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#49's new powerplant has arrived, let the build begin

Interior Gutted!

Interior Gutted!

Well this is how I spent my Sat morning/afternoon. I still need to gut the trunk and remove the seat belts, but shes pretty much done. I'm not going to take the dash out... or at least I'm not planning on it.

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Hopefully you didn't break many of the plastic clips for the moldings. Your pictures bring me back to a year and a half ago when I gutted mine for cleaning and sound deadening install. I ended up reinstalling some of the molding with well nuts, hold everything real tight.
 
Hopefully you didn't break many of the plastic clips for the moldings. Your pictures bring me back to a year and a half ago when I gutted mine for cleaning and sound deadening install. I ended up reinstalling some of the molding with well nuts, hold everything real tight.

Actually I got through it pretty smoothly. Only one I broke was on the passenger side B-pillar molding above the seat belt. The clip on the top sheared off. However it was a clean break, nothing super glue couldn't fix :) Although I may back it up with some JB-weld just to be sure it doesn't break again on the install.

One thing that is driving me nuts though and is going to cause me to make a trip to the junk yard are the dang screw covers on the mirror backs, door handles, and door panels. They are impossible to get off with out scratching them up. So thankfully I have two full cans of Ford MB interior paint and will be able to paint interior pieces I find in the junk yard to match :cool:
 
Just an Update

Just an Update

I pulled out my y-pipe, test pipe, and flex pipe this morning. Then my brother came out in the afternoon and helped me work on the car too. We got the coolant drained, radiator and fans removed, transaxle drained, CV shafts pulled, wiring harnesses removed from the car, clutch line disconnected, shunt tank removed, A/C compressor unbolted from the engine, and the car back on the ground on it's own wheels. The engine was just about ready to come out, but my brother had to take off. Next time I can get someone to help me I need to pull the hood, disconnect the last heater line, support the engine with a lift, and removed the roll resistors and engine mounts and out the engine and trans shall come.
 
Great to hear that you're about to pull out the old motor and its all getting to the point where all your goodies are ready to go on. Ever figure out about that front suspension setup to get the power to the ground? I'm VERY interested in what you find out in that regard as I'm sure you are too. Btw that car is stupid clean... and its over 10 years old from the rust belt? How do you do it?!
 
Great to hear that you're about to pull out the old motor and its all getting to the point where all your goodies are ready to go on. Ever figure out about that front suspension setup to get the power to the ground? I'm VERY interested in what you find out in that regard as I'm sure you are too. Btw that car is stupid clean... and its over 10 years old from the rust belt? How do you do it?!

Yea well to be honest is hasn't been in the rust belt it's entire life. I've only owned the car since 2005. The car was original purchased in Niagara Falls, NY and then the guy moved to Mooresville, NC in like 2000. I'm the second owner.

parts of that car have been repainted like three times in the last two years. hahaha

Yea the front bumper...
 
Also I am willing to bet that most (if not all) axles that have broken with these cars have been due to a single (or multiple over time) extremly high torsional load caused by a sudden change in traction. Imagine your running a bolt into a threaded hole with an impact gun... the bolt you are using is a lot longer then it needs to be... what happens when the bolt bottoms out in the hole? The impact gun shears the head of the bolt clean off. That is essentially what is happening with these axle shafts on Contours (I'm guessing).

fyi, all 16 of my axle breaks and both dead diffs have been from the 2.5 in the manner described above, i have yet to break one with my 3.0, 94a mounts, ksports on full stiff, and all brand new components....:)
 
Your pistons aren't going to work?

Well here is the response I got from the guy there...

"they are full race cams and you will need to look at upgrading your valvesprings and get custom pistons with valve reliefs in them, due to the lift and duration. Otherwise, you'll end up smacking the valves into the piston heads."

so... yea I don't know, this is why I am trying to find out more info on them. My pistons reliefs are no different then the OEM pistons from the looks of them. Also the bummer about my Diamond Racing pistons is that they do not have the teflon coating on the skirts like the OEM ones do. I'm debating about sending them back in to have that completed by Diamond Racing.

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the 3100 and 3400 gm motors all utilize a short skirt teflon coated piston, the coating would always wear off after 10k or so, often times the customer will complain of the noise from this further down the road, but the teflon coating isn't that great IMO

Steve-O
 
Honestly, since you are turboing it I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the race cams. They'd be nice but your motor will be 500whp capable with the stockers... Plus then you retain the stock driveability when your foot is not into the boost.
 
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