[K10wN]

Welcome to the forum.

The factory headers have pre-cats in them so well worth upgrading for a bit of extra hp. There's another manufacturer in the UK. They have stainless de-cat header sets listed on ebay for around $400 + shipping from the UK. Being UK, they're made for RHD cars.

Magnaflow makes a direct fit high performance cat. And I don't know about you, but the twin systems look nice, 2.5" systems with 3" outlets either side. Mongoose make these systems direct fit for around $670 + shipping from the UK.

Expect gains of around 20-25hp from doing the entire system through including a free breathing cold air intake. Pod or panel, as long as it's getting it's air from a cold source as there's quite a bit of heat soak under the bonnet of the V6. I like the look of the K&N cold air intake myself over the 57i pod.

Expensive with small gains, but that's the nature of the Cougar. It's not an easy engine to get high power from, and few seem to make or develop parts for a forgotten engine.

One popular upgrade in the US is to swap the engine out for the Duratec 3.0L V6, which with the same upgrades as the 2.5L, yeild higher outputs. Lots of info on these engine swaps on the NECO forums.

Do you have the MTX or ATX box? There's alot more room to work with in the engine bay of the MTX (manual) gearbox models, especially around the air intake.