pocket-rocket's 1983 Mercury Cougar

83 Cougar

About this Previous Vehicle:

I paid $500 for this car. When I got it, it had what we thought was a 302 (5.0 for the layman) in it. After trying to get it not to run rich, I actually made it worse by things I did that should have made it run better. My friend David worked at a Ford dealership at the time, so he had one of the master mechanics look at it. After he said the ECM bases everything like spark advance, and injector pulses off the timing, so you couldn't have more then 8* of slop in your timing chain, I changed the chain. He commented mine had over 10*. Now, on a rainy day the car ran like a raped ape! So, one Saturday while it was pouring, I traded the car in on my 83 Prelude. Sneaky, I know. Well all wasn't good, as it came back to bite me. What had happened was the people before me wrecked the Cougar, and put a new engine in it. They thought they had a 302, when in fact they had a 351 Windsor. I guess they are almost identical to someone that doesn't know Fords that well. The reason mine ran worse when it should have ran better is the rear 2 spark plug wires on 302s and 351Ws are flip flopped, and my Cougar wires were set up like a 302.... So the lot found this, swapped the 2 wires, and drifted it out of the parking lot, leaving the tires spinning for 50 feet after it went into 2nd gear.... I was mad.