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  1. #1
    FEP Power Member 86-TC/SVO's Avatar
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    Default 75 Mercury Cougar XR7

    Even though this is a 4 eye, Mods can delete.

    https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/6211812099.html
    86' SVO 1C # 17 of 3379 86's #6475 of 9837
    86' SVO 1C #497 of 3379 86's #6955 of 9837
    84' GT Turbo #4 of 3241 GT Turbo HB's #560 of 3935
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    http://www.foureyedpride.com/content...e-of-the-Month

  2. #2
    FEP Super Member roush235's Avatar
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    Not all that many people who like the mid 70's Cougars and Elites, but I do. I also like the 77-79 T-Birds. I think my favorite is the first of the genre, the 72 Gran Torino (give me a Sport with the laser stripe, please).
    Bob in Lebanon, TN
    79 original owner six cylinder coupe
    MCA Gold Card judge for 3rd Generation cars

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by roush235 View Post
    Not all that many people who like the mid 70's Cougars and Elites, but I do. I also like the 77-79 T-Birds. I think my favorite is the first of the genre, the 72 Gran Torino (give me a Sport with the laser stripe, please).
    Yyyyeeaaahhhhh, when the Torino became "Gran" that was it for me. Part of it is bitterness over the fact that they dumped one of the best looking bodies EVER, the '70-71 Torino and Montego (I'd rank it up there with the '69-70 Mustang/Cougar!) after only TWO YEARS in favor of that thing. It's just super disappointing. The step backward to body on frame, etc, etc.

    I mean, i guess they're okay when done up right like you mention the Sport with the stripe, those are cool enough, but I'm just really not a fan of, well, ANYONE'S styling direction into the mid '70s. Everything was trying to emulate the luxobarge, right down to the Mustang II Ghia. Padded vinyl roof and opera windows BAD! I guess I'd rock a Mark V or maybe the really giant body style T-bird, just because THOSE were really where it was at, but a wanna-be Elite, no thanks.

    If I were to look for something that still had the remnants of muscle car styling, but is hiding in mid-70s blah, i'd rather go for a Maverick/Comet.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  4. #4

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    The air cleaner says it's a 2 bbl, so not a 351-Cleveland ?

  5. #5
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    The add does say it is a Modified , not that i saw cleavland mentioned .
    Pretty nice car for its age .
    clowns to the left of me , Jokers to the right

  6. #6

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    According to Wiki, the last year for a 351-C in the XR7 was 1973. (Also the last year for the 429-super cobra jet)
    I salvaged the distributer mechanical advance springs out of a XR7/351-C car and put them in my '83GT.
    Really light weight spring compared to original. Car seamed faster, on the butt-dyno, anyway.

  7. #7
    FEP Super Member 84StangSVT's Avatar
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    Not really feeling that car. Just not a fan of the look of them. Now I will take a hulking 77-79 T-Bird all day long though.
    Brock
    1984 Mustang LX Convertible 3.8L V-6/Auto (SOLD)
    1984 Mustang GT Hatchback 5.0 V-8/5 Speed

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  8. #8
    FEP Supporter 75coug's Avatar
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    As my handle will attest, I like these cars a lot.
    Robert

    1986 ascMcLaren SC 5.0 -red
    1985 Capri GS (w/ 5.0) - red
    1985 Capri 5.0L - black
    1984 ascMcLaren SC 5.0 - white
    1984 Capri GS (w/ 5.0) - white
    1983 Capri RS Crimson Cat - red
    1982 Capri RS Black Magic - white
    1982 Cougar wagon
    1982 Mustang GT - red

  9. #9
    FEP Super Member webestang's Avatar
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    I remember these and the T-Bird brothers on the streets back in the day. Cool 70's vibes.

    Scotty
    1985 Fox Notch 4-banger Ranger tube header Eastwood Royal Blue
    1988 Fox LX 5.0 AOD Vert BBK 170mph speedo Candy Apple Red
    1999 Mustang Coupe V6 Auto Chrome Yellow -Daily Driver.
    Past Pony's.....
    68 Coupe Inline-6 3-Speed-Man. Primer
    78 II Hatch 302 3-Speed-Auto Sunroof Black
    81 4-Eye Coupe 4-Banger 4-Speed-Man. White

  10. #10
    FEP Super Member xctasy's Avatar
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    Ford had saved big on unibodies, and made better profits in the body on frame production line, so the movement to the "Screaming Baroque era" was given. The late rallye of the T bird on this base saved Ford from going down the gurgler. The base was loved, just under appreciated.

    Henry Ford II saying in response to being beat to the punch with the Downsize GM 77's was "downsizing wasn't the solution, people still want big cars" was right. It wasn't right for the downsized 1980 LTD and Tbird and Cougar XR7, though.

    Elseware, the "Screaming Baroque era" cars were then converted with corners and edges and hard lines that were given the tag by one enlightned meber of the public as the "Slab-Sided Yawn Fest".

    That was a bitter pill to swallow after the great proportions of the Maverick Two door, the long door Granada Sport Coupe, the body on framers like Starky and Hutch mobiles...the emerging "square Ghia" era didn't turn people on, and it took years of uglier, less reliable Mopars and GM products to bring people back. The mistake point was to make the big Stirling built XR7 AND T birds in 1980 on the same Fairmont Sport Coupe silhouette, and then give it poverty pack short doors from the Fox two doors. Tom Siatos renderings, so fine and with gracious Japanese attention to detail, was was undone by that decision.

    The decline cetainly wasn't the 1975 Cougar XR7, it was the 80-82's



    http://s1215.photobucket.com/user/xe..._XR7_large.jpg


    Of course, the J boby Mirada , Cordoba and Imperial were pretty and had immense clout, but were slow and lame, with the typical electrnic era reliablity disasters, the 76 F bodies, total rust buckets, the 80's M and R's, great basic cars, but made the Panthers look good.





    Despite the massive weight gain, and the appallingly badly matched compression, cam and carburation and a tendancy to crack blocks and heads, these things with the tall deck Cleveland based 351M and 400 Fords were simply brilliant with the right 4-bbl, a compression hike from the stock 7.9:1, and then, it blew the heck out of everything.

    The problem then was no-one knew how to make the low hanging fruit in the 351W/351M/400 Fords do any thing back then...the 351M gave birth to the 5.0 Explorer cam shaft timing, but the compression losses and terriable flow figures of the 2100 and 2150 2-bbls they were all sadled with....Ford downgraded every aspect of the Midlands and short and tall deck Windsor engines.

    No-one knew how to make smog engines tick except Pontiac and Mopar. Fords 351's without mods just held the door open.


    With modifications, well, the W's, M's and 400 Fords were simply astoundingly good. The stroked out 400, we are talkin the ability to make 500 hp and 500 lb-ft net at the flywheel with just 9:1 compression and pocket blended heads with a proper 4-bbl intake and 750 cfm Motorcraft 4350 with a good intake. But no body did crap like that with 429's and 460's either.


    Today, even 351W's go crazy with 1969 or 1970 heads before the Cleveland indiuced downgrade of all 351W. Ford did it to themselves. The Tornio 351w 1973 cam?, it didn't work unless you had the 69 or 70 heads and the proper high cfm Autolite or Motorcrafts, which no one could tune anyway.


    Those behomoths were hobbled by Fords parts scrable to meet the Fed Emissions targets, the technology existed, but it was pushed down after Bunkies departure. Hank the Duce had to pay the rent.

    The got the mixture right again in 1980 with the G vin code HO 351, the 1982 GT 5.0, the Lightening and the R351 Mustangs, but it was 10 to 20 years late....


    The 1982 Carb HO and then the 86 onwards fuelie 5.0 era was a real time of rejoycing...the old 1973 Cleveland Cobra Jet and 1969 Windsor 351 4V and 1973 Torino split duration cam technology that Ford heads needed to make hp and torque was reblended into the mix.

    Quote Originally Posted by erratic50 View Post
    If you find a D0OE cast 351W head those flow 180 CFM untouched and have more room for porting than a GT40 or GT40P has.

    Explorers and mountaineers up until 2000 had 5.0L. Early 5.0L trucks like the 1996-mid 97 had an emissions style cobra or GT40 style lower and a long runner upper that makes power to 5800.

    later explorer intakes do not have the passages for emissions.

    lots of guys run these intakes on their Mustang because it's an instant power upgrade. They flow around 170 CFM unported or north of 240 if ported following the instructions Tom Moss published. A lot better match for the 155 CFM E6SE heads found on 86 HOs and also many SO engines .... or the 160 CFM E7 heads from 87-93 HOs.

    Personally I picked up a Typhoon EFI because it's less money by the time you port and explorer and it makes more power because its runner length is better for R's and likes to rev past 6500.

    GT40 heads are found on Explorers and mountaineers up to mid 97. Then Ford introduced the GT40P head which has been shown on the dyno and at the track to make more area under the HP and torque curves but they are a pain to deal with header fitment on.

    A HO short block, decent heads,1.7:1 rockers, free flowing intake like typhoon, 65-70MM throttle body, 70+ MM MAF, 24 lb injectors, a 1993 Cobra computer, and decent headers with dumps or free flowing exhaust will go well north of your number and respond very well to boost or nitrous.

    You would benefit some from more cam but at the expense of street manners most likely.
    On page two of that post, que erratic50


  11. #11

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    I think the '80-82 square Birds and Cats are handsome. Then again, I like my Zeph, so take that for what it's worth. I like their look far more than '72-80 mid-sizers. Ford needed to slap together another Falcon based car, Granada/Monarch, to draw in former mid-size buyers because the Gran Torino based cars were all so ugly.
    Brad

    '79 Mercury Zephyr ES 5.0L GT40 EFI, T-5
    '17 Ford Focus ST
    '14 Ford Fusion SE Manual

  12. #12
    FEP Super Member xctasy's Avatar
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    Naturally!

    Cool. I love both. Call me greedy!

    I grew up with a black 1975 Montego hardtop 429 burning up my Alexandra street. Owner got arrested. Cop envy...sooo much grunt!



    The Fox XR7 and Tbird I love, actully more so than the Areo 83 to 88's. In my town also, we had a white 255 1982 T bird with TRX's, owned by the New World Grocery chains Produce manager.Electronic dash. Vinal roof. Luv.....

    Both of them to me, irresistible. Same with the 1973 Ponitac Grand Prix 455, and the emissions reject exported Pontiac Formulas we had. I'm just a sucker for US sheet metal.

    But I like Horspower much more than the excellence of the Fox T bird. Since the 351 AOD combo made better millage than the 255 AOD, why didn't they just add the 351W G code HO to it. I couldn't ever work it out.

  13. #13
    FEP Super Member erratic50's Avatar
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    Yea, going to go for a drive to where the bones of my Galaxie were last known to reside. Am curious what it would cost to buy it but who knows what fair even is.

    I sold it for a touch over $3000 in 1992

  14. #14
    FEP Super Member xctasy's Avatar
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    Here is a car like the Fasnet Street Burnout machine (street in my hometown). I think it was about 1985/86.


    Back then, we had a lot of US imports, as the Government opened up the tightly controlled import market....if you owned a car overseas, you could bring it back to NZ with no tax. Domestic GM Holdens were the quickest in the world.

    GM ranked a lowly 5th in the 91000 a year sales in our small country, so they decided to drum up some racing teack wins by making a 26 run homologation NZ built special. They put in a bespoke 248 hp 4-bbl 308 into the Commodore SS, and had it doing 14.6 second 1/4 miles, and dynoing 295 hp in blueprinted form with the Wade 169 cam, headers, big valve heads and tiny 195/60 HR15's on Cheviot Sydney mesh wheels. The small tires and nonsensical 5400 rpm rev limit held the car back to 123 mph, when it could do 138 mph at 5800 rpm in the Australian version.

    Another was the SVO XF 5.8 Falcon, a special cobbled together by a local dealer, and campaigned by Paul Stitchbury. Basically a 15 second car with an XE Falcon Themoquad 4bbl 351C.

    Most imports from the US wee big block Muscle cars with Pontiacs being the most popular. At the drags, all the US imports were tweeked, and ran 13's and 14's. The Montego ranked right up there with the Trans Ams and Formulas, but for the owners, go was just as important as 'show'. Most Holdens back then ran 350 Chev transplants, as the 308 even in a little 101" wheelbase Torana wasn't really much faster than a 351C Falcon GT.





    It may have been a 460, I remember it had a standard big block. The 429 wasn't around that year. Gosh I like Big Blocks...they sound so cool. And the unbreakable 9 or 9 and whatever inch ring and pinion they had that year.

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