Good luck with a hydrolocked engine man... be sure to check the crank out completely. Hydrolock can twist a crank out of wack pretty easy.
Vudu... stick to what you know, not what you hear or can remember without looking up, that's how rumors start and spread like wildfire.
The newer lowers are not Extrude honed, only the uppers are. The lowers are machined out by conventional methods to match the EH'ed head ports and upper. Swapping out the returnless rail is needed for sure unless he plans on swapping out fuel lines, fuel tank, pump, ECU, and wiring harness to adapt to the returnless system. The '98 injectors and rails will swap out directly for the newer style iff needed.
For optimum performance, a dyno tune will be needed unless you find a 3 liter PCM to try. Not sure how the 3 liter PCMs will function in the Contour as far as gauge operation or calibrations though... FWIW, mine runs fine without any MILs on my '99 SE factory PCM with a Pro-Flow MAF and calibrator running 19pph injectors.
