Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General I hope I didnt mess up the motor :(

Ok a quick background on the car. I've always run synthetic - since bought used at 88,000KM. Its at 212,000KM right now (oh its a 1998 SVT). No probs... Only thing is this one shop did an oil change on the car once and messed up my drain plug without telling me and stripped it. They replaced the plug with some contraption. They denied they stripped it and insisted I always had that stupid thing on but I know otherwise anyway I had not gotten around to ordering a new oilpan and had gone through a few oil changes with this on. It was fine it seemed.

I was coming home through a heavy snow / ice storm. Finally I pull into my driveway and I'm trying to open the garage door. Its not opening. I get out and fiddle with the door. I'm out for about 30 seconds and I hear the car start to make some 'clacking' type noise. I poked around for about 15-20 seconds and couldnt figure out anything so I went inside and saw the oil light on. I turned off the car right away. Checked the oil and found not a drop on the dip stick!!!! I checked behind the car and saw the following images

I'm just hoping that the fact that it ran out on my driveway means I didnt drive completely without oil for long and when it was out, it was only idling. The clacking noise scares me though. Also I looked through the oil fill hole and took a pic of the valve train. Looks kinda dark or lot of wear. I'm hoping this wasnt just from what happened now....

I'm totally worried that its messed. i'll be towing the car to Ford tomorrow because I cant get underneath to look since the car is so low and snow is kinda high. So how bad was this on the engine?


http://www.advancedsystemsolutions.com/pics/1.jpg
http://www.advancedsystemsolutions.com/pics/2.jpg
http://www.advancedsystemsolutions.com/pics/3.jpg
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Not going to lie to you, there IS a chance that you ruined the engine... BUT if the engine didnt sieze on you, then it might be alright... But, I wouldnt ever skimp out on something that important, even if that damn oil change place screwed up the drain plug, I would have just shurgged it off and found an oil pan from a scraped CSVT and replaced it... It sucks to hear about how someone screwed you like that though. If the engine is fryed though... You could always upgrade to a 3L

If the engine is fried, I dont think I'd do a 3L since I dont see the 3L really going much faster than the 2.5L at least not down the drag strip.

Maybe going to do a performance rebuild, see if the heads can use any cleanup, LSD and headers to compliment the rest of the exhaust.

If all that is way too much,then I'll do a very basic rebuild to get the motor going and then sell the car and go back to a stang or something.

With a properly built 3l you can lay down around 210 HP at the wheels.... Much cheaper then installing a new 2.5L and doing mods.

Your one to talk DemonSVT

LOL I knew that was coming.

I didnt say that a 3L CANT be fast, I said I dont see them going much faster than the 2.5L that have minor mods. I see so many people here post with power output around mid 180's to the wheel and quarter mile times in the mid to low 15's which isnt that great.

I've run a best of a 15.30 @89 with partially plugged pre-cats! A few weeks later I unclogged the cats and the car was way faster. I'm sure it had a solid 15.0@93 in there. Difference was huge. Anyway if the average 3L with minor mods is not very fast then why bother.

I know your car is very fast and thats great, but I'm looking at the list of mods you have which I'm sure you've done yourself. If I took my car to a performance shop or garage and duplicated that,it would be more $$ than me buying a blower for my car AND doing a rebuild

The fact is......finding another cheap 2.5L SVT engine's gonna take awhile to find a good one and its going to be expensive. Going with a 3L is cheaper(I think) and hey you get a little extra power. Doesnt sound that bad to me.

Why don't you try putting some oil in it and see if the noise goes away. The dip stick does not show all the oil that is in an engine. When the oil gets low, usually the first sign is a little bit of valve train clatter.

The odds are in your favor that there has been no harm done yet. If there is damage, all you are out is a few quarts of oil.