New car, sort of...

[95BlackGA 5,000+ posts]

Well, I've been having some problems with my car, so I've been looking for a new car. I'm the kind of person that has 20-30 different vehicles sittin' in their yard, and so I decided to check the ones that I had keys readily available for. Well, I tested 2 Dodge deseil pick up truck with no luck, a Suzuki Vitara, and a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am (It runs, just has major front end damage and no title yet). I finally found a car that's in pretty good running order, the chick I got it from said it had some bad sensors, and a pretty harsh knocking on the motor. It's a 96 Mercury Mystique (I know, it's a chicks car //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif ) It's a 4 door with a 2.0 Zetec Dual overhead cam motor. The 'harsh knocking' is just the lifters, they are needing to pressurize. It's in pretty good over all condition besides some missing trim and there's duct tape on the air box... It needs cleaned pretty bad, but that's about all. I paid $300 for the car, but I was just planning on using it to part out and make some extra money with, but since it's in fairly good running condition, I'm going to fix it up and use it. Since it's a 4 door, it going to be best on my girlfriend and I since we have a baby on the way and all I usually drive are sport coupes, or trucks. What I'm wanting to find out is, are there any 'performance' parts for this motor? I don't usually do Fords, but I don't want to go out and spend another couple thousand on another car, and 6 months later, have it not run like my Grand Am. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif Peice of shit! I'll get some pictures up fairly soon, I'm installing my stereo out of my Grand Am into this car, and hopefully it will be an all around better install since I'm not going to take the short cuts that I did last time... I have some pretty nice place to mount my crossovers too. They'll be well hidden.

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[mapolley07 10+ year member]

there are a lot of performance mods available for a 2.0 Zetec. Check on forums for Ford Contours/Mercury Mystiques, Mercury Cougars, and Ford Escorts/Escort ZX2. It is a popular motor and takes well to minor mods. It is a DOHC 24 valve motor with VVT, so it is basically an American ricer motor j/k. Actually "ricer" mods such as intake, cat-back exhaust, cam/pulley mods and timing advancements work well. The mystique is actually pretty sporty for a 4dr, and is fun to drive. See if you can get a Contour SVT body kit, and get a little bit stiffer suspension with about a 1.5-2" drop. black out your tail lights with nightshade and delete all the mystique emblems. Also I think some roush racing parts are available, but probably only for the 2.5L V6

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

by the way, the mercury cougar from 1999-2002 is the same as a contour/mystique except with a 2-dr. coupe body. so any mods done on cougars with the zetec including suspension can be done to the mystique. also the focus has the zetec motor and lots of aftermarket parts are available.

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

the zetec is also reliable. my cousin didn't have trouble with his zetec (1998 ZX2) until 180k+. his motor was heavily modded and he beat the living crap out of it. he got a kevlar clutch from a SVT Focus, underdrive pulleys, custom intake, handbuilt exhaust with Flowmaster muffler and cat delete, advanced timing, hurst kit, 200amp alt rewind, SVT camshafts, etc. He also disabled the speed limiter and rev limiter, and drove it 140+ mph on multiple occasions, also drove from KY to RI/RI to KY at 100+ mph several times.

he worked on it all the time though, constantly tweaking and working to make it faster, etc.