Brother In-Law's Cougar

[87street]

Alright I'm not a very knowledgable person in the world of 4.6's. Modulars haven't ever been something I've put my mind to learning, and I guess now would be a good time, as my brother in law is starting to want to do a little work to his 1995 4.6 cougar, and neither or I are very familiar with the performance enhancements for this car. He is on a relative tight budget, but just wants to make it be a formidable street car with a relatively radical sound. I suggested 3.73 posi rear end, headers and slp loudmouth mufflers. I was wondering however, if bolting on a set of Mustang GT or Cobra heads/intake*?* would help. If so, what years should we look for (96-98 should be a direct bolt on right*?*)?
Well I'm just tryin to help a guy out, and any advice you all could give me to relay to him would be great, and I'm sure he would really appreciate it.

 

[Shiroelex]

The 95 is a crappy platform to start with, I hate to say. I went through all of this with a friend's Cougar, and it was tough to make it a fast car. Trying to find a chip or tuner for it was impossible, since it was early obdII. We did the usuals first (Exhaust, Intake, Gears, Jmod) and it wasn't bad. He bought a set of PI cams, but they will not work in those NPI heads. You will have to swap in a set of full 99+ PI heads. With the PI heads, PI intake, 4.10 gears, headers and exhaust, good stall converter, a dab of weight reduction, and some good tuning would make that a decently quick car. That, or you could just throw an Allen supercharger on it!

 

[jprovence]

The chassis is a good platform. Ford did alot of good work on those cars. With the SLA front end and the IRS in the rear. And super quiet to boot. I had a 93 t-bird as a daily driver for a while. auto climate control, sun-roof, Nice car.

As for mods, its kind of an odd year. But you can tune a fox body just fine. I think the car has EEC-4, which is simialr to EEC-5 without OBD-2. A full PI swap and some gears, not neccesrry 4:10's. Those cars are great highway crusiers, and you'll kill that with the 4:10's. 3:73's woul be just fine. Long tubes are kinda hard to do, I don't know if any fit from the SN platform. Shortys wouldn't be too hard to fit in there. As far as I know, the exhaust has to be custom. I don't know of anyone who makes anything for these cars. Nobody made exhust for my car when I had it. But just dropping the resonators, and changing mufflers will go along way.

 

[TGJ]

89 - 98 MN12/FN10( Thunderbird, Courgar, Mark VIII ) are not related to the fox chassis at all. I have a 1996 Thunderbird LX Sport. There is no Long Tube header that will fit these cars without some form of modification, I am running Kooks Mid Length headers that are designed for these cars. My suggestion is that you check you TCCoA.com - Thunderbird & Cougar Club of America for more info on how to mod these cars. All of the 4.6L in 94+ ThunderBird/Cougars were EEC-V cars, you need to contact a few SCT dealers to get a 94-95 MN12 tuner.

 

[87street]

Thanks!! I appreciate the feedback as I'm sure he will when I relay it to him. So as far as a mild build, a set of PI heads and an intake, with headers and a custom exhaust, and 3.73 gears, this car should run pretty decent? As long as we don't do any extreme cam altering he shouldn't have to buy a chip or tuner for the computer should he? sorry if that sounds like a dumb question, just want to help him with a good base build up.
I would say the above listed mods, perhaps a performance 65 or 70 mm throttle body, and maybe a tight 1800-2200 stall would be about as extreme as he will go with mods. Speaking of drivetrain mods, does anyone know of a torque convertor that fits this bill? And a heavy duty valve body thats similar to the TCI Streetfighter? I'm pretty sure the B&M hammer shifter will work with some console modification.

 

[DBMSTNG]

And a heavy duty valve body thats similar to the TCI Streetfighter? I'm pretty sure the B&M hammer shifter will work with some console modification.

just moddify the the stock valve body to the JMOD instructions. it's on this site that you'll want to check out. TCCoA.com - Thunderbird & Cougar Club of America

 

[87street]

Alright I'll check into that.

 

[NitroDuck]

I think you're spot on suggesting the gears. They'll help compensate for the extra weight of the car by getting it into its powerband much quicker. It may be the best bang for the buck mod that he could do.

The headswap is another great idea, though I'm not familiar with the current cam grind offerings so I can't advise you as to whether or not you'd need to go with a looser converter to make it streetable.

My box-stock headswap shaved more than half a second off of my E/Ts so, in theory, with less than $2000 in parts (headswap+gears, not including labor) your buddy could be looking at a full second drop in elapsed times.

Good luck.

 

[87street]

I'm sure he'd like that, but I dont know how often he plans on racing it. I think he just wants a cruiser that he can take on some peeps with if the opportunity arises, and he may take it once or twice a year to the local track. Can't make it too wicked though, my sister will probably be driving it at times too, and that could be bad, lol.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Cougars suck....who in their right mind would drive one of those?

 

[87street]

Yeah I give him $#!* all the time about it, ha. Honestly though, your cougar must be pretty awesome considering those dyno #'s... thats just rediculous. wow. Congrats on those by the way. Hope my 5.0 Stang puts up somethin like that someday.

 

[TGJ]

Cougars suck....who in their right mind would drive one of those?

Finally seeing the light, eh?