Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Engine runs too cold for unique application

I have a unique application that I need some help with. Iâ??ve been a lurking observer CEGer for years now, and this is my first post, so please help.

Problem summary: My car runs to cold. How can I get it to run hotter?

The car: 1998 Contour V6 with MTX. 58k miles with severe rear end damage due to hitting a deer. The car was declared totaled by State Farm Insurance last May.

This car is currently being used to heat my outdoor hot tub. Yes, for real. After the accident and that whole insurance fiasco, the car was essentially useless but had a good motor in it. Then my uncle-in-law lent me his Baja SporTub 1050 hot tub with an ailing Sta-Rite P2R series pump that needed a home after the divorce. Put too and 2 together: hot tub needs a new pump, and Contour has a 2.5L heat pump in working order.

My first step was to freshen the Tour for duty. So I ditched that lousy stock plastic water pump for a new metal one from NAPA 'Dura-pro' water pump part # 125-1910. Then I simply removed the radiator, flushed the system, and plumbed in the hot tub line into that circuit. So now when the Duratec runs, it circulates heated water out of the block to the hot tub and then back into the engine. Works quite nicely.

But it could produce more heat. The hot tub is more of a warm tub now. So what can I do to make the Duratec run hotter?

I tried running the engine at different speeds. It seems that 4200rpm (not long after IMRC opening) produces a lot of heat for some reason.

I also tried the IAT resister mod (finally settling on a 15kohm resister) but didnâ??t have much luck there.

My buddy with his race car had an extra 76mm Mustang MAF that I plumbed in (which was a b*itch with the BAT inlet pipe). In the end I ghetto-fabbed some schedule 40 pipe to connect the MAF to the rest of the engine. This seems to have leaned out the mixture a bit, but still the heat output is not enough.

I thought cam timing could help here, but there are apparently no adjustable gears for the V6. So I am currently working on building some adjustable gears using the old ones and some spacer plates, but I ran out of 6061-T6 aluminum plate stock during the SN95 351W rebuild.

Any other suggestions? Would you recommend stand alone engine management, since it worked so well in The Fast and the Furious? Or should I use a less-encompassing approach like the TwEEcer or Apex? How about swapping in a SuperChip?

Any other thoughts? Please help!

-Harden Thomas

Let me get this straight, you're heating a hot tub with a running contour?

You'll never get it up hot enough with water in the tub, basically you've just hooked the tour to the worlds largest radiator. The steady state temp is below "hot"

Agreed, it will never work well. The engine is not running under load, therefore despite the RPM, it is not burning much fuel just spinning. What little heat is being rejected by an idling engine won't be enough to make a dent in your heat requirements. What you have is the world's most inefficient hot tub heater. There have got to be dozens of ways to heat a hot tub better than having a wrecked car next to the hot tub idling away while you're soaking.

That is the coolest thing....

you could get several hundred dollars for that engine, this probably a lousy idea.

You have got to post a photo of your setup!!!!!


"Any other suggestions? Would you recommend stand alone engine management, since it worked so well in The Fast and the Furious? Or should I use a less-encompassing approach like the TwEEcer or Apex? How about swapping in a SuperChip?"

I don't know, but wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy new parts for the hottub? A lot queiter and cleaner too! I mean it sounds really cool what you did and give you a huge A for effort, but from my thoughts and what others have posted, it will not work.

How do you hit a Deer fast enough in reverse to total a "98?

LMFAO I have to see a pic.. By chance you live in a trailerpark HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAA

The McGyver in me would say you need to hanrness the exhaust - a turbo water intercooler should do the trick. Pump the pool water through it and run your exhaust through the air side. Instead of being a cooler it should make a very good heater.