1967 Mercury Cougar XR7 - Project Green Kitty

[SeanP]

Got the car out on Saturday for a drive and to a car show on Sunday morning. Ran pretty great but missing having my speedometer. Also have a bunch of little exhaust leaks and the front suspension is definitely looking forward to some TLC over the winter.

[SeanP]

Disassembled my dash to see if there were any obvious issues re: the speedo. Nothing seems out of place. I'm assuming the cable is broken or pinched or cooked somewhere and that's impacting things. I'm going to try the Ferris Bueller trick and have the rear end raised while I try to connect the cable to see if it engages. If it does I'll just tighten it down. If not I'll replace the cable (got a new one for $25 from a Scott Drake dealer near me who's winding down) and hopefully that will work.

I've also developed a very rough idle, which I believe to be a vacuum leak of some sort. I'm going to do some investigating to see if I can't figure it out.

I rebuilt the carburetor last week too, so now my accelerator pump doesn't leak fuel out the top anymore! Most everything else inside the carb was in pretty good condition, except there was quite a bit of sediment from gasoline which I cleaned out of the bowl and various passageways. Should run well when I sort out this vacuum leak!

[SeanP]

I haven't had time to run the car and do more investigating yet... but I did pop the hood and do a visual. There's a lot of what appears to be blow-by on the intake manifold in front of the carburetor. I suspect there's a small gap there somewhere on the mounting surface. I'm going to lift the carb off and make sure everything is sitting nice and flush. I'm also going to swap out the mounting gasket that came with my rebuild kit for a thicker one. All other things being ok, I'm thinking this will fix my vacuum leak... or at least I would have fixed something that needed fixing.

[SeanP]

Ok! Seems that a lot of my crappy idling was due to the crappy mounting gasket I used. Went back to my thick 1/16" gaskets and everything is sealed nicely (my son even helped a bit which was fun!). Idle quality is decent, it just isn't holding revs, which makes sense because I have the idle set too low. Unfortunately, once I reset the idle speed I could not get the car started again because the battery is probably toast. I have it hooked up to a charger and will hopefully be able to get it started again to see if it's ok. Car was not enjoying sub 1000 rpm speeds when cold, but everything sounded exactly as it should in the 1200 - 1500 range when I was holding the pedal at those levels. Probably just needs to warm up and all would be well.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah, it's a garburator. Those will want a properly configured choke and that RPM range in order to run right when cold in P/N, not to mention stay running when dropped in gear.

[SeanP]

Yeah, it's a garburator. Those will want a properly configured choke and that RPM range in order to run right when cold in P/N, not to mention stay running when dropped in gear.

That's correct! I have the choke disconnected at the moment due to having lost my tiny e-clips during the rebuild process. I have a new e-clip kit that came in last week. I'll reconnect the choke linkage and then set everything up properly.

Battery seems to have taken a charge, so that's a plus! I'll give er another go this weekend.

[SeanP]

Thought I'd provide a brief update since it's been a while.

Got the car sort of mostly running but I could not keep it running. I think my fuel filter may be clogged, so bought a few more and will try again (Amazon had a sale on wix filters for my carburetor, which was welcome). In case it's the carb itself, I also recently acquired a new to me 600cfm Holley. I installed it but it needs some new gaskets as the bowls leak.

Also bought and installed a new, thicker gauge metal transmission pan. Hoping this one doesn't leak, but fear I may have over tightened one of the bolts, as the gasket bulged out a bit. I'm going to put a quart of fluid in and see what happens.

And to make things even more fun, I burned out my reman starter I installed in 2024. Turns out the heat wrap I put around it to protect it from the header it's crammed underneath also insulates it and causes catastrophic overheating during extended cranking. FML

So I'm converting to a magnetic gear reduction starter. That's just arrived at the house, so hoping to install that soon. Just need to do some easy reworking of the wiring to the starter and it should work. These starters are smaller and about half the weight, so hopefully easier to install and will have more airflow around it to protect it from future overheating.

Oh and bought a new battery, but it's a bit too big for the tray I have in there, so I'm going to have to sort that out too, but not a big deal. Apparently the original battery size was smaller than then style that replaced it (24F). Guys either mod the tray they have or there are aftermarket trays that look stock. I'll probably mod what's in there and then install a new one in future... once I literally have everything else sorted out.

Oh x2 - also my speedo cable is caput. The cable end that fits into the gear at the transmission side is gone, so the gear wasn't turning anything... hence no speedo. I have a new cable and am currently working on the swap.

Oh x3 - mid pipe off the header is mega cracked, patched temporarily, patch failed, repatched. Local(ish) shop is going to make an H-Pipe for me (currently straight pipes). Looking forward to this.

To Do - install new starter, refill transmission, sort out choke on carburetor and replace my missing clips (have some new ones), install carburetor, install new gasket kit into Holley carburetor to have on hand in case old carburetor has decided it no longer likes to work, install new speedo cable.

Later To Do - replace entire front suspension except shocks (these are relatively new), brake cylinders, front bearings. Get an alignment.

After Later To Do - Have new mid-pipe made for exhaust.

As I am able To Do - keep up the good fight getting my windshield clips installed... only have the front bottom left to do and they are a bear and a half!

[SeanP]

Got some work done over the last couple of days. Managed to get my choke linkage re-connected on the old 4300. I also installed my new style starter motor. Speedo cable is half installed... just need to get it through the firewall (which I access from the driver's side foot well, so will wait until my car is back on the ground).

I have a mysterious coolant leak at the back passenger side of my engine. I don't think it's the head gasket as I don't notice anything in my oil nor was the car shooting steam out the tailpipes when I did get it to run for a few seconds. I don't think it's the freeze plug on the back of the engine because then I'd have drips on both sides as that's in the middle.

I'm hoping its my heater hose, but I haven't been able to take a close look at it as the passenger side of my car is too close to my storage bench for me to fit beside it right now.... it could also be my intake manifold gasket or RTV China wall. I mean, I don't want to have to reinstall my intake manifold, but I'm fairly practiced at that now so it's not the end of the world if I do.

It could still end up being my head gasket, which would suck, but again, I have all of the stuff to do the job, including new bolts. I just don't want to do it.

[87gtVIC]

How much is the coolant leaking?

[SeanP]

How much is the coolant leaking?

Not very much tbh. Just some small drips making their way to the bottom of the bellhousing. Its maybe a single drip every few hours? Hard to say.

Im also thinking it may be the freeze plug at the back of the head.

[SeanP]

Did not get a chance to do anything this past weekend. I'm home tomorrow morning and my plan is to at least get the car back on the ground so I can have a look at the back of the head to see if that's where my leak is coming from.

[SeanP]

Well finally got a chance to get my car down off the jack stands on the weekend to identify where my coolant leak is coming from. Turns out it's coming out of the rear China Wall on the intake manifold. Looks like I get to reinstall it!

This may also be causing a vacuum leak which would explain some of the rough running issues I've been having. Either way, it needs to be addressed.

So I'm going to spend this week cleaning up the garage and prep the area for surgery.

On a side note, my 7 year old daughter was helping me out this weekend and did some work under the car all by herself (snipping tails off of a couple of zip ties I put on to help keep my starter wires tidy). She did a great job!

[jaywish]

very cool.

[michelle]

On a side note, my 7 year old daughter was helping me out this weekend and did some work under the car all by herself (snipping tails off of a couple of zip ties I put on to help keep my starter wires tidy). She did a great job!

Never a bad thing to get daughters interested and involved in things automotive...stuff my dad taught me starting around that age saved me many a dollar through the years...

And, we need all the interest in older stuff that we can get, so this is a double bonus.

[friskyfrankie]

Never a bad thing to get daughters interested and involved in things automotive...stuff my dad taught me starting around that age saved me many a dollar through the years...

And, we need all the interest in older stuff that we can get, so this is a double bonus.

+1!