1967 Cougar build (over 700 pictures and videos)

[JayinMI]

Hey Andrew, Today on my IG feed I saw Holley featured your car. Congrats!

Jay

[andrewb70]

Hey Andrew, Today on my IG feed I saw Holley featured your car. Congrats!

Jay

That was cool! Brought in a lot of followers!

[andrewb70]

It has been a while since I have made any updates to this thread, but that is mostly because there was nothing much to report, until now.

I had plans to visit family in the Chicagoland area, and I thought it would be great to make the road trip (750 miles each way) in the Cougar. The first thing was to put together an emergency kit for the road. This consisted of a can of FixAflat, Pladoe, balloons, canned air, and apparently a new cam shaft...just in case...LOL





The cam was obviously not for emergency use. My plan was to stay with my friend, who has a fully equipped garage to do a cam swap. I wanted something a little more mild and something that would be boost friendly, in case I want to do a turbo down the road. For this I chose the Summit Racing Stage 1 turbo cam, aka "Ghost" cam.



I was working under a pretty tight schedule. The cam needed to be installed and everything buttoned up by 4:00pm on Saturday, because I was meeting family for dinner. My buddy Matt came over to lend a hand and we started on it at 7:00am.



The new cam was installed along with the 7.425" pushrods that were recommended to be used with this cam by Summit. We double checked lifter preload and it came to .060", which is about right.



Cam cover back on and the balancer torqued to 235lb/ft per ARPs instructions.



Once the radiator was back in, and all hoses reconnected, we fired it up, checked for leaks, brought it up to temp, topped off coolant, and time for a test drive and retune.

This is where the Holley Dominator EFI is so handy. The fuel table started adjusting immediately as I drove. Within a few miles of stop and go traffic, it got noticeably better. I transferred the learn table to the base table, rinse and repeat. By the time I was heading to dinner with my family, she was purring like a kitten....ahem...

Sunday was my daughters HS graduation party. I stopped at a Starbucks on the way, and met up with these guys. Cool dudes...we chatted a bit and went on our ways.



Monday morning I had breakfast with a longtime friend and hit the road, back south. Other than being hot af, the car ran great. I also noted that I picked up 2-3mpg. I stopped in Bowling Green, KY on the way back.



And enjoyed a nice dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant. Almost as if I was in Mexico...LOL



Until next time...

Andrew

[chunger]

Andrew,

Cool your project is coming along with the cam swap. To be fair, a Sniper system would have had the same advantage here - the quick relearning after a cam swap, correct?

[andrewb70]

Andrew,

Cool your project is coming along with the cam swap. To be fair, a Sniper system would have had the same advantage here - the quick relearning after a cam swap, correct?

Yes, all the Holley systems use the same auto learning fuel correction algorithm.

Andrew

[langleylad]

Nice to hear that your trip was enjoyable ... always a bonus

[SSLance]

Andrew even found time during his trip to work on my tune a couple of times... He's pretty good at this stuff and it shows. Nice job on the cam upgrade.

[andrewb70]

Andrew even found time during his trip to work on my tune a couple of times... He's pretty good at this stuff and it shows. Nice job on the cam upgrade.

This hasn't been out of the goodness of my heart. Lance and I started talking about his car, and he was very kind and PayPaled me generously for my time. I have fiddled with his tune numerous times, adjusted his fans to come on only when the engine is running, and consulted on a few other issues. We also did a live tuning session which was very productive.

If anyone else has a Holley system and wants my hands on help, please do not hesitate to get in touch. As Lance said, I am pretty good with it and will save you hours of time and probably a bunch of headaches.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

Idle video of the new cam.

https://www.instagram.com/projectgattago/

Andrew

[84SVO]

WOW what a build so far! Attention to detail is top notch. I am very curious on the EPS updates with the can module? Have you been able to check for codes or do the learn procedure? How is the center feel with the module as is? I did a vue box with the bruno controller a few years ago and was always annoyed with the feel when driving straight. I am working on a new project now (84 Svo) and have been considering doing EPS again after reading your fail safe posts on various forums. I have some saturn vue stuff already but it seems like there are some better options now

[andrewb70]

WOW what a build so far! Attention to detail is top notch. I am very curious on the EPS updates with the can module? Have you been able to check for codes or do the learn procedure? How is the center feel with the module as is? I did a vue box with the bruno controller a few years ago and was always annoyed with the feel when driving straight. I am working on a new project now (84 Svo) and have been considering doing EPS again after reading your fail safe posts on various forums. I have some saturn vue stuff already but it seems like there are some better options now

Sorry for the late response!

I don't know that I have any real updates regarding the steering. I lost motivation and was not able to get any resolution regarding the ability to access codes or do the learn procedure for the steering ECU.

The center feel, "as is" is not optimal, but I am used to it now so it doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I still believe that it is better with the EPAs than it was without, so it is an improvement. I do notice that when it gets hot and very hot inside the car the steering changes. I believe this is due to changing clearances in the upper shaft and upper bearing. The on center feel gets worse when hot. This is due to having a small amount of runout on the upper shaft.

Eventually I will redo the setup:

1. Use thick wall upper and lower tubes and machine bearing supports
2. Make sure the upper and lower shafts are very straight and have less than .002" runout
3. Maybe try the DCE microsteer and their ECU

Andrew

[84SVO]

Bummer on that! Having used the original adjustable Bruno controller in the past I have decided the next setup I'm going to give his "automatic" controller a shot and see how it does. Like you said, the center feel is annoying but you get used to it.

[andrewb70]

I do have the automatic speed sensitive assist working with my Holley Dominator ECU.

[Bugzilla]

I have an actual Saturn Vue and absolutely hate the steering. I was going to put that system in my Bug until I got the Saturn and actually felt it. Been looking into using the MR2 setup instead but the pump itself is not cheap. But, many people say its way better then most other EPS systems.

[andrewb70]

Not much new to report, other than really enjoying the new cam. I am living in the Louisville area temporarily and have been enjoying having the car with me. It sure beats driving an appliance every day. If anyone is in the area, please reach out. I can use more car buddies to hang out with.

Yesterday I did a little project that I think will enhance the overall driving experience. I bought a stitch on leather steering wheel cover on Amazon for $13. The quality was way better than I expected at that price point and I decided to stitch it on with the suede side out. It will probably wear quicker, but for the price and ease of installation, who cares. It turned out pretty good.









Some future projects that I have in the works are adding tailpipes and installing a new center section in the rear end. Flowmaster actually makes a tailpipe kit for it that I have already purchased and if that doesn't work out, I got a bunch of straight pipe and U-bends. Herb Lump has been kind enough to offer help with that project.

I also purchased a 9" center section with a clutch style diff and 3.25 gears. I want my buddy Jim to have a look at it, because the previous owner said they pulled it out because the gears were howling. I may upgrade to a Strange Daytona pinion support and add new US Gears that are polished. Or I may just toss it in as is and see what happens, after I swap pinion yokes.

Today I also reached 1000 subscribers on YouTube, so thanks to those that are following along. This has motivated me to make more Holley Terminator X videos, which seem to be pretty popular. That's all for now.

Andrew

[waid786]

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Hey Andrew,

It's been a while since I talked to you. I am making my own Rack and Pinion for my Falcon similar to the TCP setup. I would appreciate if you can couple of measurement from your TCP rack. See the attached picture of the TCP center link and the measurements I am looking for. I am interested in the height, width and the thickness if can get to it. Primarily height and width which will give me some idea how beefy I need to make mine.

Without going though the entire thread, did you guys figure out how to talk to the non-ABS Yaris ECU ?

Thanks

Waid

[andrewb70]

You're in luck. I'll have the car on a lift tomorrow. I didn't get the Yaris non-abs to work as planned, but it is working and providing variable assist based on vehicle speed.

Andrew

[waid786]

You're in luck. I'll have the car on a lift tomorrow. I didn't get the Yaris non-abs to work as planned, but it is working and providing variable assist based on vehicle speed.

Andrew

Where can I find more info?

I have several Yaris non-abs ECU's but I am using Prius ECU for now.

I would be great if I can use the reluctor wheel from the Explorer's 8.8 for variable assist.

Also I am wondering if the TCI centerlink is steel or aluminum.


Waid

[andrewb70]

The TCP center link is steel. This build thread has all the information.

Andrew

[andrewb70]

T = .250" h = 1.50" w = .625"