I need these 4 to complete the collection. Hit me up
I know, this is a mustang forum, but hopefully its cousin is close enough to allow this question here. Been looking at mustangs for awhile, but their prices have just skyrocketed. In an unexpected turn, I just found a 67 mercury cougar in a guys barn, rebuilt 3 speed manual, rebuilt 351, surface rust, pretty clean interior, good body, good glass, he wants 3k for it. Hasn't been on the road for 20 years. I know mustangs a bit, but not cougars, is this even close to the right price?
She ran when I bought her, was hoping it was going to be a tinkering car, turns out I got myself into a big ol' project car.
She's got the 351M engine with a 2150 motorcraft 2bbl carb.
She started well and ran great when I got it, I was on a drive after replacing the brakes and tires and the spark died on me and it wouldn't even try to start. Got it towed to a shop, they confirmed that there was no spark and the battery was pretty close to toast, so I buy a battery from them. They also tell me the first things they would do is a tune up and a carb rebuild, which I was already intending to do.
So I replace the plugs (checked the gaps,) wires, cap, rotor and ignition coil. Here's where I learned a big lesson, I went ahead and rebuilt the carb without testing if the tune up got her running, which has made diagnosis a huge pain in the ass. It was my first carb rebuild, but I thought it went fairly smoothly. However, when I tried to start her up it sounds super labored. I notice the battery cables are super hot after cranking, to the point where the jacket was melting. So I go ahead and get custom 2 gauge battery cables, as well as a starter cable and starter relay.
The strange thing is, at this point sometimes it cranks great for ten seconds or so, only to start struggling hard again. Also, it smells way to strongly of gas after cranking. I take the carb back off, and there is a damn POOL of gas in the intake manifold. So I figure the excess gas is washing the cylinders and maybe taking up enough space in the cylinders such that it causes the engine to struggle to turn over. By the way, I checked for spark before this and I was indeed getting spark.
So I take the damn carb half apart again, make sure the float setting is correct, make sure there's nothing keeping the float needle from seating, make sure the idle adjustment needles are 2 turns out to start. Also I checked to make sure the power valve diaphragm wasn't broken. I also replaced the chocke pull-off because it wasn't holding vacuum. Sopped up the pool of gas in the intake, put the carb back on, and this time she cranked pretty solid for a good 30 seconds before beggining to struggle again, but still no start.
At this point this car is driving me insane, I've tried everything my poor brain can drum up, and I need some ideas bad. Any advice or thoughts would be very appriciated.
SEND HELP
Update:
Got it started!! I managed to jam the distributor cap on backward
... keep reading on reddit ➡
She's got the 351M engine with a 2150 motorcraft 2bbl carb.
She started well and ran great when I got it, I was on a drive after replacing the brakes and tires and the spark died on me and it wouldn't even try to start. Got it towed to a shop, they confirmed that there was no spark and the battery was pretty close to toast, so I buy a battery from them. They also tell me the first things they would do is a tune up and a carb rebuild, which I was already intending to do.
So I replace the plugs (checked the gaps,) wires, cap, rotor and ignition coil. Here's where I learned a big lesson, I went ahead and rebuilt the carb without testing if the tune up got her running, which has made diagnosis a huge pain in the ass. It was my first carb rebuild, but I thought it went fairly smoothly. However, when I tried to start her up it sounds super labored. I notice the battery cables are super hot after cranking, to the point where the jacket was melting. So I go ahead and get custom 2 gauge battery cables, as well as a starter cable and starter relay.
The strange thing is, at this point sometimes it cranks great for ten seconds or so, only to start struggling hard again. Also, it smells way to strongly of gas after cranking. I take the carb back off, and there is a damn POOL of gas in the intake manifold. So I figure the excess gas is washing the cylinders and maybe taking up enough space in the cylinders such that it causes the engine to struggle to turn over. By the way, I checked for spark before this and I was indeed getting spark.
So I take the damn carb half apart again, make sure the float setting is correct, make sure there's nothing keeping the float needle from seating, make sure the idle adjustment needles are 2 turns out to start. Also I checked to make sure the power valve diaphragm wasn't broken. I also replaced the chocke pull-off because it wasn't holding vacuum. Sopped up the pool of gas in the intake, put the carb back on, and this time she cranked pretty solid for a good 30 seconds before beggining to struggle again, but still no start.
At this point this car is driving me insane, I've tried everything my poor brain can drum up, and I need some ideas bad. And it's starting to rain here in Seattle and biking to work is going to be a reeeaaal bummer soon. Sorry for the small novel of a post, any advice or thoughts would be very appriciated.
SEND HELP
Update:
Got it started!! I managed to jam the distributor cap on backwards doing th
... keep reading on reddit ➡