and spitting more than it usually does so I put the old ones back on and have been scratching my head over it since.... didn't even occur to me to check the plug gap....a job for Sunday(y)

Thanks chris
 
Well today she's had a brand new radiator ,condenser ,power steer cooler and some new rubber pipes... the ones around the stat had gone all furry...I thought anti freeze was suppost to be a corrosion inhibitor...
Just gotta get her gassed up now..
 
shirtyzeus said:
REALLY! this is very good info, my motorcraft plugs are 3 months old now and last week I fitted some Magnacor leads I picked up and it ran horrible! Lumpy idle and spitting more than it usually does so I put the old ones back on and have been scratching my head over it since.... didn't even occur to me to check the plug gap....a job for Sunday(y)

Thanks chris
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In my case - as with yours - it was fitting a set of Magnecors that showed up the problem. Once more for the masses - the correct gap for an ST24 is 1.0mm. This is also the correct gap for an ST24 -> ST200 conversion.

Anyway, Tiger drives like a tomcat on a sheet of hot steel again.

backseateducation said:
Good news Chris(y)
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Cheers, mate. I hate that she was like this for so long and I was too stupid to sort it out.
 
Here's a thought.
The general consensus on spark plugs is anything other than Motocraft causes problems.
Could this be due to incorrect gap settings at the recommended 1.3mm?
I wonder if the problems disappear if set at 1.0mm.
Just saying.
 
funwoody said:
Here's a thought.
The general consensus on spark plugs is anything other than Motocraft causes problems.
Could this be due to incorrect gap settings at the recommended 1.3mm?
I wonder if the problems disappear if set at 1.0mm.
Just saying.
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In fairness, it could well be. I don't have enough experience of the Duratec 25 to be able to say, and I'm certainly not an expert on spark plugs in general.

What I can say is that anecdotally, some of them seem to demand Motocraft plugs, and some don't.

Multi-electrode plugs seem to be a definite no-no, probably because the non-sparking electrodes block the flame front and interfere with combustion. The fact that a difference of .3mm on standard plugs is so critical seems to reinforce that.

At the end of the day, the Motocraft plugs are what's specced, they were cheaper than NGKs, and I'm not trying to build big power anyway. So for my use case they're fine...now that I've gapped them correctly. :LOL:
 
Twas a big day today.
Car cleaned and polished.
More importantly, thanks to Rich Elliott, it now reads Cougar on the tail end.
Also now sports it's UKCougar.org members decal courtesy of Alan at AP Graffix.

Next weeks project is a new set of spark plugs.
 
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Yesterday i changed a radius arm on the rear suspension that had had an argument with one of those stupid speed squares!!!! And also scrubbed up the wheels a bit and repolished the rims, today i fitted the leccy rear view mirror and hard wired in a bluetooth speaker and fitted a new mount for my Z3 phone upgrade, then vac'd the interior to within an inch of it's life cos it was f****** minging!!!! lol just not had time recently........anyways then gave the outside a once over too, so recently Goblin's had pretty much a full birthday lol
 
Started the MOT test checks his afternoon. Looks like a dodgy sidelight on the one side, so that'll be that lamp coming out again.
Budget for garage bill is coming on, but still some way off yet.
 
Spark plugs, ignition leads, air filter, EMW light reset, run out, EMW light reset again. Probs have to wait for a good run to clear out the sensor. Fingers crossed.
 
I parked my car at liverpool airport on the 17th for ten days and i must admit i cant help worry that somethings going to happen to it, only good side is at least i know John will take good care of my wheels ;)
 
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