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Power issues after motor swap

Datonaku

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 6, 2015
Messages
40
Location
Charleston, SC
I will try to make this as detailed as I can, with my thought processes, what I've done and haven't done and what not, i'm sure its gonna be something stupid im overlooking.
Too start things off I bought a 00' svt contour with a bad trans, never heard the car run either, start scouring a transmission for the known issue, came accross the perfect parts cougar, that had a 3L swap and trans with 40k miles that I got to drive home(after dropping clutch to start) for 300 dollars, To make things as easy as I could I swapped the 3L and trans together into the contour, came out the cougar and went right into the contour, all went well, with the normal knuckle busting.

with the key in and on I have a flashing oil light and thats it, No headlights, brake lights etc., backlights behind dash gauges, i havent tested much inside due to also having stating issues. a missing ground possiably?
The current grounds i know of that i checked, that I wouldve touched while swappng the motor and those are
-Hood to body
-small ecu to body in that same area
-coilpack ground
-trans bolt to battery (one car had a ground from here to body aswell the other didnt)
-black and yellow wire coming out bottom of fuse box grounded to battery

Any others im missing? this is only my 2nd time swapping these motors, so i know i dont know everything

On to the other starting issues
First with the old motor in having starting issues what i found out was jumpping pins 3 and 5 (ithink was months ago) the starter would turn the motor but no start. a dead battery ended troubleshooting that day, and was left with that. I have swapped motor and trans completely with a different starter so its not the same one that was on it.
It's possible that the starter on the new motor is bad and I will be testing pins 3 and 5 again to see if the starter does anything if not ill swap them out and go from there. I havent started that yet knowing there are other eletrical issues aswell not knowing if anything would be related.

All help is greatly wanted, I will try to provide whatever info yall need on request for anything ive missed.
 
Ok this is going to sound insane.

On my 99 SVT the starter has bracket that goes to the starter itself and helps act as a ground .. one of my wires coming off my battery for the NEG goes to this.. if it is NOT hooked up the starter will NOT turn or even run.. you turn the key and get nothing.

I only know this because my car had this issue and it took me 2 months to figure it out lol

hope that helps.

There should also be a ground strap that runs from the firewall to the passenger side engine mount. They can wreck havoc if not properly grounded, i believe it has to do with the brain of the car (PCM/ECU)

Also I believe the 00 is a returnless system.. that is controlled through the PATS (correct me if I am wrong) and if the motor you put in is the return style this may also be part of the problem.
I am not in ANY WAY a master of these SVT's this is just what I know and should maybe get you pointed in the right direction.
 
Anyway you could provide a picture of this bracket so I know what I'm looking for?

I do not have any ground connected to the pass mount, I'll try to source that wire, do you know exactly where in the firewall it would be? not much room to look around back there lmao.

As for the fuel system i did know about the differences but, by looking at it but motors had the same fuel line setup in the engine bays just one connection to the fuel rail which is where i swapped connections between motors at, was I wrong to think they were the same? are they visually different or anything?
 
....... the oil light should never flash.

Go back and check the engine harness and make sure it is not damaged or crushed under the manifolds..

Unplug and visually check for bent pins in any of the plugs/connectors from the PCM right thru to the individual sensors.

I know that is a lot of checking .... but you can't move forward until you are 100% sure about the condition of your wiring .....G

Just had an idea ... you could try unplugging the 3 plugs on the rear cam cover one by one to see if the electrics act normally .... could save a lot of unnecessary checking.
 
Alright, I now have normal power through out the car, was missing a ground to the frame. Now on to the starter issue. Which I really think is just a bad starter, il post an update shortly.
 
I didn't take that in to consideration,but to the fact that, the 3l swap to the cougar wasnt half ass, it had the svt upper and lower intake, with mounting plates, headers an ypipe, he had wideband etc hooked up, svt brakes and suspension id like to think it would already be using an svt harness, but i have noted a difference on my shift towers, they both have different plugs, but, i was told when i bought the car, a cougar transmission was already in the car, so maybe i have an svt trans paired with the 3l since everything else was svt parts? current plug style in the car is a long flat plug, and the shift tower is taller and bulker then the other, its plug is a very small 2 prong plug
 
To avoid any issues, because the harness changed over the years, it is always best to use the harness from the vehicle that the engine is going into.

The shift tower was changed about the time the fuel system went from return to returnless. It is not specific to the Cougar.
 
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