Hey guys, so I’ve been reading thread after thread on this site and a few others to see what to do with my car. I want to bring it more into the present using some modern upgrades. To start, it is a 1968 Mercury Cougar, as you know it’s just a mustang with a different body laid on top. This site seems to be the one with the widest amount of knowledge so I figured I’d turn to you for your input. I’d like to change a lot about the car in order to make it more fun and reliable. My goal is to have a street car that can handle well, ride smooth, and have some ponies.

To get into it I’ve been looking at many sites including Total Control Products ( http://www.totalcontrolproducts.com ) and I would like to get a setup of either air ride or their coil over setup to improve the front handling. I have also looked there and at Flaming River ( www.flamingriver.com ) for steering and brake upgrades. Any input on these or other setups that worked well? What about rear suspension setups?

For the motor and transmission it still has the original 4bbl 302 and C4 transmission I’d like to see if I can get around 400 hp out of the car so im wondering if I should look at a crate engine or just rebuild the 302 with some heads and maybe a 331 kit?? As for the transmission, I’m thinking about going for the T5 or Tremec 5 speed as I have seen many people seem to have done it and are enjoying it. Anyone have any pictures of their T5 swaps? Clutch Setups?

Well any input is awesome so just post it, oh and here’s a picture of the car!

 

loveeeeeeeeeeeeeee cougars!

 

Thats sweet!

I did the T5 conversion on mine. Its great.

 

lovely car!
honestly i never heard any good about the flaming river steering boxes. Quite sure, someone here will come up with an alternative, or just check the TCP you posted for steering setup as well.
As for the gearboix. a 'normal' T5 is rated to around 300ftlbs, which is no problem with a stock 302. But if you are going 331 stroker with heads you _might_ brake that thing. The tremec is more solid if you can afford that.

as for rebuilding or crate engine. Sure you can rebuild and stroke the original 302 if you have the skills for it, but there are some great stoker crates out there (fordstrokers.com and T&L engines to name a few).
All depends on the money you want to throw at it. I personally do know plenty about engines, but still prefer to have it build

For rear suspension setups: it seems you have high shackles in the back. I'd get rid of that, for mjustangs 4.5 leaf springs seem to have the best ride quality while remaining stiff, caltracs always help, too (i have that on my list as well).

for the front, in a Mustang the first thing I'd add is a Monte Carlo bar and export brace to keep the engine bay square while cornering. My guess is that in Cougars the problem is similar ...

 

Hey Kalli, Just wondered if you had any pictures of your conversion or where the shifter now sits in the car? Also was your car a manual before or auto? I'm wondering about the clutch setup is all. Also how do you like your brakes?

 

Hiya,

sits perfectly normal. I just had to cut an extra inch of the right hand side of the shifter hole.
I used a 1966 bellhousing (6bolt-pattern, should be the same for you) and between the bellhousing and the T5 there's an adapter plate which allows mounting, adjusts the length of input shaft and actually turns the T5 a bit so it's more or less flush in the shifter hole ... you can get the adapter plate wherever they offer parts for the T5 swap (i got all that stuff from NPDlink)

It was a 3spd manual before, so the conversion was easy. There's quite a lot of people who swapped from C4 to T5 and there's craploads of info on that in our FAQ (a lot of links). Moderndriveline.com has massloads of info as well.

As for the breaks, they are manual (no power) and it's a _huge_ difference to the original 6 cylidner drums. It was a very easy installation. Maybe 1 day the whole system (apart from brakelines) and another day for the brakelines themselves (that took me longer as I never did that before). Probably the best bang for the buck. I never had front discs rear drums, so I don't know the difference in braking. I went from crappy all manual drums to all manual discs.
Sure a booster will make it more easy on the foot by I believe for me it's wasted money and it's awkward in a 65 manual transmission car anyway (should be less of a problem in your chassis).

For the clutch setup, you can as well go hydraulic. Can talk to Dazecars about that. He's known here on the forums.
http://dazed.home.bresnan.net/dazecars.html

 

A lot really depends on your budget, I'm building a '67 Coupe with pretty stock parts, some upgraded for probably less than half what it would cost to change to R&P, coilovers, etc. and have read of quite a few people who track their cars successfully with improved stock suspension/steering you just need to pick certain key parts to upgrade (roller perches, bigger swaybar, etc.).

Here's a good suspension/steering article that should apply to the Cougar also, gives the ups and downs of our stock setup:
http://home.bresnan.net/~dazed/suspension101

John at ORP sells custom made suspension/steering products he makes himself mostly, quality stuff and he's been tracking different cars for years. If you give him a call he will ask what the car will be used for and let you know where you'll get the most bang for your buck, he will NOT sell you something he doesn't think you will need or will be overkill for a street car. He does not live off his website, it is a side hobby that expanded for him. He will know what will work on the cougar and mustang and can probably advise pros/cons to different R&P, etc. systems:
http://www.opentrackerracingproducts.com/products/

I stayed with my stock 289 and had it stroked to 333ci by a local shop, I like dealing locally in case there is an issue and like keeping my original motor, haven't started it yet but think I will be pleasantly surprised.

Ride height is a personal preference but as mentioned you can get your car to sit down more if you like, it will improve the cornering, etc. by not being as high/springy. You may need to change rims as it appears your wheels stick out past the fender lips? backspacing on wheels? I went flat level as I want the 'TransAm' series look, the ride is comfortable but sporty.
Good luck, welcome and beautiful Cougar!,
Jon

 

Nice 68. I have a 67 I am almost finished rebuilding, click the link in my sig to see pics of the build.

CarCraft magazine has an article about stroking a 302 to a 347 in this months issue. They got a kit from Summit for less than a grand and stuffed it in a block they built before. Just so happens they used the 302 they got 479hp and 387ftlbs out of a while back. They used AFR 165cc outlaw heads and some dome pistons to make lots of compression to get that much power out of a stock stroke 302, and it made all of its power above 5000 rpm, so it wasnt much of a street engine. The stroker would help with the power output at a lower RPM.

I would recommend opentracker too, he does good work and eventually my Cougar will get his parts under it. It needs something with the nosebleed inducing gasser like stance it has since the springs havent settled yet.

 

If I were you I would put the car back to the factory setting, handling would be a lot better. My 65 FSTBK sits higher in the front , and I really love that look.. The stock motor has plenty of horses for the car