Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Engine caught fire -- what happened?

Time to find a nice new 3.0...

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone slapped me with what really happened. Man, I feel like the biggest idiot now. Makes my careful attention to every 3K oil changes seem like an utter joke. I guess my experience with previous vehicles led me to believe that if an engine was overheating, I'd feel it once I opened the hood. And bnoon, it wasn't intentional neglience -- just some painful ignorance. I am greatful for your painful to hear feedback. Lordy. I'm just sick as hell now. What will a new engine run? And I'll keep my mouth shut re: the temp gauge, but I doubt I can fool the dealership and the insurance adjustor. Please, just shoot me. I mean, are we talking thousands for a new engine? It's been such a great car, I'd hate to abandon it.

Don't feel bad, Luigi. I'm no mechanic and the only good sense I have in taking care of my car is strictly due to input from the guys on this site. You made a mistake; you'll never make the same one again. And now I know that if my temp gauge spikes, to pull over and turn the car off.
From what I've seen in my area, there are plenty of Contours available. If I had a burned up engine, I'd probably try to get whatever I could from insurance and then start over again with another used Tour.

Sorry I was a bit hurtfull with my response, I guess what I take for common knowledge from being around cars all of my life just makes what a non car guy doesn't know seem a bit unreal at times. Simple quick test... temp needle goes up, turn the heater on full blast. If it blows cold, stop the engine right away!!!

From the sound of things, it seems we've got a real good candidate for an SVT engine or a 3 liter project car since the engines will cost sround the same to get into your car, perhaps a little more for the SVT engine. You'll need to get the engine wiring harness and maybe the fuel supply lines it sounds like. Either that or let us know which auction yard they take it to after they total the car if they do.

Email me at bnmotorsports@msn.com for a prepped 3 liter quote. I can also find you some leads on regular 'ol 2.5's too if you're not up to a swap.

Man Brad, you're going to make me pimp my SVt engine myself aren't ya! I've got a complete 2.5 SVT motor for sale if you're interested in going that route. It only has 13.5K miles on it. Email me at Buckshot77@aol.com if you're interested. BTW I'm Brad's neighbor in case you're wondering about the jab.

An intriguing update will end this post, but first this. It was hard to take what I heard -- not because of how you said it, bnoon, but because of how much of an idiot I felt like after reading the truth. Not that this group needs to know, but I haven't sleep for anything the last couple nights. I'm a wreck. I can't stop obsessing about it. The past two years have not been good financially for me, and a new/rebuilt/used engine is not in my budget, yet I see no other choice. I try to be so careful with my car, take as good of care as I can with it so it will last as long as possible. I know I'm not alone there. It just kills me -- all those signs were there bnoon: temp. gauge spiking, no hot air blowing in heat or defrost mode, engine pinging up hill. I know it sounds stupid to say now, but I would think that if an engine is overheating you'd have an abundance of heat from wherever it could escape (e.g., the heater).

Update: My poor, abused car was towed to the dealership yesterday. I spoke with the service manager on my lunch break to get an update, see if the insurance field rep. had been by to check things out. The manager said to me very quickly, "oh, yeah, your wiring harness had a short." I said, "oh, I didn't expect to hear that." He replied, "and it's covered by a special Ford program for 10 years or 100K miles." So, the parts have been ordered, and he's confident that everything will be fine/covered. Well, I know now that it's not going to be fine once the mechanic gets to disassembling and finding more problems. Right now, all they are going by is what they can obviously see, which led the service manager to think wiring short. I said to him, "I'm concerned because there's a fluid leak (I've got quite a puddle in my driveway) and the coolant in the reservoir was drawn to almost empty." "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it" was his response.

If I'm lucky the wiring harness will be covered by the Ford program, even though it seems unlikely that it did short, but once they learn the water pump went belly up, if that's the cause of the overheating, I'm on my own for the rest of the major engine damage. I know I'll have to get it towed to another shop -- I'm certain I can't afford the dealer's cost to replace the engine. Thoughts?

Bnoon and Buckshot: Thanks for the engine swap advice/offers. I know nothing about the 3.0 swap idea, but I'll search the forums for more info, even though I imagine my checkbook won't allow it. And an SVT engine would be a swell addition, but I imagine my checkbook won't allow for that either. I've got some work ahead of me to learn what rebuilt/used 2.5s go for. I really don't have a clue what kind of price tag I'm looking at. So, yes, bnoon, 2.5 leads are welcome. Thanks. If only I could do it all over again .... Well, I do have one thing to be thankful for in all this nightmare and that's this forum. I appreciate you all taking the time to read and respond.

Maybe you will get lucky and Ford will replace it since all the trouble with the water pumps. They might try to satisfy you so you won't either sue them or turn them into to the NTSB for investigation...after all the trouble with the Explorer I really don't think they want another investigation and possible MILLIONS of recalls again!! Hope you are working with a good dealer and get a great result!

I feel your pain; FWIW see
SVT engine replacement options?

If you need to keep the work local, try asking a trustworthy mechanic to obtain & install a low miles salvage engine for you; the better ones will guarantee parts and labor for 12 months/12K miles. Going this route, $3250 is the cheapest total-cost quote I've gotten so far.

And remember, nobody was born knowing any of this stuff...