Hi,

Im new to the american muscle car community, but I'm looking into buying a 1967 Mercury Cougar XR7, though someone has removed the stock engine, and put in a 1987 Ford 302 truck engine in it instead.

Now im wondering if this engine is any good? Is a truck engine good in a "normal car"? Ive no idea if its a High output engine or not. Is the truck engine any different from a non-truck engine i.e. a mustang one?

The current owner pulled the following casting number from it, and the only part ive figured out is the E7TE part.
29-e7te-ca-8

Ive tried searching the web with the above numbers, but with next to no luck.
Its also fitted with a Holly carb, Mallory distributor and Edelbrock intake.

Thank you very much, and please bear with me since I'm new to these old cars/engines

// Pierre

 

E7 were pretty good(truck) heads, an improvement to the e6,if u have rollercam wud be better, would have to check distributor gear if its steel or cast,rollers have the steel dist.gear, unless u remove the intake to check the lifters,either way its an good engine, better than the junk they make today in my opinion

 

The number i posted is supposed to be from the engine block. Don't know about what kind of head's thats on the engine.
Maybe you guys can tell from a picture? (Long shot)

Since its not the stock 289 in the car, id like to know as much as possible before deciding if I'm going to buy it or not.



Thanks

 

All 302/5.0 engines built from 1987 on use the same basic platform(block, crank, and rods) with a few key differences, so for the most part they all have roughly the same power potential. Most engines had cast or hypereutetic pistons(trucks and most cars) only the '87-'92 5.0HO got forged pistons and that motor appeared in Mustangs, The Lincoln Mk7, the Cougar XR7, and select T-birds only. All these motors produced about 9:1 CR regardless of piston type so unless you plan on boost or nitros there isn't much benefit to having an actual HO motor. There were quite a few different cams used.. some flat tappet and some roller, some bigger and some smaller, but all E7TE and later blocks were cast to accept the factory roller cam setup so your block could be retrofitted if you desired since a truck motor of that vintage wasn't delivered with a roller cam in it.
Most 5.0 motors built from this point on used the same E7TE heads, the exceptions were the '93-95 Mustang Cobra and '96+ Explorer 5.0 which got better GT40 heads. Earlier motors typically had smaller cams too(with the exception of the HO which pretty much had the same cam for it's whole production life), truck motors used small(tiny) flat tappet cams up until about 1992 when the motors were switched over to an equally small roller cam, and then in '94 common sense took over and all 5.0 engines(except the HO) got the better Explorer(F4TE) roller cam.

So the bottom line is the motor in that car is a fine platform that is capable of about 300hp with little more than a cam change and quite a bit more than that with bigger heads/cam/intake and a free flowing exhaust of course. The bottom end of the motor will support 400hp indefinitely as long as rpms don't get out of hand.. like well beyond 6000rpm, overall these engines are very well built.

 

Thank you very much for your detailed answer Conanski!
Im not planning on doing anything yet with the engine since there are other parts higher up on the priority list that needs to be taken care of. But its nice to know what you could expect with some modifications to the 302 engine

Tomorrow we're probably going to take a closer look at the car, and have a proper test drive to see how the engine/transmission is.
Oh, by the way, maybe i shouldn't ask about this but ill do it anyway. What kind of MPG could you assume from the 302? Ive seen F150's around 14-16 mpg, but the Cougar is a lighter car so maybe that will increase it by 1 or 2 miles.

Thanks again!

 

If the motor is in good tune and the car has reasonable street gearing(3.00-3.50) it's entirely likely it'll get at least 15mpg average and better than that on the highway, and I'm assuming it has a C4 or C6 for those numbers. If by chance the PO also swapped in the AOD from the truck or the car has a manual with OD you could easily see mid 20mpg on the highway, something to keep in mind as a future mod if the car only has a 3-speed.

 

The car is supposed to be geared with a 3.00 rear axle.
Im not sure about the transmission. We think we pulled the code for a C6 transmission from the door tag, but it quickly became dark when we had our first look at it.
Never driven it yet, so ill find out if its got an AOD when we finally drive it.

You mean putting an AOD in the car would be a good upgrade? As far as i know the C6 is a strong trans, but doesn't seem that efficient.
Thanks

 

The AOD would be a good upgrade since it has overdrive, and even a built 5.0 won't hurt a late model('90's) AOD or an earlier one built with all the updates and a shift kit.

 

Okey, thanks!

Unfortunately it seems that the car was installed with the smaller C4 transmission.
The car needs a new radiator before we can drive it properly, and I'm going to change the oil and filter as well. I noticed there's a FRAM filter on the car right now, and I've heard bad stuff about these filters. Does it matter what kind of filter i get, except for a high quality one like Bosch or Mobil 1 etc? Any recommendations?

What kind of oil should these engine run on? Ive got 10w30 synthetic in our 2000 hyundai, and since we live in california it doesn't get that cold. But is synthetic recommended in older engines? Would a complete engine flush (5 min idle with additive) do any good you think?

Thanks

 

Hi again guys,
Just a quick question, I've been advised to add zinc to the fuel due to being unleaded. Shouldn't i add lead if thats the case? Do these engines need that or do they run properly on lets say 87 octane unleaded fuel? It might run fine, but will it run fine for a long period of time?

Thanks & Merry Christmas

 

The original 289 was built to run leaded fuel but by 1987 all lead had been removed from gasoline so the engine you have in the car is good to run on unleaded fuel.
The zinc you talk about is what has been removed from most engine oils. With almost all engines using roller cams the need for zinc in oils is no longer required. Well for most applications that is. If you race your engine or have an old car then you should use an oil with zinc in it or add one of a number of additives available. Most are labeled as "break in oil" for adding to new/rebuilt engines. The reason for the removal of zinc is that it gets into the exhaust when the engine burns it as all engines will do at some point. The zinc can cause the catalytic converter to not work properly increasing pollution so out it went.

Even though your 302 is a flat tappet cam engine you should be OK with any good quality oil as it is broken in, but if you want to be on the safe side add some of the "break in" oil additive at each oil change. It can't hurt as you don't have a converter to harm.

 

Okey. Just got the car and figured we'd try to take care of it from the beginning. I don't have any idea how the previous owner has operated the car, so I'm planning on changing all of the basic fluids etc.

So id just add something like 1/4 of a bottle per change then? The products says to add the hole bottle, but that seems unnecessary since, like you said, the engine is already broken in.

I've seen a lot of people using Valvolines VR1 racing oil. But the ordinary VR1 does apparently not have more zinc in it than most ordinary oil. So any Mobil 1 or Castrol non-synthetic oil with some additives should do the trick just as good as VR1 and additives.
Maybe people are running around with the "non-street-legal" VR1 oil? The only way its not street legal is because it ruins the cat converter? When/if the car is not equipped with one, is it good to go?

 

Save your money and just run a good oil and filter (no fram filter). The cam and lifters are all ready broke in so you really don't need any additive. but if it makes you sleep better add a 1/4 to every oil change.. and this is how I feel, other feel different but don't use any of those engine cleaners (sea foam) or what ever it is. all it will do is loosen up crap that has found a safe place to rest at the bottom of the oil pan.. I would be more concerned about running unleaded fuel with those heads.. do a compression test every now and again, the unleaded fuel can cause the exhaust valves to collapse into their seats.. Run a additive to the fuel...

Good luck

I run Motocraft filters on all my fords..

 

There's a FRAM filter on the car right now, and thats the reason why i want to change it.
I take your side when it comes to engine cleaners, i think slush buildup in old engines just helps, as long as all pressures and temps etc are okay.

Just any LEAD additive would be fine then. Great thanks!

So conventional oil is thy oil to use? Would 10w-30 be favorable to just straight 30w. Ive found that O'Reilly has Valvoline racing oil for 5.59 a quart. With 6 quarts its not going to be cheap, but if thats necessary then what to do :P

Sorry for being un-educated, but I've just changed oil a few times on modern (-00 year) engines which simply run on any full synthetic oil. Don't want to upset the old 302...
Thanks again, and merry christmas!

 

You should not have to worry about valve recession with engines made after the mid-70's, when leaded gasoline was phased out. All manufacturers started to harden the seats since then to accommodate the loss of lead in automotive fuels.

If you change your oil regularly, like at 5000 mile intervals, using a high quality oil, you should be fine with non-synthetics. If you live in a cold climate, it's a good idea to use a multi-viscosity oil for better flow during really cold start up.

I've used Fram oil filters for most of my cars' lives, and recently posted on this forum the compression numbers for the 302 HO in my 1987 Mustang GT with 160,000+ miles, and some folks commented on how good they were. So I have not had bad experiences with them. Having said that, I recently had a Fram fuel filter that started to block flow just a few months after installation. Either it failed, or I dumped something into my fuel tank from a filling station.