1987 Turbo Cougar F/S ->throwing this out there [long read

1987 Turbo Cougar F/S ->throwing this out there [long read - sorry.]

November 25, 2007, 05:26:51 AM

1987 Mercury Cougar LS :(
Where to start... :( it's an American car, brought here in May of '05, at which point I bought it.

Black on blue int....Cloth inside in VERY nice. No rips, or anything. Interior is pretty nice actually. 2.3L intercooled turbo, 5 speed. Mileage on body unknown, Turbo Coupe odometer reads 53000 miles and change. Car is very clean, NO rust on fenders, doors/door bottoms, rear 1/4s, hood, trunk lid < -- all these parts look NEW in all spots. Some light rust underneath/under carriage in the occasional spot, rust just barely looks to be starting in the front frame rails near the shock towers under hood.... but overall it seems ok from what I can tell. This car was originally a 3.8 car.

Someone swapped in everything and I mean everything from a 1986 T Bird Turbo Coupe, including ALL wiring, dash & interior. Car has power driver seat, PW, P. mirrors, rear defog, no power locks, A/C was removed, everything works [heat, seat, windows, intermittent wipers, rear defog, etc]. The driver side rear corner... the paint got scuffed off as some phuhking a$$whole was backing out and grazed the corner of my car w/ theirs. NO body damage, just scuffed bad & needs to be match painted, Also some chips on the nose. The paint on the rest car itself is pretty nice actually. Buff it... it would look tits. It has a nice CD / head unit in it, the thing works perfect, has Sony X-plode speakers in the dash, and some sort of after market speakers in the back, and I get compliments all the time on how nice and clear the stereo sounds, and it's loud.

Mods/Add ons:
-Cone filter
-VERY ported [by me] stock E6 exhaust manifold
-Bob Lee 3" waste gate housing
-ETS 3" down pipe almost out to axle, dumping into 15" of 2 1/2" mandrel and a Magnaflow at axle.
-Aeromotive adjustable fuel press reg and guage.
-Correct intercooled SVO style T3 turbo with the correct compressor for adding an I/C
-Turbonetics in car boost controller, adjustable from 10 psi to 19 psi with a custom vac line arangment I concocted [LOL] for the waste gate.
-Put in Brand new [they were new old stock = $$$] stock brown top 35 lb injectors when I bought it.
-88 T Bird stock intercooler,
-"LA3" code computer [best EEC of all 2.3s] and large vane air meter from 88 Turbo Coupe.
I also am very confident someone added a good fuel pump, based on the boost i've run [19 psi], how WELL it ran, w/o leaning out, but don't know 100%
-Weld Draglites w/ steel stems, 15 x 8" with 225 60 15 on all four corners. Some special edition "Indianapolis 500" tires... Tires have A LOT of miles left. These Welds polish up NICE.

Rear is an 86 Turbo Coupe 7.5" 3.45 posi--trac loc. Shortblock was a Turbo crate shortblock bought from Ford new by the guy who built the car several years back. Also the compression in this motor is around 9.5:1 from him putting on a normally aspirated cyl head. It blew 175-180 PSI on all 4 cyls not long ago on the last compression test. On Sunoco 94 the car car safely run only about 13 psi of boost at -2* base timing. It is just as fast as a stock 8:1 2.3T motor running 15-16 psi/stock timing, due to the extra compression. Add some race gas and turn the boost up to 17-18 psi and the car is actually a monster for how little is done, due to the 9.5:1. I'd say it would be a solid 13.80 car. 98-100 MPH. Def. Quicker with slicks, skinnies, gear change, and some weight reduction. I redid some of the T Bird wiring and ended up going with an XR4Ti harness to run the engine, I like the Merk harness MUCH better for ANY 2.3 engine swap..

What else.... hmmm... the car gets excellent fuel mileage. And, It's been really reliable, I drove the wheels off this car this past summer. I filled up until it was almost spilling out the spout at Sunoco on Walker rd by the movie theater, then drove from there, non stop 429 KM to Port Colborne Ontario almost 5 hours, doing around 90-95 KM/hr and when I got there had a little over 3/4 tank left!

The bad. It has a cracked windshield that will need to be replaced.. I replaced the wheel bearings a while back, and well, everyone said not to but I bought the "cheaper ones" and sure enough I shoulda listened... they are bad, yes they say "made in china" on them, so it needs a GOOD set of wheel bearings. It still rides and drive fine, but at certain speeds you can tell the bearings are wore. The stock Tach doesn't work due to the Merkur wiring. [Rest of guages do.] The clutch works ok, and babying it will go another year, but floor it in 4rth at 2500 RPM and 13 psi, to pass, and the motor overpowers it. It doesn't slip if you wind out the gears. Also the IAC needs cleaning.

The car also comes with a lot of extras:
---One extra motor / long block [from valve cover to pan] that ran GOOD when removed from car [88TC]
---One spare 4 cylinder "world class" T5 that shifted fine when removed.
---extra left and right power window motors,
---the power seat and window and mirror switches, wiring, and overlay plate that bolts down into the console and plugs into the harness.
---A spare, known good T3 water cooled turbo
---MINT condition front power driver and passenger seats same color as whats in the car
---Extra radiator known good,
---One complete 450 HP capacity BRAND NEW CLUTCH assembly [clutch custom built by Tampa Clutch who specialize in 2.3T clutches]
---Some other odds and ends I have that I KNOW am forgetting...

Track wise, Basically what this car needs is:
A 2.3T 8:1 compression head put on, SUBFRAME CONNECTORS, 8.8 3.73 rear from an 87-88 Automatic turbo Coupe, go on a diet [remove all seats at track], slicks, skinnies, ensure good 255 pump intank, race gas, 25* locked timing, turbo boost to 23-25 psi [jack the fuel press around 50 psi base.] and a wideband for tuning, and this car would run some 12.80s - 13.00s around 102-103 MPH on the stock motor, turbo and I/C. Add a big I/C w/ bypass valve, Super Coupe T Body, and more fuel and you can have 300+ HP.

Or... if just cruising it, buy any one of the good alky kits, and have it turn on around 12 psi if you are using Sunoco 94. A nice FMIC would do wonders for what you can get away with on the higher compression and pump gas.

Or do not touch the tune it has now [low boost and 91 octane] and just oil guard it and drive it.

I am asking $3200 for everything. Being emissions exempt is a plus, and as well, this car gets a ton of looks whenever I am out, so whether you just wanna leave the boost at 10 psi, run 91 octane and drive it everywhere it's a good car for that, or if you want a unique 2.3T project that NO ONE around will have, this is the ticket. You'll basically have a lot of the hard parts so if you bust something like a motor or trans.... you'll have spares. I really need to get around $3200 out of all this..

OR... Heck, the ground work is there [EFI tank with good pump, and ALL plastic EFI fuel lines, and fuel pump wiring system already intact,] for someone to buy it, sell the 2.3T stuff, buy a painless EFI harness for an EFI H.O. 5.0, and you could drop a 5.0/T5 in. You could use a stock 5.0 engine harness too.

I apologize for the length, it's a big step for me, and I wanted to cover everything.
Thanks for reading all this.
PM me or email im_schlodes@yahoo.com

Vid of it accelerating.

Pics below.

1987 Turbo Cougar F/S ->throwing this out there [long read - sorry.]

Reply #1 – December 09, 2007, 09:43:28 AM

Is that speedometer right?!?!? if so that thing MOVES!....

I may be seriously interested in this car, but I will have to wait to after christmas.....

1987 Turbo Cougar F/S ->throwing this out there [long read - sorry.]

Reply #2 – December 10, 2007, 04:30:14 AM

! the guy just emailed me and said it is sold already... :(