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

    You can register to join the community.

Car sounds like a Subaru !

A

Avenger

CEG'er
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
91
Location
Quebec
Need some help here,

Took the 98 SVT for a drive today and decided to open it up a bit. Got off the throttle with a blinking CEL and car running like crap (missing badly). Drove back home (about 2 miles) with a blinking CEL indicating misfire. Pulled P0302 and P0304 (misfire on #2 and #4). Pulled the plugs and #2 is missing the tip, it's completely gone. Took the compression and that cylinder tested 0, every other tested perfect at 175-180.

I'm thinking I might have dropped a cam follower and a valve stays open. The car has 120k miles and been running fine until today (expect for a small misfire / bucking at idle). Could the plug have been destroyed on that 2 miles trip back home or do you think it was an existing plug problem and I just happened to get into a completely unrelated valve issue ?

Any input is appreciated !

Alex
 
Blinking CEL usually means that the cat is failing. Vehicle is running too rich and is destroying the cat. Since you are missing spark plug tips that would be why. I think this problem has been building.

When was the last time the plugs were changed?
 
contourspd98 said:
Blinking CEL usually means that the cat is failing. Vehicle is running too rich and is destroying the cat..
Click to expand...

Inaccurate chain of events.


Blinking CEL means the engine is misfiring. Engine is misfiring because the spark plug #2 tip is missing. Because of that, the precat and cat will get destroyed as it is running rich now.

The #2 spark plug was probably in a bad condition before the "Took the 98 SVT for a drive today and decided to open it up a bit" which would explain the " car has 120k miles and been running fine until today (expect for a small misfire / bucking at idle)."

The #2 sp probably broke up during the spirited run you did and messed up the cylinder (and or valves).
 
Yeah, well I bought the car with 95k miles on the clock and the previous owner told me he had just done a tune up, which I believe he did as the spark plugs and wires all look great except for that one. Can't say whether or not it's been through a tough life though but it's definitely not been abused in my hands.

I will pull the valve cover off today and see if I can find anything. I'd bet the engine will have to come out, which means I probably won't be putting it back in... I got a friend that could sell me an '05 Escape 3.0L for $500 and I'm pretty sure that's what I'll be going with. Been doing some reading on these swaps recently and it LOOKS pretty straight forward. My understanding is that with this specific engine, I will need a modified COP harness and an adapter to run the returnless Escape fuel rail on my return fuel setup. I would obviously need to get my hands on an Xcal2 and an additional Pro Racer Package licence to tune the SVT PCM.

Is that all I would need ?
 
Avenger said:
Yeah, well I bought the car with 95k miles on the clock and the previous owner told me he had just done a tune up, which I believe he did as the spark plugs and wires all look great except for that one. Can't say whether or not it's been through a tough life though but it's definitely not been abused in my hands.

I will pull the valve cover off today and see if I can find anything. I'd bet the engine will have to come out, which means I probably won't be putting it back in... I got a friend that could sell me an '05 Escape 3.0L for $500 and I'm pretty sure that's what I'll be going with. Been doing some reading on these swaps recently and it LOOKS pretty straight forward. My understanding is that with this specific engine, I will need a modified COP harness and an adapter to run the returnless Escape fuel rail on my return fuel setup. I would obviously need to get my hands on an Xcal2 and an additional Pro Racer Package licence to tune the SVT PCM.

Is that all I would need ?
Click to expand...

You can keep your stock coil pack if you're rather not run coil on plug, but you'd have to find a place to mount the coil pack since the Escape valve covers don't have the mounting points that the Escape's covers do. Dig around in the 3.0 section for a while, there should be quite a bit of detailed info.
 
For the record, just wanted to let everyone know that I lifted the head and found an exhaust valve that overheated (hole in it). Thinking the cause could be one of two things...

1) Valve not closing properly (broken valve spring, does not seem to be the case)
2) Clogged injector leading to lean mixture and high combustion chamber temperature

What are your thoughts on this ? Has anyone ever heard of that problem happening on the Duratec ? What else could lead to a burnt exhaust valve ?

Thanks.
 
Anyone, I don't really feel like fixing the engine without knowing what caused the issue in the first place.

Could it be a defective plug that broke and cracked a valve on its way out ?
The fact that the tip is completely melted leads me to believe it was an injector issue but Ford no longer sells these !

Any help ?
 
Well, for the record, the place that replaced my valves said they had never seen such a thing. Valve looked like it broke, it did not overheat. I had my injectors tested on a flow bench and they were all fine. I cleaned up the upper / lower / heads up to the valves and fixed the IMRC rod mechanism (front bank was only opening about 80% due to plastic bushings missing) and BOY does it pull now !!!

I couldn't believe the difference, feels like a whole new car !!! I'm almost glad it happened now LOL
 
Glad you were able to fix it:cool:. It's nice to actually make it run better than it was! I'd never heard of valve failure anywhere on CEG before. (My sister's Mystique sounded like a Subaru with a couple of plug wires on the wrong cylinders, fixed that quick...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top