So Ive been looking for a beater/daily driver/commuter so I can stop abusing my TL. The road debris, bird shit, and now water spots from the rain are pissing me off. Anyway, I have been looking for a few months now for something cheap and still fun. I went from VW to Audi to Saab and back to Honda with out any luck, I even cross shopped a contour SVT or two, but they were to damn expensive....

Well that is until I came across this little gem down the street from me. Its a 1999 Ford Contour SVT (yeah I know, its a Ford) with 129,000 miles and possible rod knock. Interior is very clean and exterior has some very minor flaws, but nothing my girlfriends cousin cant fix (he owns a body shop).

So the asking price was 1250 which is relatively low for the vehicle but not low enough considering it has possible rod knock. So I check the car out and it looks great in person. The head lights could use some clearing but its nothing I cant take care of. I have him start her up so I can here the engine and sure enough there is some tapping, but Im not quite sure its rod knock. So I talk with him a little bit and I finally get him to tell me his lowest price. He tells me 700!! Im thinking to myself, thats a hell of deal especially since a replacement engine is 400 bucks. So I stay poised tell the guy Ill think about it and do some research.

I head home look online, watch youtube for a bit, then text the guy back asking if hell take 600, he says yes and I head over and pick her up. Whats even better is that the possible rod knock may just be a bad lifter (which I have already pulled the lifters out and am soaking them in degreaser to get the gunk and crap out of them). If its just lifter noise, Im going to be the happiest guy on earth to have a good running car for 600. Even if it is rod knock, a thousand bucks for a good running car is worth it to me.

So, I have my beater that I can abuse and let the Black Mamba rest in the garage for the winter.

 

Congrats on getting a manual.

 

thanks Scott.... seems to be the only way I get to drive a stick..... for now

 

 

Congrats!

 

I just picked up a 91 B2200 for a beater myself

 

Nice pick up but I think the whole idea of owning a tl (a car designed to be a daily driver and commuter) and than buying a beater/daily driver is such a silly notion and a waste.

 

Congrats. I've heard for a while that was one of the best handling FWD cars out there - rivaling even an Integra Type-R. They are slow as hell though, perhaps the perfect candidate for "would you rather have a gutless corner carving car or..."

 

I think for under $1,000 he can't really go wrong. Especially if he's in a suburban area and can get door dings, hit and runs, etc. You should know this, being from Socal!

 

It's worth having a beater if your other car is one you care about, regardless of make. I'd love to not worry about door dings and road salt and all that good stuff.

Murky, nice pickup on the Contour and

I hear that's one of Ford's best products from the 90s, isn't it mostly the same as the Euro Mondeo?

 

 

@ water spots

You California people amaze me.

Either way, its a good deal on a car you can tinker with.

 

Snow? What's that?

snow tires?!?! next thing you know, they'll have tires for garage queens. There's a sucker born every minute.








(^in honor of bubbamarktl or some other silly guy)

 

Chasis yes, exterior.. not at all. While they look almost exactly the same, they share almost NO exterior body panels!

And nice pick up bud. If that motor is shot, do a 3.0L swap.. www.contour.org

 

Ill have pics up tomorrow, Ive been slaving over the engine all night. Seems like Im going to be doing a 3.0 swap on this bad boy. All in all, it will be 1,000 dollars for a car that is decently powered (with the 3.0), manual trans, and I wont care to park as close to stores as I want

Oh and yes I care enough about my TL that I dont want door dings, water spots, pitting from rocks and road debris, and bird shit all over it.

Im from SoCal and thats how I roll

 

Already a member

 

I always liked the look of the contour svt. Do what makes you happy.

 

pictures damn it!

 

Congrats! Randomly I was admiring a Contor SVT on the commute in this morning, not having seen this thread yesterday, and was recalling to myself how they were supposed to be great handling cars back in the day. Good luck with it!

 

Pictures are soon to come, I work loooooooong hours. Start at 6am and off by 430 some times 5pm. Give me time and pics will be up.

 

WHOA that is long hours, I get up 8:30am till 4-5pm, but my pay most likely pales in comparison to yours haha :P.

 

^ Yeah Im a slave to my company lol.

Its fun being a noob on a new forum lol.

 

good pick up!

 

CA and winter just does not add up to me...Enjoy the new beater

 

Contour SVT for that price is a steal! Hope its just the lifter. I'm curious what you find!

 

I know when some of you think of SoCal you may be thinking of the Beach Boys, Katy Perry and her California girls video, Terminal Velocity, and of course Escape from LA (thanks Kurt Russell), but SoCal is not all beautiful weather with sandy beaches, although there are many parts of SoCal that are like that.

I, however, might possibly live in the butthole of SoCal (high desert) where we have extreme heat in the summer (120-130 degrees,thank god its a dry heat) and extreme cold in the winter (well for SoCal anyway 7 and 8 degrees). So my part of SoCal is not what its all cracked up to be

Back to the car, I removed and cleaned the lifters, reassembled everything and still there is the tapping. So the only thing left to do is to pull the oil pan, which I did last night. I hate transverse v6's, removing the exhaust should not be routine when taking off the oil pan especially when the exhaust has never been previously removed and I snap all the hardware.

So I pull the pan and sure enough, there is a 3 inch long sliver of metal and a bunch of metal chunks in the pan. Oh what fun! So today I will be sourcing my new engine which will be a 3L from a 04 or newer Ford Taurus. The swap is very simple but it does include porting the head of the 3L, thank goodness for carbide bits.

Ill keep you guys posted and yes eventually I will post pics, but when I leave in the morning its dark and when I get home its dark, doesnt leave much room for good pictures.

 

Congrats on the beater Mike!
And seriously? Water spots on your TL already? It was gleaming clean and almost free of defects @ Acurafest..... Need a winter detail and leave her in the garage until Spring?

 

for a winter beater in cali water spots Id hate to see your reaction with all the salt around here.

 

We have salt over here in SoCal , but usually its limited to the foods we eat. Even then, its a little much

 

Thanks Mike, yes the waterspots are irritating. I try not to wash it too much as I dont want to have any more swirl marks from what we had removed. The beater will look beautiful in the garage for a few months

 

It will be a fun project.

 

Fixed. Ill have the beater running next week.

 

Salt will be the death of all northern cars. Quite literally...

But congrats on the DB (daily beater) OP. I wouldn't mind having a beater car to drive when the weather isn't playing nice.

 

So I got the engine prepped for removal last night. I will be getting my engine hoist and engine stand back today from a friend that I let borrow. I am also picking up the 3L today for a whopping 400 bucks (almost the price I paid for the damn car lol).

Im hoping that by tonight I can have the the old motor out, port the head on the 3L and have the 3L installed. Although that may be a little far fetched. I am getting off work at 230 today so it is a possibility.

Ill keep you guys posted.... if youre interested

 

Hellz yes, I'm interested. I want to see some photos!

So wait, the Contour SVT just uses a Taurus 3.0L V6 with a ported head or am I missing something?

 

 

The svt uses a 2.5 liter duratec v6. These engines are prone to what happened to mine, and that is a spun rod bearing, due to oil starvation caused by not having baffles to keep the oil where it needs to be in the pan when making hard turns.

So, a good replacement engine is the 2004 and newer ford Taurus 3.0L since they share the same design (much like the J series motors) and have improvements over the 2.5. However, in order to make things easy, regarding sensors and what not, the intake manifold from the 2.5 is used which requires porting of the 3.0 head due to the design of the intake runners on the 2.5 (split port) compared to the 3.0 (oval port)

 

Might wanna take a look at the clutch, it's a lot easier to swap if the motor is out, isn't it?

Anyways, best of luck with the swap, and now you have no excuse for not posting pictures!

 

I have a few, but nothing worth looking at. Ill post them anyway. Ill take better ones today as well since I will have some daylight. Gimme a few to upload them.