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Started Project Cheap Cougar... not to be confused with Free SVT

The tear down begins....

The tear down begins....

Started to dig in tonight getting the easy stuff out of the way....

Drained all the fluids, removed battery, tray, air intake/box, serpentine belt, axle nuts, and sprayed the bejesus out of every bolt I thought might give me troubles this week. Specifically those Y-pipe bolts don't exactly look like a walk in the park. Tomorrow I plan on removing the fans, radiator, and cv shafts for sure. Looks like I might end up replacing one of them. Then I'll probably remove the AC compressor, Y pipe, and the front and rear roll resistors. That should give me enough to do tomorrow evening.

Looky what came in the mail today? Thanks UPS :eek:
100_1438.jpg


Can you believe this was cooling the engine? It's BROWN :help:
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cool. call me sometime this week maybe friday or tomorrow man i want to come see the project. i should be rolling my new car (i hope)
 
TRicker said:
cool. call me sometime this week maybe friday or tomorrow man i want to come see the project. i should be rolling my new car (i hope)
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How big of trunk you got in that thing? Big enough to jamb your hoist in the back? :D Otherwise I'll borrow one from bigblockpaul but if you're stopping over anyways...... :laugh: I should be ready for a hoist by Friday if not sooner.

I wanna see the new beast anyhow.
 
Update...

Update...

Latest update, I have gotten the Y pipe off, CV shafts out, radiator out, fans out, AC out of the way, coolant reservoir and most of the hoses out of the way.

Basically what's left is to pull the intake manifolds off, remove the intermediate shaft, disconnect the power steering, unplug the alternator, unhook the fuel rail, disconnect the throttle cable, yank the two roll resistors out, and bolt the chain leveler up to get ready to pull it out.
 
How hard was the ypipe? I am thinking the bolts aren't going to be that much fun to get off on mine. :( MSDS ypipe will be going up tough.
 
elraido said:
How hard was the ypipe? I am thinking the bolts aren't going to be that much fun to get off on mine. :( MSDS ypipe will be going up tough.
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It actually wasn't even that bad? :shrug: It was a texas car for the first few years of its life, then spent 5 in Chicago so it might not have gotten the good ol MN salt treatment but the bolts broke free nicely. I soaked them up thinking they were going to be tough a couple times in advance. When I got to it the front ones broke loose with the 3/8 ratchet, rear ones I used the impact :laugh: spun them right off, and one on the cat I used the impact the other I used a 12 point closed end wrench and it broke loose easily. They all spun off and none broke.

I think on the SVT i broke a few but it doesn't really matter if you break the ones on the Cat as you can just put a couple SS bolts through there, the ones on the manifolds you'll have to be gentle with if you're not replacing them with headers.
 
I called to order most of the gaskets and what not today.

HOLY CRAP, I was about ready to find a used 3L when I found out how much all these gaskets are gonna cost to freshen up the SVT motor :crazy:

Even with the super good discount at Tousley I'm looking at ~65 bucks PER head gasket :eek: :eek: I might only replace one at that price :laugh: I had to remove one head to get at the motor mount when I did my swap, but I guess I can just leave the other one bolted up.

For reference I remember the 3L gaskets are like 30 bucks each so I just thought I'd toss it out there how outdated and hence pricey the 2.5 parts seem to be coming. :(
 
I just picked up the SHO yesterday.

here's the info on that...

(daily driver, don't hate)

95 Blue Metallic

Grey leather interior
139k miles
Rebuilt trans at 125k (all synchros, first and reverse gears)
Centerforce Clutch
Shoshop Flywheel (might be fidanza or something like that)
Shoshop Y pipe
Shoshop underdrive pulley kit
Cobra replica 17" wheels
some sort of aftermarket cat-back exhaust
Pro-Flo 75mm MAF
Custom K&N intake setup.
Eibach sport springs & tokiko struts all around.

its not as fast as my 3L, but its also runnin on 4 month old 87 octane fuel. its still got some nuts. the trans doesnt shift well, i think i need to do the rod shifter "fix" and replace the tranny fluid with some nice ford brand stuff.

i can probably get the engine hoist in there without even taking it apart.....tony. LOL. no seriously though i can probaly get it to you this weekend when i go home to get my car cover on the contour.
 
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I'm telling ya, you can fit anything in the trunk of my probe. I once fit an entire hood in the back seat/hatch area :eek: I think my upper torso was about an inch away from the steering wheel and my neck had to stay bent the whole way home but it fit! Along with plenty of other random things :laugh:

SHO sounds good, I'll give you a run in the Cougar when its up and running ;)
 
Redlineracer12 said:
I'm telling ya, you can fit anything in the trunk of my probe. I once fit an entire hood in the back seat/hatch area :eek: I think my upper torso was about an inch away from the steering wheel and my neck had to stay bent the whole way home but it fit! Along with plenty of other random things :laugh:

SHO sounds good, I'll give you a run in the Cougar when its up and running ;)
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mmmmmm SHO. Now if only I could find a newer style one's with a older SHO V6 and MTX....for cheap and in mint condition. How much are you looking at getting for the Probe?
 
Redlineracer12 said:
I'm telling ya, you can fit anything in the trunk of my probe. I once fit an entire hood in the back seat/hatch area :eek: I think my upper torso was about an inch away from the steering wheel and my neck had to stay bent the whole way home but it fit! Along with plenty of other random things :laugh:
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I loved my Probe's trunk. I bought a big TV at Wal-Mart one time and the guy helping me carry it out told me there was no way it would fit in the car the entire time we were walking up to it. Then we got there, I popped the hatch and put down the back seats, and there was room for about three of them. He was like, "Oh."
 
PurpleMystique said:
I loved my Probe's trunk. I bought a big TV at Wal-Mart one time and the guy helping me carry it out told me there was no way it would fit in the car the entire time we were walking up to it. Then we got there, I popped the hatch and put down the back seats, and there was room for about three of them. He was like, "Oh."
Click to expand...

I had the same experience with a big computer desk :) Came in a package that was better than 3 feet wide and like 6 feet long, folded those seats down and it dropped right in, the guy told me there was no way I'd get it to fit in a car, I'd definitely need a van/suv/truck :cool:


As for the probe:
http://www.carsoup.com/used/detail.asp?usedVehicleID=4545116

and its super hard to find one of those SHOs in good condition much less the Yamaha in the 96+ models :dizzy:
 
meh. i like the one i have. if it only shifted so nicely like my SVT. its like a constant battle to find gears and it's got a rebuilt trans. i'll have to hurry up and do the shift linkage fix and refresh the trans fluid.

its got good gas in it now.... its got some nuts, but still doesnt hold a candle to my 3L. it'll blow the doors off an unmodded or full 3L swap, but not much else.
 
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