Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting BLOWN ENGINES KEEP POSTING

I worked at the plant in Windsor, ON that made the blocks and heads for the Duratec. Their blowing? You don't say?!?! That's what happens when their made of aluminum that was always needing adjustments chemically. And, what's worse, when some 18-year old student is in charge!

If you had it serviced at a shop or many shops. Most of them keep records of your car. You can go back and have them print out your maintenance record with them. That is how I recovered mine. Good luck.

thing is i bought my own oil and had ford do the work a couple times while i did it myself the other times...

Not sure how that would work then. I would come up with whatever receipts you can and just explain to them that you do your own oil changes.

I keep a gas book on my cars which I write in where I replace parts/performance parts/oil changes ect...

I would get receipts of you oil changes, I would get receipts of Oil you have bought. See if you Credit Card or Bank who you used can get you the dates you baught the supplies so you can show them that you did get oil and change....

My dad had a extened warrenty on his Grand Marque and he changed the oil 3 times in the car. The car developed a rod knock at 72,000 miles. The dealer said if he can show prof of 5 oil changes that they would replace the motor! Duhhh, Since my dad got the Taurus in 96 with 0 miles he has changed the oil regularly... It has now 93,000 miles on her and is running strong!

Svtnos, what's the update on your situation? Ford isn't going to help me.

Could you elaborate more on your comments? I'm very interested in hearing what you have to say.

Well, here I am, joining a "blown engine" thread. Recently, I noticed noise in the engine bay that didn't sound good, and it only got worse. I was driving a few days ago on the freeway to get to a service station, and suddenly the noise became terrible. I happened to be approaching an exit, which I took and immediately coasted to a stop. As I did so, the engine died. I was able to restart it almost immediately, but it only ran a few seconds.

I had it towed to the dealer (actually a flat bed truck with winch). My precious SVT is now dead in the shop (local Ford dealer) ... I've been told the engine has gone to lunch, permanently. They don't know precisely what is wrong -- they said it could be a broken connecting rod -- but I was told it isn't worth spending the money to determine the details of what happened, and that a new engine is needed. A factory remanufactured engine, plus labor, will cost several $K. I would hate to spend several $K replacing the engine, when it might be something that could be repaired/replaced for $1K.

What would any of you do in my position ? We've got two babies . . . I've been laid off many months ago, with very lean fill-in income since . . . I'm starting college classes Monday and that cost me a lot of $$$ . . . the engine replacement will cost me roughly 15% of my personal savings . . . I must have my own car for work, school etc. . . . well, you get the idea.

To top it off, this SVT is in beautiful condition in every way aside from the blown engine. I cannot even dream of parting it out or selling it for street value as-is. And I owe roughly $10K or $11K on the loan.

What would you do ? I do technically have money to buy the new engine/installation. Does it make sense to go for it ? Are there other less costly avenues to have this done ? I understand that I cannot legally have an engine from any other year installed (my SVT is a 98). I even looked at eBay for an engine, or SVT being sold as is for parts, but .... nothing.

I can see from the posts that replacing an engine is somewhat routine for a few people out there, but it is far from a routine thing for me. I am obviously too upset to even think about this rationally. Again, what would you do in my shoes ? Thanks for reading, and thanks to anyone with constructive advice and/or some silver lining to a very dark cloud . . . sigh

I forgot to mention, my car is a black '98 Contour SVT. I have never been racing with it, I baby it a lot, and have it maintained religiously (not sure I could produce all records needed for a freebie engine replacement).
Except for the blown engine or whatever, everything is in beautiful condition, including an almost new set of 245/50-16 Michelins (almost $1,000), midnight blue leather interior, tinted windows ... you can see why it would kill me to even think of parting it out or something. Anyway, thanks again for "listening".

hang in there! if i were in your shoes, i would replace your blown SVT engine with a lightly-used 2.5L non-SVT Duratec engine. this is the most cost-effective option you have, IMO. heck, maybe one of the folks who have upgraded to a 3.0L will cut you a deal on their old 2.5L.