A few weekends ago NE-CEG / Mass-Conn NECO had a dyno day which turned out to be a 3L shoot out. Not one stock 2.5L equipped contour or cougar was present. Needless to say Aircougar being the local go to contour/cougar mechanic and all around great guy had a great representation of his work run on the dyno.
First some back ground. In the last 3 years Aircougar has completed near 30 engine swaps, 4 atx->mtx swaps and 2 mtx->atx swaps for the members of NE-CEG and Mass/Con NECO. He also has done numerous other repairs and modification for countless peoples. Many including myself are grateful of all the work he has done.
It is the preference of Aircougar Performance to build Ported 3L engines. The main point of this thread will be to document how well Aircougar can port the 3L engines. This should also lend credit to the detail and know how presented in the Ported 3L how-to that Aircougar created.
The dyno used was a Mustang Dyno at ESP in Sterling, MA.
Also all cars as I recall had the standard bolt on mods. I.E. headers, intake, SVT cams and exhaust of some kind.
First up is an untuned 3L. This happens to be Aircougars own SVT. IIRC the engine has ~30k on it and was finished a week before the dyno. The best numbers where 188 hp and 167 ft-lbs torque.
Next up is a tuned 3L. This Cougar is owned by andrewm6097. This engine was ported by Aircougar and installed by andrewm6097. First run the car was lacking fuel on the top end since the tune wasn’t dialed in yet. After I added fuel with the andrewm6097's xcal3 the numbers went up. The best numbers where 198 hp and 171 ft-lbs torque.
Next up is Newcat16 with an untuned 3L. This cougar also had an atx->mtx swap performed at the same time the 3L was installed. The best numbers where 186 hp and 167 ft-lbs torque.
Next up we have cannondalemtb. Aircougar corrected the miss timed engine on this contour. It was also tuned but the tune needs to be redone since it was tuned with the timing being off a little. Also the secondaries crapped out on the dyno so this run was with them pinned open. The best run was 192 hp and 171 ft-lbs torque.
The next car up was another untuned SVT that Aircougar ported the engine. This SVT is owned by Ctmystique and he installed the engine. This SVT is running stock exhaust but has my optimized stock y-pipe on it and a gutted main cat along with msds headers. The best numbers where 180 hp. I can’t read the torque from the copy of the print out so I will update with that later.
Finally we end with my contour. It is a tuned 3L with the NPG turbo kit. At 10 psi it hit 286 hp and 275 ft-lbs torque. 8 psi where I have been running it was 275 hp and ~250 ft-lbs torque. It appears that I can benefit from a 3” exhaust over my current 2.5” exhaust. Aircougar again ported this 3L and we both installed the engine. I installed the turbo kit myself.
Last edited:
