3.0l with stock exhaust...

[Nafunu32]

Will this affect anything with my car? I'm a little short on money right now, but in a few weeks I'll be ordering a Borla exhaust kit. Wanting to make sure than once I get my 3.0 running it crappy exhaust won't screw anything up.

[StealthyWeasel]

you'll be fine, how did you 2.5 run with it? lol..

[Nafunu32]

I have yet to figure out the full potential to my 2.5 lol... a rod was missing in the LIM so the secondaries was never opening up... my car would top out at 105... sad...

[BigBalledOX]

You won't necessarily damage the engine, but you'll be choking it off big-time. The stock exhaust is highly restrictive on the 2.5L. The better your car can "breathe" so to speak, i.e. the better it can intake and exhaust air, the more horsepower you can make, in general anyways.

[Blackcoog]

You might have a lot of torque down low with it. It will cut the hp down up top though.

[JScullin]

If you want a cheap exhaust but not that "ricey" sound then look into a Pacesetter setup. They start around $200-250 for a 2.5" kit and cost a little more for the stainless steel version.

I used to have one, and despite the rust issues 2 years in (New England Winters), it was one of the better sounding exhausts I've heard on the Cougar. The Borla and most others sound nice at idle or low-speed cruising, but IMO it starts to drone too much & lose it's deep grumble above 2,500rpms. Whereas the Pacesetter has a nice, sublte tone throughout the rpm range and gives the car a nice "European" sporty sound.

I'll post my vids when I get home. I have ones of a Pacesetter w/a KKM intake, Dynomax w/CATless high-flow Y-Pipe w/KKM and my current setup, a Borla w/CAT and high-flow Y-Pipe and KKM. All on my 2.5l. The latter 2 are from Trubendz and when having a shop install it ($100 for y-pipe & exhaust) they commented on how nice of a kit it was.

[B3NN3TT]

I have yet to figure out the full potential to my 2.5 lol... a rod was missing in the LIM so the secondaries was never opening up... my car would top out at 105... sad...

Don't the non-sport editions top out at 105 anyway?

[JScullin]

Yea, around 123mph is where the governor kicked in on mine. The sport packaged Cougs are only limited by drag which I hear is in the ~140mph area.

[Nafunu32]

How can I remove this governor? If its something simple I might as well do it now while the motor is out... not saying I can or will reach 125 mph... just doin it for future mods.

[JScullin]

You'd get a chip that's custom tuned to any mods you have. That's something you do at the end instead of throwing money away to reflash the chip whenever you add something new.

And you don't just phone it in either. You take the car to a shop that will hook your car up to a dyno and test & tune for the best results.

[Nafunu32]

I have an ADC chip... blackcoog said if my car isn't running right to take it to a dyno, and then send my charts to adc with my chip. When I was talking to ADC they said that my 3.0 was a pretty common swap so they have lots of information to get them running close to perfect.

[BigBalledOX]

I have an ADC chip... blackcoog said if my car isn't running right to take it to a dyno, and then send my charts to adc with my chip. When I was talking to ADC they said that my 3.0 was a pretty common swap so they have lots of information to get them running close to perfect.
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Funny how I hear otherwise.

Scullin's hitting the nail right on the head. There is simply no substitute for a good, full-blown dyno tune. How much is it to go to a dyno and get it hooked up and get three pulls on it? At Logan Motorsports, its $85 just for three pulls. Now, you go, you pay your $85, then you send the chip and your dyno pulls back to ADC. When they feel like getting around to it (and thats can be quite a while from my understanding) then they send you the chip back. You go back to the dyno, drop another $85 on another three pulls, and HOPE they fixed it right. Otherwise its back for more mail-order work. Sound like much fun? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Contrast that joy with what I did. I took my car to Logan Motorsports. For $350 I got a full, custom dyno tune for MY car, a custom chip burn and that also included labor for having to install a bung in the lower O2 sensor to hook up the wideband equipment. That's about the cost of four trips to the dyno, and I would bet you'd make at least that many to get the car really dialed in.

[Nafunu32]

Other wise about what? That ADC themselves told me that the chip they are making me is a pretty common swap?

[JScullin]

That's the problem, "common swap". They giving you something set to generic, safe parameters most likely.

Where is ADC located? Are they going to take into account the altitude your car is at or the air it's pulling in? I haven't done a swap myself, but Air/Fuel ratios are a big part in getting the most out of your engine.

[BigBalledOX]

I edited and added, read more above d00d.

[Blackcoog]

I'd rather send someone to ADC then telling them they have to find a shop in town that can tune the car. Most shops will have no idea how to tune a Cougar and not many have the ability to use the SCT softare yet. Most will know how to tune the normal Mustangs or even Hondas. I'd rather go with someone that has done 100's of Contour/Cougar dynos and knows how to get it right. Also for a little extra money you can get an X-Cal and you don't need to do mail order they can email you a new program and you can update your X-Cal that way. That saves so much time and seems to be worth it in my opinion.

[Nafunu32]

Coog, do I get the X-Cal as well as the chip or what? He mentioned something about that, but I was confused and just said man, just send me the chip. ha

[BigBalledOX]

:shrug: Everyone has their own train of thought on this I suppose. Maybe I just lucked out, but I'll never go through any kind of mail again.