Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

General => Lounge => Topic started by: Soul on February 07, 2012, 10:47:47 AM

Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 07, 2012, 10:47:47 AM
Well I got the bird (previous thread). Smells like new car inside, runs great. No V8 power (3.8 in it) but can't complain. Think it might need shocks and struts but mechanically the rest of it is perfect. Will post up pics when I get a chance.

Only thing that doesn't work is the cruise, Dad said he didn't work when he got the car and only drove it 1 every 6 months so wasn't worried about it.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: doodaa on February 07, 2012, 01:05:32 PM
IMO the 3.8 is seriously inadequate in that car... at least my 93 was. Wanting to do a Supercoupe swap was what eventually led me to a Mark VIII - the way that car should've been built to start with. ;) It's great as basic transportation though.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Chrome on February 07, 2012, 01:14:15 PM
Quote from: doodaa;380060
IMO the 3.8 is seriously inadequate in that car... at least my 93 was. Wanting to do a Supercoupe swap was what eventually led me to a Mark VIII - the way that car should've been built to start with. ;) It's great as basic transportation though.
The 3.8 was upgraded in the 96's. Still no powerhouse, but not as dogish as in the 93's. It will make for great daily transportation.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: thunderjet302 on February 07, 2012, 02:44:52 PM
My 95 3.8 T-bird ran ok. It was just slow. Other than that the MN-12 is a pretty nice car.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 07, 2012, 03:13:43 PM
Well I bought it fri, didn't drive till Sat and it has right at 300 miles on it today. I was hoping for gas milage, will fill up after work and see if I accomplished that much. I have a SC sitting in the junk I could rob harness + ecu out of. Some one already snagged the motor + blower.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Scott D on February 08, 2012, 06:48:27 AM
I dig my MN-12 ...it's got its issues, but I wouldn't trade it for anything :-)
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: TurboCoupe50 on February 08, 2012, 01:05:15 PM
I had a nice pearl white '95 LX with the 4.6, was still pretty lame... Sold it after about nine months, never missed it...
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 09, 2012, 04:51:32 PM
Got a whopping 26 mpg. I have pics just haven't got them uploaded. Where I work now I can't bring my phone in, or flash drive, or any other removable media lol,
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: thunderjet302 on February 09, 2012, 11:15:11 PM
Quote from: Soul;380260
Got a whopping 26 mpg. I have pics just haven't got them uploaded. Where I work now I can't bring my phone in, or flash drive, or any other removable media lol,

Highway driving? I managed 30+ mpg on the highway with my 3.8 95 T-bird. Now in the city it got between 18-19 mpg if I was lucky.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 10, 2012, 11:26:14 AM
150 of it was highway (one way to and from) rest was around town stuff.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 10, 2012, 11:27:58 AM
Also supreme moment of disappointment this morning, when I got the car dad said it was low on fluid but it was first time this happened in the 6 years he had it. I drove it the 150 mile trip one way and checked the fluids, everything was good. Got up this morning and there is some antifreeze under the car. Looks like it came from drivers side radiator some where. Some of the plastic fins on the end are wet, hoping it isn't leaking around the plastic/radiator area where they bend it to crimp it together.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: ZondaC12 on February 10, 2012, 12:33:57 PM
Well that's the one good thing about those combination aluminum radiators with plastic tanks. You can yank it out, gently pry the tabs all out just a little, so they dont break, but you can get the tank off, might even be able to get a new gasket if you look hard enough, and more importantly, if it clogs, you can easily run baling wire or something through the tubes and clear it out. Did that to my crown vic, a radiator shop would probably have charged me $100 for a boil-out, and I did it for the ridiculously low price of freeeee
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: doodaa on February 10, 2012, 01:06:58 PM
Bought a brand new radiator for the Mark VIII at Autozone for $129.... they even had it in stock. Took less than an hour to change it.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 10, 2012, 03:45:43 PM
There are 2 birds back at home I can rob for free but just irks me that Dad had this for 6 years and had no issues. I drive it a week and it springs a leak lol. Oh well it is 16 years old, might be teen angst.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: TurboCoupe50 on February 12, 2012, 11:48:05 AM
If it has a expansion tank just run it with the cap loose, won't cause a problem in cooler weather...
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 12, 2012, 12:48:04 PM
Some pics of the interior

(http://i42.tinypic.com/2yns12e.jpg)

(http://i39.tinypic.com/1g15sn.jpg)

(http://i41.tinypic.com/vpx8yg.jpg)

What is the official color of this seat btw, never seen one like it.

I had some of the body but let my niece play with my phone and now I don't lol.

There isn't a single dent on the car, will get an under hood shot also
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Scott D on February 12, 2012, 01:06:17 PM
That's light prairie tan. It's almost the same as mine (except I've got cup holders :-P)
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 12, 2012, 07:39:25 PM
Ya whats up with the cup holders, did I miss it by one year? Friend has 97 cougar and he has them....
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: thunderjet302 on February 12, 2012, 11:59:00 PM
Quote from: Soul;380526
Ya whats up with the cup holders, did I miss it by one year? Friend has 97 cougar and he has them....

Yep 97 was the only year to get the cup holders on the console instead of in the storage bin. I retrofitted the 97 style cup holders into my 95. You just need the top console tray, the cigarette lighter/ash try, and rear set vent tube from the 97 donor car. The only hard part is moving the cigarette lighter to the bottom of the center stack, which really is easy as long as you can solder.
Title: Bought the 96 tbird, Impressions
Post by: Soul on February 13, 2012, 09:32:01 AM
I don't eat/drink in my cars but if a 97 comes along I'll c00ch it lol.