I have a problem. I'm a Foci-a-holic

[Black'02SVT]

I haven't been on FJ in a while... good to see thing are still going strong.
Much luck with the swap ... subscribed.

[frdfocszx3]

Welcome back.

[covert1]

Awesome! Glad to see more old-timers coming out. And frdfocszx3 signed up almost a month before I did back in '00. Damn!

Anyway, I was stupid the other day. I fixed up one of my annoyances and totally neglected to take pictures.

In the Greenie, the HVAC blower was just stuck at full speed. I thought it was a resistor. Turns out that did nothing. But, luckily there was a donor vehicle (the V6) that had SVT HVAC controls, so I swapped that piece along with the blower switch. Started up... Ah, silence! Finally, the controls worked as they were supposed to!

But, there's two sides to every coin. Now that the cabin is quieter I think I heard what sounds like wheel bearing noise in the rear (one of the main issues of this vintage) but it could have been the shoe dragging a bit. This really doesn't matter in the scheme of things, since I'm gonna swap the SVT bits over, but if I find out on Thursday the bearing is bad, I will just have to drive the ZTW to Ohio.

[zedexthree]

FYI: All wagons came with the rear sway bar.

I too am a focoholic, but I have always traded mine in before getting a new one. I have had 3 too. I have an 08 5 spd right now and love it.

Good luck with your engine swap and good luck with your new house - sounds like you are on your way...............

[covert1]

For those who are following, I've ordered a Duratec 3.0L V6 from a 2005 Taurus and it'll get here either Friday or Monday. It'll need a few minor mods to work, so wish me luck with that. I just have to see who I can bribe to help me tear apart the ZX3 and extract the 2.5L.

[cobrawannabe cdw27]

Yesss!!!!!

I'll put a thread up in your area on CEG and see if I can scare up some help

[RallyScarredFocus]

Ah hell man, you've got me beat! oh well good luck with this and keep me posted too, I'll be doing this within the next few weeks so let's see who finishes first .

[covert1]

I'm not trying to sprint to the finish, but regardless, let's just make sure there are lots and lots of pictures, and many 'lessons learned' to share. It's going to be so much fun when it's all complete!

[Zetecpwr]

Carl I'm saying, papa johns pizza and an evening full of duratec for the win! haha let me know when you want me to come down and help you out.

- mike

[Redlineracer12]

I've always wondered why you guys wasted time with the 2.5L SVT motors.

It's all about the 3.0L

What you probably want to decide first is which sort of 3L you want in your car... The newer 3L has an oval port intake design, where the 2.5L had split port intakes with an IMRC. It is personal preference on which intake setup you like better.

There are 3 main configurations done in the Contour platform.

1) Full 3L, basically you have the entire 3.0L longblock and you change the EGR, throttle cable, fuel rail to work with the car. Some people use the COP setup with these.
2) Split port 3L, you have to match the ports in the 3L heads to the ports in the 2.5L intake manifolds. This allows everything to bolt up easier (and it looks stock for us), but to do it right can be a lot of work.
3) A hybrid setup with 2.5L heads on the 3.0L block, if you use newer Cougar heads they should bolt right up (and obviously the 2.5L intakes bolt right up to make it a pretty easy swap) and bump your compression in the process. Those are supposedly ~11:1 compression. You are restricted by the 2.5L intake/exhaust valves though. I probably wouldn't recommend the hybrid swaps unless you go with newer Cougar heads (older Cougar/Contour heads still had the oiling problem and would require filling a couple oil ports in the 3L block) and have the 3.0L valves installed.

Really a properly done setup will make roughly the same power on any of those. I would consider a set of SVT 2.5L cams, regardless of your setup. They help the engine breathe at high RPM to make good power all the way to redline (~7k).

I have a split port swap with a brand new 3L shortblock and 3L P&P'd heads, but it wasn't nearly as cheap as the straight 3L swap obviously.

[RallyScarredFocus]

Yeah I'm not racing either covert....LOL.

And thanks for that info above... I was wondering what other parts would be swapped.

I've heard stock plastic IMs yeild a bit more anyway and the svt came are outdated... All preference I guess

[cobrawannabe cdw27]

I have not done a Duratec swap as of yet, and I know more about the Zetec platform, so I will now bow out and give Redline the reigns. Thanks, man!

[Redlineracer12]

Originally Posted by RallyScarredFocus

I've heard stock plastic IMs yeild a bit more anyway and the svt came are outdated... All preference I guess

Well there are some people that are really bent either direction, but I can appreciate either swap if it's done correctly. Straight 3L would be the best bang/buck for you though if you're not tearing apart the 2.5L for parts.

I'm not sure which contour board you've been on more, but it seems fordcontour.org is more for the straight swaps (a few of the more technical guys there swear by them) where contour.org is kind of neutral.

[RallyScarredFocus]

Think I ought to check out the fordcontour site as I've never been there. And just wondering as an opinion from you redline, there's a junked 98 CSVT at my local yard, as well as them having the 99 3L engine I want. The svt engine is totally intact as far as I k ow so I'm just wondering what you think I ought to do (not to threadjack but yeah. I'm curious now)

Mix n match? LOL

[covert1]

A little threadjacking is inevitable, but one thing's for sure - it's almost worth having someone sit down and organize all the combinations of possible 3L engine selections and 2.5L/3L bastardizations

I made a mistake earlier - my engine is from a '04 Taurus, but that's trivial. However, it did not come in on Friday. In my ride, I'm going to go pretty much "Full 3L". It looks like there's enough clearance to keep the Taurus IM and the COP setup will keep things a bit more tidy. My 2.5 is not a SVT variant so I won't be changing out any cams. I'm going to get the Escape oil pan, windage tray and pickup as well, because I want everything bolted up.

Put in some orders for miscellaneous tools and also got me a reciprocating saw and angle grinder. <Home Improvement grunt noises>. This is not just to cut the ears off the 3L block for the 2.5L alternator bracket, but so that I can cut out any fubar'd parts or old exhaust pieces from greenie.

Speaking of the greenie, I forgot to post these up a couple weeks ago. I had to go to Ohio for a family reunion and took the SPI because I figured it'd net me a bit more MPG than my ZTW would have. It was a reasonable hypothesis, but on the way there, with no A/C, the results weren't that much better. However, I took I-68 through the more hilly parts of western Maryland.

On my return, I took the short route and went OH Turnpike to PA Turnpike and exited at Breezewood to take I-70E. Both ways, I drove during the late night and set the cruise control to 5mph over the limit, which usually meant I was at 70. The results were eye-opening and borderline insane. Here's a set of pictures:




I was so surprised at what I saw, so I basically drove the entire way, non-stop. Also shocked that I barely had to do the pee-dance when I got back, but anyway, I did the whole 363 miles from my folks place to my place with plenty of gas to spare. Sadly, the remainder seemingly went to waste on ONE round trip to work. If I had more highway, I bet I could have rolled 450 miles on that damn thing.

Later that week, I got around to working on Olde Faithful. Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks?



The mod works just fine, and maybe even a little too well. I changed the plugs as well and that's probably why it seems more sprightly. I know it's more fun, because the gas mileage has been the crappiest I've seen in a while Then again, I was probably just happy to get out of the SPI for a while.

I've never really gotten the same mileage with the AEM CAI compared to the stock SVT Airbox / SVT Snorkel, so I'm probably going to put that back to see if the results are the same. It could be my O2 going bad for the 3rd time. I last changed it before I got the CAI, and from my log, the mileage numbers seemed better at the time. Now they are back to where they were prior to the O2 switch.

Anyway, I need to find someone with a pickup to take me to Jessup on Monday or Tuesday morning so I can get my 3L! A friend of mine had something come up and won't be in town and I'd rather buy someone lunch than waste $$ to get a rental to take the engine home.

[venomrogue]

welcome back, your LED's are still going strong in my ole' Silver ZX3.

nice collection of Foci, but your far from a true "foci-a-holic"



and thats not counting the Silver Powerworks ZX3 (now turbo), or the first 2 foci I owned (a green 00 zx3, and a silver 01 zx3)

I think FocusOwnerskid is the only one who has owned more than me,


diggin the V6 swap info, sounds like a fairly straight forward swap....much easier than a bored out 4.6....might think about that for my next project...hrm.......

[RallyScarredFocus]

^^ LOL well if you do, don't forget the twin turbo .

Wow so you don't have it yet? I thought it was there already. LOL oh well. FWIW I'll be getting my trans and engine within the next two, maybe three, weeks so I can't wait either LOL.... Only mines from a 99 so I gotta pull it apart, clean and inspect the whole thing, and get newer parts. LOL.

You should do what I might be doing... Rent yourself one of those home depot trucks. I don't know if they do I over there but it's like $20 for the first 90 minutes. might be the same as lunch at least. LOL.

Edit: right so I opt to do the full 3L as well... I'll probably snag the TB off of the svt and a few other needed parts.

I take it you're going to keep it as a returnless fuel system? I'm converting mine to return so I can still use that ecu from the contour that I got for $19. LOL.

[SVT0209]

thats sweet i want to have a few like that..
the v6 one is awesome

[covert1]

[RallyScarredFocus]

OOH I like, I like...... but why does it look so small to me?

edit: wait I got that one, it's missing the stock headers and all the other hoses n stuff....

cheers, get it in there....... if it don't fit, force it in..... so this going into Greenie? keep us posted on what you do . Btw what ECU are you gonna use?

[covert1]

Originally Posted by RallyScarredFocus

OOH I like, I like...... but why does it look so small to me?

That's what she said

edit: wait I got that one, it's missing the stock headers and all the other hoses n stuff....

cheers, get it in there....... if it don't fit, force it in..... so this going into Greenie? keep us posted on what you do . Btw what ECU are you gonna use?

If it looks more trim, then that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Yesterday, I helped out another Jetter, Oreo, remove his 2.3L Duratec I4 and that lump makes my 3.0L look like King Lardass.

In the blue ZX3 I have a 2002 Cougar ECU, so when I get into gutting out Greenie I'll be transferring the wiring. It'll have to be tuned to accommodate the 24lb injectors in the D30. Everything's returnless on my setup, so it's going to stay that way.

[syntheticGT]

Blast from the past right here!

Cars look good...cant wait to see what you have in store for the v6.

[Zetecpwr]

looks like its comming right along there buddy. I'm in pa this week, but next week I'll be back home. Off tues wed. Let me know if you wanna hangout and start tearing into greenie

- mike

[RallyScarredFocus]

^^ can I say it, can I say it?? That's what she said!

[covert1]

More progress pics:

An extra pulley that needs to go bye-bye


How convenient that I can wedge the strap tool in the pallet to get this pulley off:


Now, onto the crank pulley, itself:


Once I found a proper set of bolts, it was easy to get started:


Removed!


Gotta remove the auto-tragic flywheel:


The last PITA (for now) is the pilot bushing. It's not needed for the MTX-75:


I attempted to slice into the side of the bushing, to try and use a puller. I ended up aborting that because I didn't feel comfortable with the grinding wheel that close, and my puller was too large for the bushing so it couldn't grip it to begin with.



Tomorrow morning I will be hitting up Harbor Freight to grab a large drill bit and a tap/die set, so I can thread a giant bolt in that pilot and use my slide hammer to get it out.