• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Double edged sword:SE motor in SVT

kickaxeguitars said:
Don't feel sorry for me guys.. With the dual Y-pipe exhaust, 5-speed and SVT intake, you barely notice the power difference.. I never once thought there was a difference between the SVT's I have driven and this car..

If the experts at the EGLR meet wouldn't have told me it was an SE motor, I would have never known the difference in power.

No, I didn't pay a whole lot for the car and it is a work car(I own a '06 Fusion SEL and a Saturn Vue(w/ a stick!) Not to mention I just got rid of a '68 Camaro SS..

With that said, my 'Tour serves my purpose perfectly:Economical, and good looking. And now that I got rid of the Konis and lowering springs, I really love this car.. She floats on air..GREAT WORK CAR.
Click to expand...

I think there is quite a difference. I remember being at Spring Zing behind brapple who has an 5spd SE engine with most if not all the SVT goodies while I had just a borla and open K&N on my 5spd V6. He would constantly pull away from me and there was just nothing I could do about it.
 
hotdimmes said:
I think there is quite a difference. I remember being at Spring Zing behind brapple who has an 5spd SE engine with most if not all the SVT goodies while I had just a borla and open K&N on my 5spd V6. He would constantly pull away from me and there was just nothing I could do about it.
Click to expand...


correct ... if your motor has SE cams you will be way down on power ... needless to say my SE from the drivers seat feels like it has more torque then my SVT ... however the SVT with the lightened flywheel revs so much faster and smoother in the upper RPM range :drool: actually before the cars where dead even in performance, from observation

fyi I have the full SVT intake from fender to heads, Cams, injectors, PCM, headers optimized y-pipe and at that time stock SVT exhaust. search for my dyno plots as I posted them after some iterations of my setup

you will notice the difference in the upper rpm range. The SE cams will stop making power around 5.5k rpm, alittle bit more if you swap PCM. Now the SVT cams of course make power right to redline :drool:
 
Last edited:
kickaxeguitars said:
Don't forget about a slightly bigger radiator and oil cooler.. And the valve covers are black on SVT...
Click to expand...


yeah, but people have been using stock contour radiators on their SVT's cause the SVT unit is hard to come by....i would add the oil cooler anyway though. you can just bolt on the SVT motor bits and be good to go though...it's just not gonna be cheap. Atleast i don't think swapping cams is an easy job on these cars.

i'd also get headers or atleast the SVT y pipe ( think it flows better...not sure)...preferrably optimised.

Maybe brian can chine in on the cost factor....i'd say the cams are the biggest factor here. the extrude honing was overrated IMO unless you have it redone periodically because of all the crap that build up in there anyway. or atleast clean out your uim/lim every year!
 
Last edited:
TGO said:
yeah, but people have been using stock contour radiators on their SVT's cause the SVT unit is hard to come by....i would add the oil cooler anyway though. you can just bolt on the SVT motor bits and be good to go though...it's just not gonna be cheap. Atleast i don't think swapping cams is an easy job on these cars.

i'd also get headers or atleast the SVT y pipe ( think it flows better...not sure)...preferrably optimised.

Maybe brian can chine in on the cost factor....i'd say the cams are the biggest factor here. the extrude honing was overrated IMO unless you have it redone periodically because of all the crap that build up in there anyway. or atleast clean out your uim/lim every year!
Click to expand...


to swap the cams you need to remove the UIM, valve covers, alrenator, alternator bracket and front cover. It isn't to bad when you are already changing the alternator and installing headers.

in terms of cost ... you can click the link in my signature and see what I payed ... but figure this

UIM: 200~400
LIM: 80~120
TB w/bracket: 120~160
cams: 175 ~250
injector: 60~120
PCM: 80~150

so about $715~1200 give or take.

also the exhaust manifolds and y-pipe are the same, but an optimized y-pipe does make more torque.

pre98 had black valve covers, post 98 except SVTs have un finished silver colored valve covers and UIM.
 
Redlineracer12 said:
How does that work? If you put the se injectors with an SVT PCM wouldn't it run poopy? At least you could use 87 octane? :shrug: :troutslap:
Click to expand...

you should get a check engine light, for lean on both banks as the PCM can't richen up the fuel mixture enough or soemthing like that, car runs fine, watching my A/F guage it responded as normal, but I only ran teh car for a few hours at best like that, 17# injectors and SVT PCM.
 
You know, another point in FAVOR of the SE motor is roughly 16 cents a gallon less I don't have to spend on premium fuel.
 
kickaxeguitars said:
Well, I have mixed feelings after learning my replacement motor is actually an SE motor. I must say, with the SVT intake on the SE motor, she really skoots.. It just kinda pisses me off that I wasn't informed enough BEFORE I purchased the car to know the difference. I could A/B the good and bad but there is no point.. The car runs great, it just feels like I got bent over a little bit...:shrug: :confused: :mad:
Click to expand...

I went through the exact same thing. Made me feel like I got bent over too....

I have been considering swapping over to SVT cams while the headers are being installed. I wanted to do a 3L, but now I have changed my mind and have decided to stick with the SE 2.5/SVT cammed motor since it only has 29k on the motor (and runs great). I will be dynoing the car as it sits now, then dyno again after the install of the SVT cams and MSDS headers/optimized Y-pipe. I do have to agree with you about the motor being able to scoot along pretty well.
 
I have dyno plots from my car before and after SVT cams and headers ... I'll post them tonight as I can't find them online at the moment
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top