My brother has a 1995 Contour GL with the Zetec and auto tranny. I have a few questions. He recently noticed a dramatic loss in power and fuel mileage so he asked a mechanic friend and the mechanic suggested changing the fuel filter. The old fuel filter was clogged very bad and trash was going through it. How much damage can that do to the engine? Also: what is the black plastic-peninsula thing that is under the hood and attached to the air inlet tube right after the air filter? We've been looking at that thing and haven't figured out what it is for. He wants to take it off if it won't hurt anything. Another question is I have heard of taking the resonators off and straight piping them. Does this help anything besides sound? How many resonators are there and how hard is it to take them off? He also wants to take the cat off and straight pipe it too. Will that help anything besides giving him trouble if he's caught? Thank you for answering these 'newbie' questions! Benjamin
