I am very satisfied with my ST, but i want to unleash some more power from it. 

The obvious things i will do is;

a real good cold air intake with filter down in front of the wheel.

A true dual exhaust with H pipe(?) from the manifolds all the way back with just two mufflers at the rear.What dimesnion should i build it in? I am thinking 2" is sufficient, or should i build it in 2.25"? 2,5" is to much that i am quite shure on.

AND, what can i do to the heads? is there some here on that have ported some SVT/ST heads? Are bigger valves easily obtainable?

I read on some forum that it is possible to use the 3L,s valves? What dimension are the original valves in the SVT head?

Can i get any good out of matchporting the UIM/LIM combo? 

What more can i do that is usual practice to unleash the power of this wonderfull engine.

The beemer six was my favorite engine before, but now this engine is the one im in love with, fkin great engine!

Best regards/ Mathias from Sweden

EPA proposes increasing ethanol content in fuel to 30 percent

Less than a year after it approved the sale of E15 – a mixture of 15 percent ethanol with 85 percent gasoline – the EPA has begun to suggest doubling that percentage despite concerns about the existing levels of ethanol in fuel.

As reported by the New York Times earlier this month, the EPA’s proposal of E30 came buried deep in a report released in March about sulfur levels in fuel. The proposal calls not only for increasing the percentage of ethanol in fuel to 30 percent, but also for pushing car manufacturers to tune their engines with higher compression ratios to better burn E30. As the Times pointed out, the proposal is designed as much to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy as it is to engineer support for more ethanol in fuel.

“You make the dog like the dog food,” William H. Woebkenberg, a senior engineer for fuels policy for Mercedes-Benz, told the Times.

The ethanol industry has been promoting E30 at least since 2007, describing it as an optimal blend for fuel economy. However, beyond concerns from the automakers and AAA that the engines in new cars aren’t designed to run on blends much higher than 10 percent, collector car owners who use the same fuel have noted that the ethanol can actually damage their vehicles.

The EPA approved the sale of E15 last June, but two pieces of legislation introduced in Congress earlier this year – House Bill 875 and Senate Bill 344 – asked the EPA to suspend the sale of E15 until the fuel could be studied further. Both of those bills remain in committee.

Meanwhile, at least a couple of state legislatures have expressed misgivings about ethanol content in fuel. Earlier this month, Maine’s lawmakers voted to ban any ethanol-blended fuel as long as at least two other New England states also banned it, citing potential damage as a result of its use along with the impact of ethanol fuel’s use on food supplies. (The two-other-states provision was included to ensure a large enough supply of non-ethanol fuel from regional refineries.) As the Bangor Daily News reported, the vote came on the heels of a similar bill that Maine’s governor signed earlier this month banning fuel with ethanol content greater than 10 percent. In each of the last two years, New Hampshire’s state legislature passed a bill banning all ethanol-blended fuels, but the bill did not become law.

The EPA’s E30 proposal is currently open to automakers for comment.

BTW you don't 'tune' for higher CR's...you have to design and build engines with higher CR's...idiots!!!

http://www.fordbay.co.uk/topic/774-for-sale-st220-j-p-stainless-4-twin-exhaust/

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z14656/Ford-Contour-Concept.aspx

This year I have purchased and begun racing a 1995 Ford Contour 2.0L 4 cylinder car in a Mini Stock at my local 3/8ths mile oval short track. All parts must remain factory stock in the engine. We were told that it would be important to use a flasher on the engine to reprogram the computer so we would not be breaking rods and rod bearings on a frequent basis, also to give us a power boost. We were recommended the XCAL3 flasher. It appears that the SCT/XCAL3 flashers are designed for the OBDII ports, and from what I have read the 1995 Contour was only OBDI Equipped. I was just wondering if anyone knew if the 1995 Contour was compatible with the XCAL flasher or if there is another way to chip/tune the engine in the car for more life and performance. 

Thanks

My fog lights have been hazed and 'yellowed' for quite some time.  I decided to try and clean them up.  Ended up using 600 grit wet sandpaper, then 1200 grit, and then finished with some meguiars polish on my buffer.   

There a bolt thats rusted off.   And the plate is broken.    Was about to do complete suspension overhaul until i saw that.

This is probably a silly question but is there any chance that by replacing the O2s for the P1131 that it could possibly resolve the P0174 and P0171? I'm thinking that without good O2s, how could the PCM determine a lean condition? Just guessing here since the 02s are 15 years old.

As most of you know the gearbox in Rob's car was built by me, just love these sort of jobs...Rob has done 2 or 3 seasons on this unit without rebuilds or any trans issues at all....

At one point on this years run he beat his previous top speed and for a few miles ran at around 167+ MPH...

Kudos to Rob...good run...

Also the number for the latest revision of the IACV would be appreciated, but the hose seems to be more difficult to track down.

I've got all the classics on my Cougar, moosing, throttle hanging and now apparently even an intake leak I've yet to locate, since it's running rich with the code P1131 and even stalled a few times now. Trackdays take their toll I suppose =)

So hi from Finland!

A performance engine is only as reliable as the gaskets and surface finish used to seal it

By Larry Carley

The most critical engine gaskets are the head gaskets since they have to withstand the heat and pressure of combustion. And unless the engine is a drag motor with a solid billet or filled block, the head gaskets also have to keep coolant out of the cylinders.

Many performance engines are capable of making several times as much horsepower as a stock engine of comparable displacement, so the head gaskets must be durable enough to withstand the higher pressures. Head lift is probably the most common cause of head gasket failure in a performance engine, and some engines are worse than others (such as Ford small blocks). The amount of head lift an engine experiences depends on combustion pressures as well as the number and pattern of the head bolts, the size of the head bolts, and the rigidity of the block and heads……

Full article here……

http://www.enginebuildermag.com/Article/112949/performance_gaskets__surface_finishes.aspx

The Engine Builder mag site has a lot of info on many aspects ...Dig around,always worth a read..

http://www.enginebuildermag.com/

Was wondering if this is "the bolt" in the shift tower?

or do i need to take my trans out? It still shifts fine and the clutch grabs good but the pedal has become less touchy and grabs futher out.

Anyway, what this post is all about is something I came across, and appears helpful to us: http://mechdb.com/index.php/Index

Search on ZETEC, ESCORT, FOCUS, MTX-75 and you will find a wealth of info; I hope some of which is helpful. Oh, and don't forget Contour in your search ;-) I am sure there is more here, as I have just touched the surface due to limited time on the internet.

Thanks - Mondeoman