Mtncat
1st Gear Poster
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2023
- Messages
- 39
- Location
- Hedgesville WV
- Vehicle Details
- 1996 Cougar XR7 Special Edition 4.6L 4V Naturally Aspirated

Looks like you are getting a lot completed Matt. Hope ya have it rolling soon!
Looks like you are getting a lot completed Matt. Hope ya have it rolling soon!
Can you run it without that bolt, or will it cause a vacuum leak?
You only have the torque strap on the driver side??
Yep, I had midmount magnaflow before the DOHC swap and always loved its sound, something about tailpipes being behind the muffler just sounds better, same reason I think Fox and SN95s sound better than modern ones
Few other loose ends I had to deal with. I remembered @97_30th had trouble with the unisteer U joint and headers interfering but I seemed to get fairly lucky but it is tight, I’m hoping my torque strap will prevent contact but just in case I used a button head bolt and ground the welded nut for a little more clearance. I’d like to bash the tube a hair too but I can’t get any speed from my hammer in such a tight space.
View attachment 12844View attachment 12843
Also went back to the cut Tokicos while I was here
View attachment 12845
View attachment 12846
I’ll be kicking myself for it first time I hear the air dam scrape but I only put the taller Vogtlands back in trying to fix an issue it didn’t solve or turn out even exist.
I think the 5.0 4.6 sounds better than the coyote totally. My idea is that the coyote sounds different because it can adjust the cams itself, like pretty much any new DOHC motor. The 1UZ sounds like that, Lexus ISF and lc500 with the 5.0 have pretty much the same sound. Something about the cams adjusting give it that sound, which sounds kinda wack to me.
Anyways, I really like how sn95’s and new edges sound dumping right out the muffler instead of going all the way back. Kinda like how our cars run the muffler all the way out back.
Music to my ears.![]()
I can still hear the open manifolds on mine from like 15 years ago when I did my own exhaust work, not quite as elegant as open headers on a 4v with fat cams, but still!![]()
Is that the TrueBendz exhaust system? Looks really nice.