Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance Not good, not good at all

I was on the highway today headed up to LA, going about 80mph, I had just hit the cruise control button and my car died . First, I smelled something burning like rubber, then I saw white smoke out of my review mirror so I turned off the cruise control, next I saw all of my gadges(speedo, temp,etc.) drop to zero, and engine shut off. I coasted up and off the freeway at the first exit and finally stoped on the off ramp shoulder .

I took a look around the engine compartment while waiting for a tow truck, and I had radiator fluid everywhere, and some oil in a few places. My radiator resovior was completely empty. Think that it may be a bad radiator hose, which led to overtemp and a blown head gasket, loss of compression. Hopefully no damage was done to the head itself but its probable.

I have over 120k on this engine, will fixing it be worth it or should I just replace it? The Ford dealership told me worst case with a cracked head to compliment the other problems I was looking at $3k for repairs. I havn't called the mom and pop shops yet. What do you guys think?

If you hear is cracked/warped no sense really in just replaing the head. You might as well do the whole engine so you get new bearings and rods and a crank, start over again.

Anyways $3000 is insane, your car is worth about $2000 KBB value.

Think you can find an engine for like $500 with around 20-30k on Ebay and swap it in yourself, it isnt that hard on these cars since it can out the top, you dont have to drop it down.

Your water pump failed. You didnt watch your temp gauge and now you pay the price... New engine time. I ALWAYS look at my temp gague, just as frequently as I watch my Tachometer and speedo.

I'm thinking the same thing. But if I was going to swap it I wanted to do a ZX3, ZX5 or a 2.5L swap. nothing to serious, but I might as well get something out of it. I think I read that the MTX-75 was compatible with the 2.5, but I'm not sure about the focus engines. I'll search and see what I can find.

Bro I just did a focus engine swap search in zetec performance for focus engine. I even wrote up a quick how-to that the moderators should sticky, hint hint. The MTX 75 from a 4 cyl will fit the focus engine, but will not fit a 6 cyl engine because of a different bellhousing bolt pattern. The trannys are basically the same internally but the integrated bellhousing is different between a 4 cyl and 6 cyl.

Thats good to know, thanks for that info. I may be getting a new engine as early as next week. This is the only car for the family right now, so I need to take care of this soon. What about the SVT Focus 2.0L? Anyone have info about the swap for that?

I am not 100% sure but I believe that the SVT block has a different bolt pattern for the transmission then the MTX75.

Usually you know if the water pump went out, or notice something is wrong. It went on my Tempo before, and all of a sudden the whole engine got much quieter than normal. Did anything like this happen?

It felt like I was slowing down even though the speedo read the same 80mph. But as soon as I cut off the cruise control the car cut off.

I'm in the market for a new engine right now, but I deploy next month with my ship for a while, so the Tour will be sitting in the garrage until I get back. I can get a Focus engine pretty cheap right now from a local salvage yard, but I have to pull it out my self, that's the only drawback. If they don't watch me pull it out I may comeup on some other stuff while I'm there .