Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods GETTING A LITTLE DISCOURAGED

Ive got a 96 contour se, and right now im doing a lot a research on mods n ****. From what ive found it seems like statisticaly a lot of the possible mods actualy decrease power and performance or just dont change much. my question is what are some good mods, that actualy make a difference in performance.

Turbo or supercharger

kkm intake 10hp?

To be honest with you... with out a strong aftermarket base... there isn't much other than the basics (which are obviously the best) to making a car faster. The name of the game is to get air/fuel in and out of the combustion chamber as fast and efficently as possible... that's what makes a car fast. So if you want substantial gains... take your intake off, heads off, and get them ported/polished... shoot... just send them to Extrude Honing and have them worked and port matched. Then get a larger t-body, polish it, get a Pro-M meter, headers, Y-Pipe, full exhaust, shifter, motor mounts, and some good tires and you'll be haulin' some arse! That takes time and money though and I realize that, but honestly, free up the intake side and exhaust side. I would recomend a drop-in K&N air filter due to heat-soak issues with the open element filters that are out there. Take off your t-body and MAF, polish them to a mirror on the inside with a Dremmel, take off your upper and lower intake and clean all of the junk build-up off of it and get that exhaust! You'll be amazed at how your car acts if you do that!

Not true...Alot of the "free" mods that people are experimenting with like cracking the secondaries, thier own version of an Intake, cleaning Upper and lower intakes, gutting CATS (basically making headers) are things off the top of my head that are just that...experimental. And may differ from car to car.

Changing out your chip to a superchip or diablo seems to depend on what your soucre code is in the first place, depics how the car will react to a chip. Some good, some excellent, others not so good. Again, depends on the car.

Everything else, exhaust, intake, pullys, pretty much get the same end result.

CTA Motorsports Intake!

CTA Motorsports Website

I suggest following a similar path that SVT took..look at the whole intake & exhaust as a system. Look at the entire car as a whole.

1)K&N filter on Mirko or BAT MAF adapter
2)SVT throttle body
3)SVT UIM if you can find a used one
4)SVT or late Cougar or 3L LIM used
5)Gut the precats
6)Good aftermarket Y-pipe
7)Used SVT catback and replace resonator with higher flowing unit
8)Good condition plugs, wires, fuel system cleaning, high quality oil&filter.

9)Suggests holding off on chips (hit or miss without dyno tuning) and UDPs (potentially dangerous) for now
10) A rear STB and 21-24mm rear sway bar are big bang for buck to complemnt your (nice) SE suspension, as are used SVT wheels/tires often available cheap (check classifieds for SVT stuff). Replace shock/struts/brakes if worn

You can do all the engine work for about $800-$1000 if you can do the work and you will approach 200 crank HP. Then if you wish you could go further but since your car is a 96, be practical.