Meanwhile, there were engineering concerns. The Jatco transmission used on the X-Type prototype was prone to failure above 260 hp. Going against cars such as the BMW M3 would require at least 300 hp.
My next thought was a V6 manual LS. (RWD with IRS) The chassis had good reviews but the jury is out on the 5-speed tranny.
The jatco transmission is the automatic: JATCO: Japanese Automatic Transmission Company.
The manual is the same MTX75 as in our cars with a different differential and a transfercase bolted up to it. I used to own and X-type and contemplated doing an AWD swap into the Cougar so I looked into it.
I'd say the differential, transfercase, driveshaft and rear end are all possible week points. Since the differential is different than ours we couldn't put a torsen or a quaife in there which would be a big concern because the stock diffs in the Contour/Cougar trans are very fragile.
I've come up with a few project cars I'd like to see with a boosted Duratec. :laugh: The transmission is the least of the worries every time you look at the logistics as a whole.Yeah, but how hard can that be to get around? Worst case scenario calls for a little bit of a build on it or a little fab to drop something more proven behind the duratec. Especially if Joey gets his swap tested out for the 240 then he will have already laid some substantial groundwork for using our lovely duratec with a "correct" longitudinal mounting position. This has been a back kept thought of mine for quite some time too. Pretty much since the time on the old forums when I received your answer on the opinion of the LS vs the X-type. There are some other applications I have in mind where I would also like to see duratec power though.
I remember seeing pics of a merkur xr4ti with duratec swapped in, that thing had one hell of a custom intake manifold also.