I'm a Cougar owner again!!!

I ended up running from the battery and using a hidden switch.
This way it also acts as an anti-theft device.

She’s all ready to go except for exhaust. I cut out the old one but may have to put it back until I can afford the dual.

Today’s accomplishment was vacuuming out the dashpad. Yes, you heard that right.
It was so far gone I could vacuum it off. The good news is I found the vin plate. For some reason it was attached to the right side.

Small victories, help keep the excitement going. Keep plugging away.

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OK, so here’s the update:

Lost my job a couple of months back so haven’t been able to get an exhaust on the girl.

I’d wanted to at least get that done with the O2 bung so I could tune the car and drive for awhile but… life happens.

I’m considering a cheap way of getting that done and wanted to know if it is possible and where I might find the parts I’m looking for.

What I want, in the meantime, is a pair of collector flanges that will bolt up to the stock 302 exhaust manifold that have enough length to either have an O2 bung welded in or have one already in place. I’ll then add a pair of Cherry Bombs. I’ve looked online, and while they are available, I can’t seem to find one in the proper size.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

I found some Walker collector flanges with a male connection that will work.
Once I have them test fitted I can get the O2 bung welded and then scrimp and save for the Cherry Bombs and add a couple of turn downs. It will be louder than I wanted and no X pipe but it will allow me to tune the FiTech and work on my vacuum issue with the brakes/trans.

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BTW: I think I might need an electric vacuum pump because of the intake I chose (Edelbrock RPM Air-Gap) Anyone else having issues with this intake?

I do not believe that the intake manifold should affect vacuum. Vacuum can be influenced by cam profile , cam timming,ignition timming and a bunch of others.
Try putting a vacuum Guage on the intake with vacuum advance plugged,and advanc the timming…if the vacuum goes up ,the timming is probably retarded

Something to look at… I also replaced the distributor with a HEI unit.

My downpipes FINALLY showed up today and it looks like they will fit just fine. Probably some cutting/bending to line up the X-pipe in the right place and level out the exhaust., but there is plenty of room for the O2 bung. Now I have to find a welder to do the work. The only muffler shop in this town wanted to charge me $600 for finishing from the x-pipe back and that didn’t include mufflers.

I should be able to FINALLY drive the car next Sat after exhaust is installed (I did break down and take her down to the gas station with open exhaust but it was only a mile or two). I found a welder who will do it for cheap. I’m going to try and get some v-bands for before and after the X-pipe so I can take it apart for things like C4 rebuild. I found a performance rebuild kit for around $650.

I then will rebuild or replace the leaking steering ram and try to do something about the pad/gauge cluster. The only thing that seems to work is the speedometer.

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Check your ground from the engine to firewall first. Without that little woven strap, all kinds of things will mysteriously not work! Then check your fuses.

If both of those are okay, it might be your gauge voltage regulator under the dash! IVC is what it’s called, if I remember right. =)

The fuel gauge seems to want to work as I see it moving a lil bit. One of the arms in that pod is broken.

I grounded out the relay but the fans wouldn’t run. I dug out the schematic and there’s a yellow wire from the FiTech that should go to the ground of the relay. When I traced back the wire I found that the guy who installed it for me never wired it in.