Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Performance zetec head

i was wondering if it is worth spending $500 on rebuilding my head. i plan on shaving 60 thousanths off 3 angle valve grind and port and polish it any info would greatly help

Does that price include removing the head from your motor and then replacing it after the machining? That would seem to be a good price under those conditions. I don't know what your looking for as a result nor do I know how much cash you want to throw at your car.
How many miles do you have on your car? I can buy a used replacement engine for 500 if I shop around.

What year/mileage is your car?
How long do you plan on keeping your car?
Is $500 alot of money too you?
Dou you plan to use the car as trade-in or sell the car to buy your next car?

ok a lil more info on my car it has about 120,000 miles on it i drive it every day and it is basicly stock i put a custom exaust on it it is a 2/12 inch with a tip no muffler and no resonator the only thing i left on the exaust was the cat at the manifold it basicly straight pipe all the way to the rear of the car with a 3 1/2 inc tip on the end. other than that the car is stock as it is now i can do about 95 in a 1/4 mile i want to know if i shoud just rebuild the head to basicly stock specs and save my money for other mods and if so what would be the best way to add more power to the car i plan on a cold air induction and a chip if it will be worth the money i plan on spending about $800 on repair and mods ne info would help

Agreed, for the work that you want done I would shop around a little and look for a somewhat better price. Again if they are going to pull and replace the head then 500 bucks is a good deal. If you have to do every thing then look around. While you have the head off it would be a good time to change the timing belt, water pump, and all the tensioners(SP).

Do you have a Automatic or 5 speed? If you have standard then I would change the clutch if it has been a while. No one is quite sure how much more power you will be putting out with the compression raised. Although your transmission could handle it you might not want to risk it. If you have an auto then at least have the transmission serviced and add a tranny cooler.

Removing the head also means draining the fluids so now is a great time to upgrade to Royal purple coolant and throw in some water weter from Red line. If you are not already using it switch to Mobil One.

Now none of this extra stuff is required but you might wish you had done all this.

If your going to rebuild the head, do it for performance.
The extra cost shouldn't be much more, maybe 50% over just doing it to stock.

Milling the head to remove 0.060" would bump the CR to about 11.0-11.1 to 1 if you did nothing else to increase combustion chamber volume.

Make sure you want to go this high before having the head milled. There is nothing wrong with going that high but you would probably need to change the ignition advance map and you will have to run 91-93 octane.

ok i have done some checking around and the work that i wanted done on my head wouldnt produce that much power by itself so i am changing my route a lil i still have to rebuild the head but i think i am going to put a header on it a larger throttle body and cold air intake i think that will give me more power increase than all the extra mads to the head im just rebuilding to basic stock specs

if ne one knows were to find a larger throtle body and a header for a 95 contour gl with the 2.0 zetek atx post a link please it would greatly help
thanx for ne and all help

sorry hector i found your link after my last post
lol