Funnily enough here in England, the land of roundabouts, there's no problems with ours blowing engines on hard cornering
make sure you keep the oil topped up
Water pump you've changed so you've covered it.
My web site has a lot of info on the Europe version of the Contour including lists of all the known common faults etc. Take a look as they should be the same as for yours
Great car, you'll love it, and as for front wheel drives cant corner, mine has recently completely stomped an M3 Beemer, while out cornering it on the inside of a 90mph 300 degree roundabout, while he understeered like crazy (shame he got me at around 120 on the straight afterwards)
