Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Need help from a fellow owner, something to air - discuss away!

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Tony B
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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby Tony B » Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:17 pm

When I ran my blacktop dry of oil in the Pyrenees I replaced it by finding an old Mondeo in eBay, taking the engine out and scrapping the rest of the car, I actually got back the same in scrap value as I paid for it :lol:

Anyway, there’s loads on the bay!

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Tony C
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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby Tony C » Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:18 pm

Tony B wrote:When I ran my blacktop dry of oil in the Pyrenees I replaced it by finding an old Mondeo in eBay, taking the engine out and scrapping the rest of the car, I actually got back the same in scrap value as I paid for it :lol:

Anyway, there’s loads on the bay!


Sounds like a plan,helped Mattijs do the same, the engine from a car sourced from Matt was better than the 'tuned' one originally fitted!
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Matth93
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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby Matth93 » Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:39 pm

Would it not be worth pulling it apart and seeing what’s wrong with it. If you get a secondhand engine how good is that going to be or last. As long as there’s no major damage on yours it wouldn’t cost much more in parts to refresh it and at least you’d know exactly what’s in it.

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ChrisL
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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby ChrisL » Sun Jan 05, 2020 10:33 am

I guess the questions are:

1. Do the results of the compression tests indicate a) head failure b) piston ring failure (and possibly bore damage) or c) ring and head failure?

2. What’s the cost of replacement parts including all gaskets, bolts, etc for a,b &c?

Second hand engines are looking around £350 and I’ll do a compression test when I get it, ideally before it ships, so I’ll have some idea it’s sound. The buy a banger and scrap it approach seems like a lot of hassle for not a lot of savings, given the prices of the right spec mondeos/focusi
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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby Matth93 » Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:55 pm

When I refreshed my zetec before fitting it a couple of years ago it cost me around £350 for piston rings, crank shells, gaskets and a cambelt kit. So it would still be around that sort of money I would guess unless you needed any machining doing or pistons.

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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby ChrisL » Wed Jan 08, 2020 7:48 am

new engine is coming on Friday, I'm going to do a compression test before I remove it from the pallet!

I'm planning on the following:

1. Spigot bearing
2. New timing belt/roller
3. General cleanup
4. new plugs
5. new oil/filter
6. Oil & water flushes

Is it worth doing anything else e.g. water pump?
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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby SteveRST » Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:01 am

Well done for cracking on with it Chris. What kinda mileage is the new engine?

Water pump is not that expensive so maybe best to put a new one on while changing the cam belt.
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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby ChrisL » Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:24 am

New engine is supposedly 80K but who knows. Have bought a new water pump from Burton as it's only about £40 so seems foolish to not replace
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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby ChrisL » Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:20 pm

I've not been completely idle having got the new engine, swapped the sumps and fitted the new water pump, pic of the old one below!. Also welded up a new charge cooler water pump mount and an outlet for the crankcase breather. what's next... contemplating changing the crank rear oil seal but as there's no evidence of a leak I might not bother. On the thermostat, my bodge to get a ground connection to the gauge sender has worked. the replacement housing I bought last summer has the wrong ecu sender thread, so I've bought a few bits of ali with a pie in the sky idea of making my own, if it works and isn't a complete ball ache to build I might start producing them, could be a millionaire this time next year b :lol: :lol:
Also replaced my shiny ali expansion tank for one off a clio that'll at least be able to see if I've run out of water! and am replacing all of the old hoses. Ticking along.... oh also made a shroud for the for the rad and have sexed up the throttle linkage...
Lots of pics :D




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Re: Man with spanners - thinks he's a mechanic

Postby SteveRST » Thu Feb 27, 2020 5:20 pm

Looking good Chris! Glad there's progress being made.
That engine looks OK, far better than the absolute dog that I've just bought :lol:

I was looking at making myself a breather blanking plate with an outlet. Need to check that there's room under the turbo for it though. Your welding there looks pretty good.
Westfield Zetec turbo & Westfield Megabusa turbo


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