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my very first 3l..

i'd consider timing the "pulling out of the old engine" as close to "putting in of the new engine" as possible. Keeps your memory of where everything was / how everything looked beforehand clearer.


oh most definately couldnt agree more... but if im gonna pull the stinkin motor might as well throw in a 3l! and there wont be much time in between i promise im way to anxious and excited about the swap and gettin this baby cleaned up. anyways so i have both axles out now and i took the rentals back today. oh and i have the 2 bolt A arms.. ill prolly just grind the rivets out and swap the ball joints instead of doing the entire control arm. unless the price is cheap enough... but like sjon said prolly do that after the swap. so now for another dumb question... would it be cheaper to do a port match myself considering i have all the svt parts or do a full oval.... bring on the burn
 
do the control arms while the engine and trans is out, it will be so much easier, especially the drivers side. as i said before, the 2-bolt arms arent that much more than just ball joints and are well worth replacing.


i dont want to get into the "which swap is better" debate here so im pretty much going to leave that alone and just say that my personal preference is to stick with the oval ports. changing the shape of the port without a way to test the flow is just a bad idea, IMO.
 
Do the split port man! And dont worry about those stupid ball joints yet, the car will still drive down the road with ripped ball joint boots, you just need it to drive down the road first. But if you dont have the money to put an lsd in and have the tranny looked at and a new clutch if one is needed then I would say just put another 2.5 in because odds are you will break the tranny with the power of the 3L.
 
Do the split port man! And dont worry about those stupid ball joints yet, the car will still drive down the road with ripped ball joint boots, you just need it to drive down the road first. But if you dont have the money to put an lsd in and have the tranny looked at and a new clutch if one is needed then I would say just put another 2.5 in because odds are you will break the tranny with the power of the 3L.

if you dont have the money for an LSD (or just arent willing to fork over $600 for one and would rather buy headers, y-pip, and a clutch) you can install a pre98 diff instead. with some searching you can find complete pre98 transmissions for $50 that you can take just the diff from.
 
if you dont have the money for an LSD (or just arent willing to fork over $600 for one and would rather buy headers, y-pip, and a clutch) you can install a pre98 diff instead. with some searching you can find complete pre98 transmissions for $50 that you can take just the diff from.

I was thinking about the pre-98 diff as well, are they good for the power of a 3L? I thought they were only a tiny bit better than all the other diffs?
 
I was thinking about the pre-98 diff as well, are they good for the power of a 3L? I thought they were only a tiny bit better than all the other diffs?

they have no problems handling the power, you just still have an open diff instead of an LSD.
 
aw geez i i forgot about that i didnt know i needed that till sjon mentioned it couple days ago. so why is a pre 98 diff better than post 98? and a limited slip diff? i thought it already had one:shrug:
 
aw geez i i forgot about that i didnt know i needed that till sjon mentioned it couple days ago. so why is a pre 98 diff better than post 98? and a limited slip diff? i thought it already had one:shrug:

the stock diff is not a limited slip unit, just a basic open diff (both pre98 and 98+ are open diffs). the pre98 diff is either made from a better material or a better process, i cant remember which, it might be both. in either case, it is much stronger and doesnt have problems with the teeth on the side gears stripping.
 
the stock diff is not a limited slip unit, just a basic open diff (both pre98 and 98+ are open diffs). the pre98 diff is either made from a better material or a better process, i cant remember which, it might be both. in either case, it is much stronger and doesnt have problems with the teeth on the side gears stripping.

Good to know... Will look into just getting a pre 98 diff it will hold and is cheaper. Well I think I'm pretty close to havin it ready to pull... Still gotta remove tranny cable and a couple hoses... Anything else I should keep in mind before I pull the engine out?
 
Going to toss my .02 in.

I prefer the port matched setup. Heres why.

If you do port-matched. EVERYTHING under the hood will look stock, all accesories will be in the stock locations, no fuel rail issues, no vac lines to alter, no coil pack mounting issues, no throttle cable bracket modificiations, no requirement to deleted the IMRC.

So, if you end up needing to have the car serviced by a dealer or other shop, they can work on it just as if it were a stock 2.5L. I think this appeals to potential buyers too, should you end up selling.

Unless you plan to be the only hands on this thing going forward, it's the 'safer' way to go. Again, this is in my opinoin. I don't dare get involved in eternal debate about which is 'better', more powerful, or the 'right' way to do it.
 
ya right everybody FIGHT lol jk word that makes sense.. i figured thats what i was gonna do since everything bolts right up. and seems alot more people have gone that route.
 
ok so finally made up my mind gonna go port match that way i can use all my existing svt parts and save me some money.. sucks i have to work overtime all weekend so i wont be able to touch the car but at least i will be able to afford the engine next week!!! i cant frreakin wait im so excited anyways though today my neighbor and i dragged over his engine puller to my backyard just now pretty much said i could just have it. word on that •••• check that off the list... so gonna start lookin for engine this week.
 
oh and where are you guys finding 200-300 dollar motors? im finding like 600-800 for engines with 45- 65k is that decent? but then i see a 2.3 focus tranny and motor 24k for 800 gone on craigs in like 2 hrs.. i know about car-parts.com and 3lduratec (WAAAY to expensive). oh and would an 98 engine work? i understand that 2002 or newer is better?
 
Its regional, and of course we live in a region where motors are pretty pricey my friend. I paid $600 for an 04 taurus motor with 19k miles, and had to drive up to the south dakota/wyoming border to get it. Check with some of the junkyards around here, they might have something.
 
Agreed I live in Colorado and swung by J&B auto crusher and bought an 04 taurus motor for $700 with like 21,000 miles. So Denver=not cheap everywhere else=cheap I guess because I heard about people gettin them for like 300 bucks too. I was bummed when I couldn't find one for that cheap. I'm excited for your build I'm doin mine right now too you me and SJon gotta get together when we finish
 
ya hell ya and tear up the street. where are you currently in your build? i basically need to just pull the engine out now. gonna see if sjon will come by and help me double check shes ready to be yanked out sometime next weekend... and ill be buying an engine within 2-3 weeks
 
I just disassembled my 3L down to the short block. Mine is going to take a while because I'm doing some performance stuff while I'm in there and I don't have any money so it's kinda just buy things as I go and when I get paid.
 
I just disassembled my 3L down to the short block. Mine is going to take a while because I'm doing some performance stuff while I'm in there and I don't have any money so it's kinda just buy things as I go and when I get paid.

Sweet I can't wait to pick up a motor within next couple weeks but I hear ya I got all kinds of other things I gotta pay off too just hope it doesn't take through winter for me to finish.. I'm not goin much with performance but sjon gonna help me with the svt cams and timing and I'm gonna use all the other svt components
 
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