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Cougar trans swap/svt upgrade

dont be sorry, my first year of autox i had my car come down on me at an event. i have both wheels off one side and as i got the front tire 3/4 on the tiny jack sunk in the pavement and shifted. luckily i had enough pressure on it to keep it from totally coming down on both of my legs that were under the car

havent heard from justin tonight, hope it went together well
 
jaged said:
dont be sorry, my first year of autox i had my car come down on me at an event. i have both wheels off one side and as i got the front tire 3/4 on the tiny jack sunk in the pavement and shifted. luckily i had enough pressure on it to keep it from totally coming down on both of my legs that were under the car

havent heard from justin tonight, hope it went together well
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Shoot :( thats not a fun time. I need to invest in jack stands for race day i take it

Everything is coming along. Today i should be installing the trans and hopefully be able to button thimgs up tonight or tomorrow
 
theyre nice to have. i just take one wheel off at a time and dont put my feet under it anymore
 
Haha thats not a bad idea i suppose :p i dont think ill need the tires off of mine on race day yet. Wait actually if i adjust my rear toe i will. Only other thing ill tamper with is my struts for now reall

An update, last night i got cut short big time in time. I probably would be close to done but my teacher told us class was over and to get out 2 and a half hours early. The trans is almost in but i might have to postpone until monday. Im slightly pissed that timing isnt going my way
 
Car is almost finished! Pics will be uploaded this week. Things have not gone too smoothly, but its alright especially now that im close to being finished. Some of the problems include a broken egr pipe, and leaky radiator (it sort of fell and hung up on the hoses and i didnt notice at first), a few broken bolts, a broken ground connector, and timing not being so cooperative. Im glad i'm on the homestretch though.
The svt pcm is in, headers are half in (skipped front to save time), mtx wiring harness is in, axles, hubs, and coilovers are in, subframe is done, all mounts are in as well.

Another snag is the npg brake kit doesnt clear the new rotors, so theyve been cut down a bit to accomodate, but there is still a clearance issue. If it isnt worked out by tnight, im going to throw the old rotors on and drive it home and worry about it this weekend. It should be out tonight
 
My buddy finished the rears! We didnt getthe fronts done in time so we put the old rotors back on.

Car is running! Drove it home last night and to work today. Ill get pics soon, it was a rush getting her out of the shop last night. The svt radiator that jaged gave me had sprung a huuuge leak in the bottom driver side. I had to stop and refill the reservoir last night and this morning. He has another one to get to me so ill be changing it tomorrow night. Other than that, and hillbilly fixed egr, the front brakes not fitting yet, and the exhaust leak, she is running smooth.
Pulled two codes for both o2 downstream sensors. Obviously i still need a new harness for the one on the front header. I feel like the one behind the cat may have been shocked somehow, but i have extras so ill try changing it. Im gonna "baby" her until autox next weekend. Ive done a few nice pulls and shes a loooot quicker than she used to be. A lot. Im loving the coilovers too. Aside from potholes and fender rub. Going to raise the front a half inch this weekend.

Overall, despite a few small hiccups, im happy with the results. Im also happy that i have a manual now. Its so much better to drive.
 
j-ritt99 said:
The svt pcm is in
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Ok, might be a stupid question here, but I'll ask anyway. When you installed the SVT PCM, what did you do about the keys? Did you reprogram your originals? If so, how did you do that? Reason I ask is because in order to program a new key to the PCM, you need to use the old key and cycle the ignition with it. Obviously a key matched to a different car's PCM won't work on your car. So I'm just curious how you got around that.
 
one way to get around it is to swap the actual chips in the keys. thats how i did mine. not sure if thats what he did or not
 
Yea, if you have the key or the chip for that pcm itll work. Otherwise you may have to run to a dealership and change it there. Its also fairly simple to pull the chip out. I had to use a small sharp punch to pop mine out
 
Hey guys. Im gonna get some pics this week. My apologies for the delay. Ive been busy figuring out the post swap issues. I had a bad radiator, so i swapped it out at the cost of overheating the engine once. The gauge didnt tell me because there wasnt coolant flowing for the temp gauge to measure i guess. I had an oil pressure light on and changed the oil. It was thin, but not milky. With fresh oil, the pressure light only comes on below 2000 rpm. Im going to test the actual pressure this week. Also, after changing the radiator i discovered a new coolant leak yesterday. Going to try to pin it down today

The other issue i have is yesterday i would hear a clunk sometimes when going into first. Today getting on the highway in 3rd i felt a vibration/shudder under acceleration. No vibration when cruising at 70 mph. I have a feeling its the cv joint, but unsure which joint, so im going to check the axles today.

Other than that this car is so much fun to drive. Before the cv issue yesterday, i took my uncle and grandpa for a ride. They loved how quick it would get up and go. My brother loves riding with as well. Im impressed with the improvement
 
j-ritt99 said:
I had a bad radiator, so i swapped it out at the cost of overheating the engine once. The gauge didnt tell me because there wasnt coolant flowing for the temp gauge to measure i guess. I had an oil pressure light on and changed the oil. It was thin, but not milky. With fresh oil, the pressure light only comes on below 2000 rpm.
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Oh man, the engine overheated? Oil light is still on? You might have already burned up the crank bearings and the motor could be on its way out. If it was my car it would have been parked until the radiator was fixed..... this is not good.
 
Well i didnt have much of a choice. Didnt have another vehicle to use at the time. And my dad thought itd be ok. Im not hearing a knock though. If it was knocking id be more worried. I havent had signs of the bearings being bad at all. And the oil light is only on now below 2000 rpms.

If i had another car to drive i wouldnt have touched the car :/
 
So today, i discovered i froed the seal in the water pump, wjich explains the post radiator fix coolant leak. I have a very bad cv axle om the driver side. I already have parts and an oil pressure gauge to hook up tomorrow. Looks like tomorrow is going to be a busy day for me
 
Tooke a few days due to not havong adequate tools available, but i fixed the water pump in about 30 minutes or so, and the rest of the time was spent working on the cv. I discovered one of the bearings failed, and the metal ring seals pretty much shattered. The other two bearings were ok which explains why the axle didnt fail completely. The boot also tore, spraying grease everywhere. All is good now, but ive only driven it to work this morning, so hoping for the best

Oil pressure light is on only wjen the engine is warm and idling now. After a half hour drive it stays on anytime im under 3k rpms. Have a gauge to hook up, jut havent gotten to it yet
 
The gauge won't help you now, it's already too late for that motor. It's just a matter of how many miles you can get from it before it starts making noise.
 
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