A couple weeks ago the g/f and I took a vacation to Mexico. For the first time since the Cougar's resurrection, the car sat for two weeks. I've been driving it nearly every day, and never a check engine light in almost 25,000 miles. My g/f drove the Cougar to work, and guess what. CEL comes on.
I check the codes, one for IMRC stuck open, another for failing DPFE (P0401). The code for the stuck IMRC happened a few times immediately after the engine swap. It turned out the IMRC cable bracket w
Almost 1 year exactly since the Craptour was killed by a tornado, the '02 Cougar, Hello Cooter, is finished. Most of the major components that went into building the Craptour found a new home in the Cougar.
The stock '97 y-pipe was swapped for an MSDS ceramic coated y-pipe. The exhaust note in the cabin is quieter. The stock '97 main cat remains. I removed the solid upper engine mount and installed the original stock mount, which reduced vibrations and noise while cruising, but increased the
After passing some documents through the title and registration office at my local courthouse, and sneaking through a state safety inspection, Hello Cooter is finally 100% legal and road worthy.
Interior is all together. Stereo is complete. Rear strut tower brace installed. Refilled the A/C with refrigerant. Swapped BAT hi-flow pipe for stock '97 V6 y-pipe and cat. The exhaust sounds so much better. It's quieter all around, but with a little more interior drone at idle. I'm satified for now
The Cougar is now named Cooter... Hello Cooter to be exact. If you are unfamiliar with the term "cooter", the Urban Dictionary defines it as "the holiest of holies, the place all men aspire to be" and simply "vagina." In other words.... pussy aka kitty. Kinda dirty, but that's how this mind works.
Torrie McPhail of FastPartsNetwork.com provided an initial tune based on the specs I provided him. No data logs, just a list of specs. Within a couple days, I received a new file for the X-Cal 3
I spent half the day tearing apart the Craptour. Scavenged a few parts to save, and then broke out the reciprocating saw. It did not take long to remove the roof and split the car across the middle. I'll finish up tomorrow and haul the carcass away.
I hauled this 2002 Coog back from Houston this week. It has only 1 previous owner, dealer installed black leather and dealer installed Webasto one-touch moonroof. The front bumper and left front headlight are cracked up. Interior is very clean and overall, paint and body are in good shape. The engine bay is clean. I'm told that is was always run with Mobil 1. Apparently the engine spit a spark plug, it was serviced at the dealer, but when put back together the engine would not start. Previous ow
I shuffled the cars around while I was mowing and found them lined up in front of the house.
The '98 is now rolling on 15's. Excuse the dirt, we regularly travel country back roads. My sister is now using the car.
The '97 is sitting on the '98's wheels. The '98 needed brakes and tires before it could be driven. I robbed the parts from the '97. My Craptour is slated for execution. The damage from the tree branch which busted out the rear glass and the dead end with tuni
Since the tornado, I had the Craptour parked at my girlfriend's house under a carport. As is typical of Summer in Texas, it has not rained since. When my girlfriend's lease ended last month, I brought the Craptour home. Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere else to park it but in the side yard. And guess what.... that very night, it rains. I really don't care. It's rained a couple times since. There was some standing water in the spare tire well, but whatever. It's the Craptour!
The branch be
Tornado blew through Burnet this evening. Trees are down all over town. My neighbor has one in her back yard. A local friend called to check on me; she has a tree on her roof. Roofs have been pealed back. I think a few panels on my roof are loose, but held.
A 8" branch broke off a tree across the street and landed on the Craptour.
The latest tune is still rich. Several dealers have looked at my logs, offered help, but none have been successful. Paul, my main tuner from the beginning is about ready to throw in the towel. He offered to refund 1/2 my money for the XCal 3. I accepted his offer, but he is still trying to get SCT to provide support.
From his latest email: "After giving SCT an ass chewing on their dealer forum they suddenly have decided to start working on the EXE* processor."
As far as drivability goes.
Just out for a cruise listening to the stereo and checking out the latest tune. WOT is finally near 12:1, which is much better than where it has been. Power is great from 3400 all the way to 7000rpm. I haven't run over 7000rpm yet. I'll be interested to see the dyno results once the tune is finalized.
SCT has now determined that their database for the EXE1 is corrupted. Comparing the EXE1 base fuel map to the EXE3 fuel map shows an obvious problem.... they are supposed to be working on a new database.
In the meantime, another SCT dealer (the third to help now) has offered another tune. It's not bad. WOT is around 12:1 now, but I'm still getting rich codes.
I finished the stereo install (finally!). I mounted the MTX 421D amp to the back of the SVT split fold rear seats along with a Pol
Sorry, venting.....
I knew better. I thought my buddy would be up to the challenge and would like to help me out... and he has. It's not his fault this car cannot be tuned correctly. If anything, it's SCT's fault. The PCM code in my '97 is EXE1. Apparently SCT never decoded EXE1, but they did decode EXE2 and 3. The fuel table for WOT is not accessible. The only feedback we get from SCT when asking for help is the sound of crickets chirping. I contacted another buddy that has been tunin
I finished the teeth grill. Some have asked about water running onto the engine during a rain storm... well, here's the result. Water collects in some spot, and on the header wrap. Crank it up, wait a moment, and steam billows out from the hood. Looks funny when sitting at a stop light and the guy next to me is pointing suggesting I've blown a radiator hose.... nope, all is good.
I dunno about you, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the Craptour becoming my daily driver. I sold my '98 SHO yesterday... a car I really liked, so now the Craptour is taking over as the DD. It's buzzy, loud, ugly and people look at me strange. Whatever. It's fun and the stereo is enough to drown out most of the engine noise.
The good thing is that now I'll have more time and resource to spend on it. I'll be forced to finish a couple things like the interior swap. Then I'll have time t
I've been recovering from food poisoning for the last 3 days. Last night I felt well enough to eat and had a craving for tacos. The nearest place is about an hour away, so what better excuse than to take a drive in the Craptour and do some data logging.
I had some new tunes to try out. Since there is some relevance to this blog post and a current topic on the forums, let me explain. I am using a "mail order" tune. My tuner is a buddy from the Taurus Car Club of America. He's very experienced
I made some slight modifications to the cheap aftermarket window regulator and threaded some holes on the reman'd OEM motor. I also lubed the window tracks with WD-40 because the glass seemed to be hanging up near the top. I re-greased the regulator. At the moment, it's working like it is supposed to. Maybe it will actually last this time.
I have not had any time to spend on the Craptour in a couple weeks. School has started... gettin' my learn on.
Still have the high RPM loss of power. I have checked fuel pressure and disabled IMRC with the secondaries pinned open. Problem still persists, so I can rule out failing fuel pump and IMRC box.
I've never really taken any decent all around pics... and now that the car is road worthy, it's time to post some.
The cowl vent covers have been removed to run wiring for the wide band O2 and amp. They will go back on soon. I have not finished installing the SVT interior. The driver's window is still jacked.
Been driving it for the last couple days, data logging.... I have a high RPM stumble I can't explain yet. At first I was getting the stumble at 5500rpm and up. I replaced the old na
2 outta 3 law requirements ain't bad.
I shaped a piece of scrap sheet metal and used a plasma cutter to rough cut some teeth. Still a work in progress... I haven't decided if I'll paint it, or let it rust.
I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with tech support from SCT. We installed a firmware revision on the tuner and all appears to function as it should. The wideband O2 is installed, the gauge is mounted (sorta). Time to start data logging!
Introducing the SHT Extra shiz Kit. These and other options are available from your local independent SHT dealer.
SHT exterior package (Wheels are temporary while the 15s get new rubbers.)
Interior Features
I give up. The motor works fine without a load. I reinstalled it. It worked once, jammed, and now has reversed polarity (up on the switch makes the window go down). Screw it, I'm buying a new motor.
Stupid window motor been giving me headaches. The car had a busted driver's window regulator when I bought it. So I bought a new one. It sat in the box in the trunk while the car sat waiting for me to begin working on it. I did fix the window before starting the 3L swap. I used the window... maybe 10 times at most, how often do you use a window in a car with a bad engine you don't drive? Once the engine swap was completed, I thought I was done correcting all the little issues in the car... then
