Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

I think its time to drag the Cougar out back and shoot it.......
 
This past week my car has developed this overheating problem. Its losing water, I've not looked hard for it but its not obvious. This past friday it left me sitting in the parking lot of mcdonalds after it decided to spew water all over the ground out of the overflow tank.
 
Even though this might be a simple thermastat problem it doesn't solve my loss of oil. Something like 1qt a week..... when I got the car it didn't use/leak a drop. It is leaking, and I think its from the oil pan.
 
The ler fell off the other day. The entire exhuast needs to be replaced. Already had to have one of the three cats cut off because it was plugged up... I'm sure the other two are on there way out.
 
The clutch is almost dead. It chatters so bad when you take off that it is embarasing.
 
The rear end is making some wierd noises at high speeds when you let off the gas, and only when you let off the gas.
 
The driveshaft is missing one of its weights so it vibrates at 50+mph speeds..
 
The front end is in need of two ball joints and control arm/rack bushings badly. You can see large cracks and shrinking of the bushings. So with that the thing has turned from a real treat to drive to a two hander.
 
Smog pump died
 
Exhuast manifold gaskets have blown out.
 
.............
 
Now aesthetically this car is becoming offending.
 
I need a trunk lid, both fenders, hood and front bumper cover.
 
The doors are starting to come through on the bottoms.
 
And the driver quarter panel is wrinkled and requires a qouted $150 to fix.
............
 
Now I was planning a motor swap to the 3.8 supercharger engine, its currently dissassembled awaiting new parts...
 
I've convinced myself that the sled isn't worth the work, new motor, rear end and body work.....
 
Now Franks 83 in Dayton....... She is looking awful good right now........
 
 
I love my 88, she has done me good for the past 30k miles we have been together. She is tired though... Never actually left me sitting to a point I had to call a tow. Its always started back up after some miracle and driven me home...
 
*edit* I swear I googled that  word....

*edit again* that word owns me.

4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye, 4-eye.

Hey claude, i just replaced my radiator through autohole... go up to columbus and trade yours in.  All you have to do is spray paint your old one and make it look like new again.  That way you can say it's just a defective radiator.

Cheating my way into a new radiator doesn't fix the other 100 problems.......

CougarSE has 1988 Cougar parts for sale cheap, let him know what you need.



.

I don't know about all that.  She will sit in the old barn before I part her out.

Chuck has it.  Since I can't buy that '83, I'd rather see someone deserving, like you, get it.

this is only partially true. the 88 will sit in the barn, and you will part it out....to yourself, for whatever parts you need to get the 3.8SC into the 83 with the T5 behind it. :beatyoass:

jus remember, that 83 may need as much suspension refreshing as your 88 once you start drivin it. but w/o havin to worry about bodywork and such, buildin up the suspension will be alot easier :cool:

That sucks Claude. I know how it gets though.
Park your '88, it won't cost much if anything to keep laying around. Maybe one day the mood will strike you to fix it up. I'm waiting for the mood, time and money to redo my '88.

Find yourself another cat if you wish. That '83 is very nice and I think it would be a good choice. I don't think I'd want to modify that car much if it was mine though...

Claude, I could make you one heck of a deal on an '88 Blue Max...needs much less work than your current car...

Just fix the thing. If i went on and on about the problems with my TC, id sound exactly like you do right now.

Well I'm all for fixing the thing... but at the point it is now I need to take it down pretty far and rebuild.  Now this is my daily driver.....

I'm telling you Claude, get yourself another car to drive daily. It is near impossible to fix a car up (making it better) when you depend on it daily. It always stays the same and doesn't get better unless you have a lot of money to throw at it at once and can lose it for a few days to get the work done.

Time is the enemy. It does't work well when you have to get the car back together by Sunday night to drive Monday morning. Then if something happens during the week, you're screwed until the weekend.

I loved driving my '88 every day but I really don't miss it. I'd work on it on the weekend and by Tuesday something else would break leaving me stranded. Considering I work 12 hours a day or am in school 8-10 hours with a 70 mile round trip commute, I had no time available during the week to work on it. If I ended up working the weekend, I'd be without a car for two weeks. It flat out blows.

Spoken by a man of experiance! 

Now if I could just get to to Dayton......

But then again franks car doesn't run... its something electrical and I know I could fix it with little time involved but......but....

i got a chain and a t-bird... that's how we got the old 88 SE to your house.  What makes you think dayton is any different?  LETS DO IT!

The last I read it runs ok once warm, or at least that's how I understood it....so it's probably an ECT.  It is an EEC3 car though, and it harder to pull codes, but you can.  I used to do in on the 83 WAY back when the 5.0 was still in it.  I'm got the procedure in one of my books.

Truer words were never spoken. When I was driving the 'Bird daily all I could do was make plans on what to do to it, without actually being able to do anything to it. Now that I don't depend on it I can lay it up in the garage for weeks if need be. I also was feeling guilty about the mileage I was putting on it - it had 47k when I bought it in March '03, now it has about 65k. Thankfully the mileage will stop being added so quickly (though if I remember correctly mileage won't be an issue with your car, Claude)...

BTW, that chattering clutch is likely from oil soak (leaking rear main, intake or oil pan). It's amazing how hard an oil soaked clutch can grab - you'd think it would slip instead, but for some reason the oil acts like glue.

255k and counting...

And the clutch has chattered ever since I put it in there.  I used the "used" one from the donar car.. I was po.

You're beter off getting something else to drive daily. These cars are getting to the age that they are no longer a reliable daily driver. Age is catching up to them and they need little things done to them to keep them in good condition. As a fun car that's fine because you can deal with it being down for a week or more at a time but it's hard to do repair work to a car when you have to drive it on Monday to work. Get something newer and more reliable for a daily driver and put the Cougar on the side for when you have time to work on it.

and all this over a v-6.... nah j/k.

Its good that you care about your car. If you have a place to park/store it, then you should do that. It isnt worth much to some people, but prolly the world to you. Being the first known fox cougar v-6 with a swapped in stick, you will always be remembered for that. I am sure you have had great times in that car and will continue to do so.

Get a beater honda civic. They you will have lots of wants to get the old cougar going.

Dilemma not delimma.  Ditto on the daily driver thing...  I wish I could take mine out of service and fix it all up, but there are too many repairs and not enough weekends.  Not one of them is major enough to keep me off the road, but are really annoying otherwise.

I've been pondering over the past couple of days.
 
Looks like I can.....
 
Fix my origbuttstuff rear end with parts from the one in my car now..
 
new driveshaft should be like 20 bucks from pick n pull..
 
Poly front bushings are about 35 bucks
 
 
Then I'm dealing with the overheating issue.. but the way it acts Its got to be something stupid that I've been too unmotivated to work on.
 
Oil? Dont need no stinking oil...
 
But I still think I'm going 4 eyed though...

Like i said... i got a chain and a 302.  We can tow it if we can't fix it on site.  Muha ha ha

shiznit, I'd like an offer like that.

Thats how the 88 made the 20 mile trip home the first time.  She has only ever been towed once.  From the junkyard to my house.

Lucky SOB. My '88 has been towed at least 15 times...:pbb:

Oh almost forgot, not only was there the terrorist attack 5 years ago, but this date 5 years ago was my first full day with my '88.

Mine was towed with a chain and a Bronco about 2 miles to my house to get her here.

When I first got my turbo coupe I had to tow it 250mi to my house.  That is the only time I've had to get it towed.  But I've had my fair share of problems. This is the 2nd motor in it and that doesn't count the 5 other heads that I went through to find a good one.