Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives
Posted By: Jared_dup1 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/07/06 12:18 AM
Alright, I got acouple questions after spending a few hours reading/searching the forums.

I'll be swappming my 2.5 Duratech out of my 95 Contour SE.
And I'll be putting a 3.0 Duratech out of a '99 Tarus in it.

I've read a lot of posts of people running the 2.5 heads on the 3.0.
My 1st question is
1) Can I drop the whole 3.0L in and use the heads thats on it?

Also, I've read some posts about the transaxle/diff.

2) Can I use the 4speed automatic transmission thats in the Contour right now, will it bolt up to the 3.0L?

3)Also I've read about notching the block w/ pre '01 3.0 Duratechs, why is the block notched?

4) I've noticed that some people swap the heads so they do not have to reroute the fuel rail, ect this is not a problem for me. But I noticed that they're talking about some type of control module that you cant run w/ the 3.0L heads, is this true, and if so what module, and how do I go about disc onnecting it.

Basically I wanna do a full 3.0L 1999 Duratech swap.

What am I looking at getting into? And what are going to be some of the major problems am I going to encounter?

Also will the will the 3.0L bolt right up to the motor mounts?

Any information is helpful.
I've been working on vehicles as a mechanic for over 30years and I'm also known around the tri-county area where I'm from for building performance transmissions for over 35years.
When it comes to mechanics, I know what I'm getting into.
These questions are just prior to the swap, making sure everythings going to work, ect..

Thanks!
Posted By: giddyup306 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/07/06 01:45 AM
No you need to run the 2.5 heads for the watter pump. On the Tauri they are on the front and on the 2.5 it is driven off the back of the cam.

The block is notched so that the snout of the starter will sit correctly.


The major thing about the pre 01 engines is that the block has an extra set of drianback holes. The heads don't. You can put drainback holes in tho by drilling in the side of the head. Oiling issues are pretty big on these engines. Depending on how crazy you want to get with this, you might want to take the crank out and have it pollished. Take advantage of the oil to cool the bottom end. Might also want to port out the pressure releif valve on the oil pump. The pump will deliver oil to the heads much faster than it can return it. After 20-30 seconds after startup, I have 80+ PSI of oil pressure. I've heard of 100+.


Most people will try an persuade you to do an 01+ swap. That way you have the 3l valves already in and you don't need to do as much work.

But if you want to do a hybrid (2.5 heads 3.0 block) there are many of us that will guide you.

BTW you will also need to probably use the 2.5 oil pan and drill another hole for the last bolt to line up. Dunno about an auto.....


Might also want to look into a Toesen/Quaife. (once again dunno if this applies to the CD4E).


Sounds like you should have no problem with this project.

It's a piece of cake.



Mike
Posted By: Jared_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/07/06 03:38 AM
Mike

I would like to take the time to personally thank you for your reply.
To point it bluntly, from reading the forums I've noticed a lot of threads getting turned down and getting the good ole
"USE THE SEARCH BUTTON"
Which is why I clearly stated that I did search for countless hours, and found a good bit of information, but most of it was in threads that had like 10 differnt swaps going on, and the answers wheren't directed to one specific swap.

I come from acouple large forums, and I know how new users get turnt down by getting that phrase, and it somtimes puts a bad image in their head of the site and they usally don't come back. This site has a lot to offer tho, and I did search!

Anyways, thank you once again!
I'll be dropping the motor in the contour tomorrow, and begini pulling the motor in the tarus tomorrow evening.
I'm not to worried about the oil circulation issues as I'm not keeping this car for long, plan on selling it!
I got the car for free, spun bearings, and was missing two rod cabs. The crank was fine, so I was going to put the bearings in and order two rods and put the caps on, but I noticed the caps on the rods (Note - this is a ford remanufactured motor) where cut in werid angles that I've never seen before. And I couldn't find any cheap 2.5s around here. So I decided to do the 3.0 swap!

Also, if anyone needs any automatic transmission goods, for any vehicle, or any performance clutchs for standerds, let me know I'll cut you all low deals for the information on this website!
I'm also an Amsoil dealer so if you ever need any synthetics let me know!

-Jared
best way to contact
e-mail bowtie.pride@gmail.com
aim: h1gh oct4n3 108

Thanks again!!
Posted By: SpdySVT Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/07/06 04:07 AM
Jared .. i am with you brother ... i am a newbie here and i did kinda got the cold shoulder at first even though i did hours and hours and days of research, but many CEG'ers have assisted me or try to assist me .. i just wonna drop an 02+ taurus Duratech VIN"S" motor into my 1998.5 CSVT that has a spun bearing and a rod through the block .. i just wonna pull the old 2.5 out and unbolt my MTX tranny and do whatever i have to do to the 3.0 Taurus motor to get my MTX tranny on the 3.0 motor and drop it in and it be reliable, safe and Driveable... so mike if you know what i need to do or anyone can put into terms like you mike i'll be indebted to you .. and i'll pass the knowledge when i know it as good as you...... thanks again ....


SpdySVT

Posted By: green1999csvt Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/07/06 04:59 AM
I just fired up my 3.0 SCVT swap yesterday. I have been messing with it for months. I did the full 3.0 because I thought it would be easier. After doing all the fuel rail, wire splicing, EGR tube welding, etc, etc, etc, I would recommend going the hybrid route. Again, my personal hindsight says the head swapping would be easier than all the other crap I have gone through. I still have to weld up the throttle bracket (not required to do on a hybrid) before I can get it on the street. Hope this helps give you some direction, as everything on all these sites, it is just my humble opion. If you go the 3.0, I will gladly answer any questions for you I can. This site and the other FordContour.org one are full of good people and full of smart asses, you just have to put up with the pain to get the gain.

My swap wouldn't have happened without these guys.
Posted By: SpdySVT Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/07/06 06:09 AM
this sounds stupid but the term full 3.0 and Hybrid 3.0 swap are used way too vaugely will someone please clarify the exact differences betwewn full 3.0 swap and Hybrid 3.0 swap .. i know the difference just from what i have read which is way too much so in one form..."this one" will someone who ever wiews this with experience in both types of swaps get back to me with the answer... thank you soooo much ...


SpdySVT

Posted By: giddyup306 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/07/06 01:45 PM
Originally posted by Jared:
Mike

I would like to take the time to personally thank you for your reply.
To point it bluntly, from reading the forums I've noticed a lot of threads getting turned down and getting the good ole
"USE THE SEARCH BUTTON"
Which is why I clearly stated that I did search for countless hours, and found a good bit of information, but most of it was in threads that had like 10 differnt swaps going on, and the answers wheren't directed to one specific swap.





Jared

I know how ya feel man. I personally find it hard to search these forums. Might just be me dunno. One thing I forgot to mention is that if you have a non SVT you will need to tune the computer to interpret the extra air flow. The SVT maf is sufficent for the extra 30 cubes....

Can you get ahold of SPEC clutches?

Mike
Posted By: giddyup306 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/07/06 01:53 PM
Originally posted by SpdySVT:
Jared .. i am with you brother ... i am a newbie here and i did kinda got the cold shoulder at first even though i did hours and hours and days of research, but many CEG'ers have assisted me or try to assist me .. i just wonna drop an 02+ taurus Duratech VIN"S" motor into my 1998.5 CSVT that has a spun bearing and a rod through the block .. i just wonna pull the old 2.5 out and unbolt my MTX tranny and do whatever i have to do to the 3.0 Taurus motor to get my MTX tranny on the 3.0 motor and drop it in and it be reliable, safe and Driveable... so mike if you know what i need to do or anyone can put into terms like you mike i'll be indebted to you .. and i'll pass the knowledge when i know it as good as you...... thanks again ....


SpdySVT





Well I Don't klnow much about the 01+ swap... But I'll tell you what I do know. Some people need to modify the fuel rail. You don't need to modify much (or maybe anything). IF you want to do a port match, pull off the front cover, take out the cams and go to town with a dremel or similar too. THen just blow out the excess...

Use the front cover that came off of your 2.5. The 3.0 and 2.5 are timed the same way the CKP sensor is just in a different location which is why there are 2 different notches on the exciter ring.

Then put everything back together using the SVT goodies. DeamonSVT has a ton of info on these motors on his site.

MIke
Posted By: Jared_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/10/06 06:06 AM
Originally posted by giddyup306:
Originally posted by Jared:
Mike

I would like to take the time to personally thank you for your reply.
To point it bluntly, from reading the forums I've noticed a lot of threads getting turned down and getting the good ole
"USE THE SEARCH BUTTON"
Which is why I clearly stated that I did search for countless hours, and found a good bit of information, but most of it was in threads that had like 10 differnt swaps going on, and the answers wheren't directed to one specific swap.





Jared

I know how ya feel man. I personally find it hard to search these forums. Might just be me dunno. One thing I forgot to mention is that if you have a non SVT you will need to tune the computer to interpret the extra air flow. The SVT maf is sufficent for the extra 30 cubes....

Can you get ahold of SPEC clutches?

Mike



I don't think its an SVT, just says Contour SE.. w/ the 2.5 Duratech 24dohc.

Anyways, will the computer out of the tarus work? instead of getting stock one tweaked?
Posted By: giddyup306 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/10/06 06:33 PM
Originally posted by Jared:
Originally posted by giddyup306:
Originally posted by Jared:
Mike

I would like to take the time to personally thank you for your reply.
To point it bluntly, from reading the forums I've noticed a lot of threads getting turned down and getting the good ole
"USE THE SEARCH BUTTON"
Which is why I clearly stated that I did search for countless hours, and found a good bit of information, but most of it was in threads that had like 10 differnt swaps going on, and the answers wheren't directed to one specific swap.





Jared

I know how ya feel man. I personally find it hard to search these forums. Might just be me dunno. One thing I forgot to mention is that if you have a non SVT you will need to tune the computer to interpret the extra air flow. The SVT maf is sufficent for the extra 30 cubes....

Can you get ahold of SPEC clutches?

Mike



I don't think its an SVT, just says Contour SE.. w/ the 2.5 Duratech 24dohc.

Anyways, will the computer out of the tarus work? instead of getting stock one tweaked?



I really don't know how to answer that. I dout it would work. The problem isn't the computer itself it's the MAF not correctly measuring the amount of air entering the engine.

Maybe someone else will chime in.
Posted By: bnoon_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/10/06 07:26 PM
Originally posted by Jared:

1) Can I drop the whole 3.0L in and use the heads thats on it?



No, not from a '99.

Originally posted by Jared:

2) Can I use the 4speed automatic transmission thats in the Contour right now, will it bolt up to the 3.0L?




Yes.

Originally posted by Jared:

3)Also I've read about notching the block w/ pre '01 3.0 Duratechs, why is the block notched?




Not quite sure what you're talking about here. Please explain...

Originally posted by Jared:

4) I've noticed that some people swap the heads so they do not have to reroute the fuel rail, ect this is not a problem for me. But I noticed that they're talking about some type of control module that you cant run w/ the 3.0L heads, is this true, and if so what module, and how do I go about disc onnecting it.




You're actually combining two different things here. If you use the full '01+ 3L, including the plastic intakes, then you need to disable the IMRC in the ECM since you don't use the IMRC with the oval port intake. The IMRC stands for Intake Manifold Runner Control module, which controls the secondaries of the twin port 2.5 manifold (and the older twin port aluminum intake 3L's).

People that swap heads are usually doing a hybrid with 2.5 heads, either for ease of installation with the fuel rail, or for water pump reasons.

Originally posted by Jared:

Basically I wanna do a full 3.0L 1999 Duratech swap.




You don't want to do that. Full swap with '01+, or hybrid with '00 or older because of water pump concerns.

Originally posted by Jared:

What am I looking at getting into? And what are going to be some of the major problems am I going to encounter?




That can't be predicted. You know your own abilities, and we know ours... just keep reading on other people's 3L problems, and keep asking questions in here. If someone gets on you about searching and you already have, contact a mod (me) and we'll handle the situation.

Originally posted by Jared:

Also will the will the 3.0L bolt right up to the motor mounts?




Yes.

Posted By: Jeb Hoge_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/10/06 09:32 PM
He's got a '95, guys. No IMRC, runs vacuum secondaries, also OBD-1.
Posted By: Jared_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/10/06 11:39 PM
bnoon - Can you please explain why the heads off of the 3.0 will not work in the contour?
I've saw on Fordcontour.org that they dropped a pre '01 3.0 in. Full swap.
Altho they did have to rewire the wiring harness in order to hook up to the 3.0 injectors.
Posted By: warmonger_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/10/06 11:42 PM
'01 engines will work fine with a direct drop in minus the issues with the intake manifolds. Those have fairly straight forward workarounds though.
engines earlier than 00 all have a different water pump location and require an electric water pump or hybridizing the 2.5L heads so that the waterpump remains in the stock location.
Posted By: SpdySVT Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/11/06 04:02 PM
Originally posted by warmonger:
'01 engines will work fine with a direct drop in minus the issues with the intake manifolds. Those have fairly straight forward workarounds though.
engines earlier than 00 all have a different water pump location and require an electric water pump or hybridizing the 2.5L heads so that the waterpump remains in the stock location.




Warmonger i gotta say your mod page kicks ass .. well i need to do this 3.0 full swap and sell my CSVT .. i will get another CSVT and will kick ass on that one but i owe too much on the tour i have and need to sell it and go the same route on another CSVT i find but what issues do you have with the intake man on the 01+ full swap .. just to keep me in the clear .. thanks ..

SpdySVT
Posted By: warmonger_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/12/06 01:06 AM
I had no issues with the stock in upper and lower on the 2001 heads with secondaries. You can also just remove the butterfly plates while leaving the linkage hooked up if you didn't want secondaries in there until you can get a tune to turn it off. The offset injector has so far proved to have no issues at all, so I wouldn't even worry about doing it and using a little epoxy filler seems easy compared to all the fuel rail issues and mounting costs. Look at it as spending about 2 hours and 5 bucks to convert the heads over to the original SVT LIM versus the converting the fuel rail for an oval LIM.
Posted By: SpdySVT Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/13/06 04:41 AM
Originally posted by warmonger:
I had no issues with the stock in upper and lower on the 2001 heads with secondaries. You can also just remove the butterfly plates while leaving the linkage hooked up if you didn't want secondaries in there until you can get a tune to turn it off. The offset injector has so far proved to have no issues at all, so I wouldn't even worry about doing it and using a little epoxy filler seems easy compared to all the fuel rail issues and mounting costs. Look at it as spending about 2 hours and 5 bucks to convert the heads over to the original SVT LIM versus the converting the fuel rail for an oval LIM.




sweet so just use the lim off my svt an epoxy the ???? what do i epoxy??? anyway the furl rail or the lim ot injectors ????? anyway just that one last question ... thanks

SpdySVT
Posted By: warmonger_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/13/06 11:39 AM
So I'm assuming you want to do a 3.0 swap and want to use your 2.5L lower intake system.

This has been done multiple times by modifying the heads. The modification that needs to be performed is caused by the different placement of the fuel injectors in the different engines and by the port shape.

01+ engines (and maybe some 00s) use oval ports with injectors mounted in the center of the port.

All 2.5L engines in the contour/cougar/mystique will use a split port intake system, or dual-runner intake system with the injector mounted only in the left (primary) intake port.

So what you are doing is taking a lower intake manifold meant for a split port head and bolting it to the oval port head. The bolt holes line up but the injector mounting point in the lower intake manifold is aimed at a bit of solid metal in the head since the split port intake overlaps the oval port head port.
Additionally, the oval port injector mounting point requires a "V" shaped valley in the head to accomodate the spread of the injector spray. That valley is not overlapped and will leave a small hole that will leak air if not filled in. This is the part that needs to be filled with epoxy.

Some people take the heads and get that portion filled in with an aluminum weld by a welder, then they use a die grinder with cutting bit and shape the weld area as well as the intake holes to fit the split port intake. That is the best idea but may run you $50-$125 depending.
You still need the die grinder and to cut the stuff, but you will only spend $5 on brake parts cleaner and JB Weld Qwik epoxy to fill it yourself as well and it will be ready to work in about 10 minutes. That means no shop turnaround time. Reliability of the epoxy filler method is still 100% so far so I wouldn't worry about that.

I made a sketch that I will host in a moment.

After you make this conversion then you have just changed the engine to a 3.0 that fits your 2.5L stuff, a long-block hyrbrid if you will.

Then you will have to deal with amount of fuel that the 95 can deliver to the engine but that is something that can be dealt with later.
Posted By: warmonger_dup1 Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/13/06 11:51 AM
Sorry for the size, but this is must a quick sketch showing the stages and what you need to do. Look on my website and DemonSVTs website for some pictures of completed work. Search and you will see the image where someone had it welded.

Posted By: SpdySVT Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/13/06 01:55 PM
Originally posted by warmonger:
Sorry for the size, but this is must a quick sketch showing the stages and what you need to do. Look on my website and DemonSVTs website for some pictures of completed work. Search and you will see the image where someone had it welded.




Damn you are my hero .. lol .. thanks a million .. i feel ready to start working on it .. but stay tune i may have more questions ...

SpdySVT

Posted By: posthuman63t Re: 95 Contour SE 2.5 to 3.0 duratech swap - 04/13/06 02:30 PM
That was a great explanation of how ya gotta do things WAR. Excellent post for noobs to the 3L. Nice work...
Posted By: warmonger_dup1 The easy way to swap a 3.0longblock to 2.5 intake - 04/14/06 12:05 AM
You're welcome!
I just try to help.
Posted By: Kremithefrog Re: The easy way to swap a 3.0longblock to 2.5 int - 04/14/06 03:18 AM
Help me!
Posted By: warmonger_dup1 Re: The easy way to swap a 3.0longblock to 2.5 int - 04/15/06 12:06 AM
Originally posted by Kremithefrog:
Help me!



WHAT??

j/k.

I have to see what happens with the whole job/school thing this summer.
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