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Post by valhalla on Oct 13, 2019 22:42:22 GMT 1
Well, I need to get some photos of this car, but so-far, so-good.
The bodywork could do with a bit of detailing, but it's all straight and true, and it all appears to be there. The main thing with this one is that the colour is a flat red, so sorting-out the odd blemish and stone-chip should be a little easier to hide (not my best expertise.....).
The only photo I have is the special tool to turn the bonnet latch nylon control via the front grille hole (where the lock mechanism should be);
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Post by valhalla on Oct 14, 2019 20:00:45 GMT 1
Well, I had a much better look over the car this afternoon, whilst I (literally) waited for some paint to dry on some customer panels for his Defender;
The car is even better than I had first thought. Very clean, very solid. It is a Focus Sport S, which I believe means, "A big name, but you have just bought into poverty". I had forgotten all about Fords (no bad thing for mental health these days) but the reality of sitting in the car hits you like a ton of bricks - you don't get much for your money!!!
All of this is for the long-term good of the car. No EPB, no keyless entry, no pushbutton start. What is required for the destination I have for this little Lady is "simple, straightforward, and reliable".
Having got the bonnet open yesterday (and recovered a socket this morning) I had a better look at the engine bay. Straightaway, what struck me was the so-called "work" that had been done on the fuel injection system/circuits. Badly probed wires, left-off insulation and sleeving. Not glaringly in-your-face, but if you look closely, all the hallmarks of bad diagnostics are there. For example, someone has probed in much too close to the inj_1 connector and left the copper exposed, so a fiddle to sort-out. What is more, if they understood the technology they were trying to fix (badly) then they would not have probed at all - this needs a current clamp and oscilloscope to look at charge, not voltage, that operates on and off these injectors.
This is all more relevant, as I then did some digging on the car's history, and lo and behold, all the things that I thought looked "disturbed" were, in fact, replaced or modified at the last big service in August 2018. The claim on the service sheet was that the car had received new injectors (doesn't look like it), new fuel pump (again, not sure sure that is the gospel truth), new battery (definitely not changed, or well out of date) and a new Gates timing kit.
I had charged the battery overnight, so it was fresh to go with a diagnostic scan with the Autel MS908. Only two faults on the engine, both relevant to the above, an EGR circuit range fault, and a injector_1 circuit open/closed fault - so there's a surprise. Having made sure that it all still seemed free, I logged the live data during a crank, which turned-out to be a sluggish-but-successful start and idle. The data all seemed plausible with healthy fuel rail pressure and injector durations, also good sensory inputs to the mapping, but.....
.....what a blinking noise!!!! Someone must have set the software switch in the PCM. You know the one, LV_ENGINE_BAG_OF_SPANNERS_ON = TRUE 
The noise could be a very, very harsh combustion knock, and certainly there is a an attendant load of smoke from the exhaust (needle control valve stuck open), but I'm not 100% certain. It sounds more likely to be mechanical, like the noise you get when someone has turned the engine whilst the cambelt has been off, then run it until the valve stem begins to stick in the guide, then run it a bit more to ensure that the piston is now kissing the valve as it all heats up.......
The timing kit was ordered on Saturday night, and it's on the way. I think I will wait for it to turn-up before lifting the cambox cover, but no question in my mind that this engine should not be run again, not until I have had a good look at the valvetrain.  |
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Post by studabear on Oct 14, 2019 21:03:42 GMT 1
So do you suspect all this stems from incorrect valve timing?
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Post by valhalla on Oct 14, 2019 21:51:55 GMT 1
So do you suspect all this stems from incorrect valve timing? I'm not sure Stu. I'm trying to piece the information together - and quite enjoying the challenge!
The last known invoice for this car, following its breakdown in August of this year, was for a water-pump, plus some sundry bits to go with it. What I'm wondering is, did the pump go first, and the timing slipped at that stage (loss of tension) such that the cam timing was rattling back and forwards a bit? So even if the repairs were good, did one of the valves - or maybe more - get a bit of kiss from their pistons, but the nominal timing was still OK, so the impacts were fairly light? If so, maybe the damage was light enough that until the engine was run again, someone didn't stop to think to check for signs of impact - i.e. no obvious locking of the engine when it was turned over by hand to check the new timing belt tension.
If I can get the camera down there through each of the glowplug holes, I'll see if I can get some good pictures up onto the PC, and onwards onto this thread. I cannot do it tomorrow, as I have an even bigger challenge to deal-with, although ironically it is this Focus that could be waiting in the wings to replace the car I need to sort tomorrow.
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Post by studabear on Oct 14, 2019 22:29:45 GMT 1
Water pump is driven by the aux belt I'm pretty certain.
Certainly be interesting to follow it's progress. Usually educating too.
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Post by valhalla on Oct 15, 2019 21:42:49 GMT 1
Water pump is driven by the aux belt I'm pretty certain.Certainly be interesting to follow it's progress. Usually educating too. You are probably correct there - the last bill that finished the car off was for a water pump and for a Gates poly-V, so that would tally. I'm a bit new to these Ford engines, so until I start to strip it all down, I don't know what I will find. The water pump drive was not clear on the video I watched on the lower belt/chain conversion process, all I could see was that it had to come out of the way to get the rear timing cover off to access the lower wet drive.
Like I said last night, the best bet might be to put the 5mm camera probe down the four glowplug holes and see if anything has contacted recently. Givien I ran the engine for a short while yesterday (purely to get some live data, not because I like mechanical torture), I would fully expect to see some shiny marks visible for a few days.
The timing tools are going to be a wee whiley in the post, so if I have time as well, I might just do a valve deflection test at 90degs crank angle on the 8 valves, just to see what sticks, and what slides.
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sb
New Member
Posts: 39 
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Post by sb on Oct 16, 2019 7:25:47 GMT 1
If this is the 1.6 tdci engine the water pump is driven off the timing belt.
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,966
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Post by remmington on Oct 16, 2019 7:44:13 GMT 1
If this is the 1.6 tdci engine the water pump is driven off the timing belt. +1 for the above |
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Post by rhyds on Oct 16, 2019 9:28:38 GMT 1
From previous posts I think its the 1.8 TDCI rather than the 1.6. If Val had considered a 1.6 I would have suggested that he run away. Quickly.
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sb
New Member
Posts: 39
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Post by sb on Oct 16, 2019 13:50:26 GMT 1
Ahh yes he mentions the lower belt/chain, so you are correct 1.8 tdci runs off the aux belt. Should also be a chain on the lower half on this year, so no need to worry about stripped teeth on the wet belt.
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Post by valhalla on Oct 16, 2019 21:38:50 GMT 1
Ahh yes he mentions the lower belt/chain, so you are correct 1.8 tdci runs off the aux belt. Should also be a chain on the lower half on this year, so no need to worry about stripped teeth on the wet belt. I was going by the engine code for the "wet belt" specification, so I'll have to look closer at this. It might appear that the engine is going to have to come apart anyway, given that it sounds like mechanical contact is happening. Does the lower belt/chain tensioner specification still apply - that a flat-ended tensioner nose is for belt, and a rounded-end tensioner nose is for chain? I might be able to have a faster look that way, rather than taking the whole lower timing case apart.
Sadly, I didn't get far with the Focus this evening, and I just ran out of time. The "paid work" was taking too long this morning, and I had a funeral this afternoon, so by the time I had my lunch and a few cups of tea, it left only enough time to get some of the top-end bits and pieces apart;
Electrical harness is pulled back as far as the main connector behind the cam-cover (I have made a mistake and forgot to put the driver's electric window up before doing this, so I'm going to have to drive that circuit directly if I want to keep the car dry outdoors - I cannot switch the PCM with all the connectors removed)
Cam cover is removed, but then Ford have used, by good design, the cam-bearing studs to hold the splash-guard down, so I have limited view and access to the 8 tappets, to assess for guides binding-up.
All 4 glowplugs are out, and three are reusable, but at 110k on a Ford, it might be worth renewing these all anyway.
The camera/s are too big to squeeze through the glowplug apertures (they fit through other engine apertures) so I'm going to have to whip the injectors out tomorrow, and see if I can get any decent photos inside the engine that way. This is an utter pain, as I didn't want to disturb the injectors just yet - I want to do a cranking compression test via the four 'plug holes with the WPS500, to assess what is going-on with CR and valve timing. Moving the injectors to confirm no metal-to-metal contact inside the engine will mean my compression tests will be obscured by injector seat/washer leakage afterwards.
All in all, I'm impressed so-far with the way this Ford is put together, and the way it comes apart nicely.
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Post by givusaclue on Oct 17, 2019 22:38:35 GMT 1
hi Valhalla
You only need to remove 1 glow plug to carry out the compression test using wps500
Can you not do a cam/crank signal test to verify the timing?
Just in case you’ve forgotten the servo pump used to stick on these & make them rattle as well,
Just a thought
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Post by valhalla on Oct 17, 2019 23:24:29 GMT 1
Well, there in lies a tale. The WPS500 glowplug adapter kit was all ready to go. Then I went to put the flexi hose onto the adapter in cylinder 4. "Where's the proper flexi hose?" I asked myself. After 20minutes of searching, I gave up and ordered another one. I'm so racked-off, I just don't know where it has gone, but what I can say with some experience today is that none of the "normal" sparking aperture adapters or hoses can be made to fit the small, course thread that Pico have used on the glowplug adapter quick-fit coupler......
I'm doubly racked-off because what I wanted to do is a smoke-leak test with the SmokePro, one through the exhaust system, one through the intake trunk in front of the EGR valve. So I ran out of time preparing the engine for the cranking compression test, and this means that the car has had to go out for a day or so.
What I'm interested in is the EGR valve assembly, which I mentioned before on this engine. It's nagging me that the EGR electrical head was changed last year, yet nothing looks disturbed on the inlet manifold itself. I've taken a picture or two around this area, and the workmanship does not inspire. The gasket was slightly damaged, but more importantly, the rear lower fixing was missing. Where it is, I don't know, as it seems unlikely it could have gone in through the EGR valve itself, but even so, I'm not happy that only 3 out of 4 fixings are there. The job was done 11months before the first real failure, so I don't believe this has directly contributed to the failure, but....if the workmanship was as sloppy as that, what else is wrong? Right now, what I know is the following;
1) The in-cylinder pictures are inconclusive with my camera, hence I have not bothered posting them here, but what I see is a wringing-wet combustion bowl with fuel on cylinders 2 & 4, slightly on cylinder 3, bone dry on cylinder 1.
2) The CR pump works when turned
3) With all the injectors and glowplugs out, there does not now seem to be any mechanical "clacking" on a starter motor spin - where it was obvious to the ear whilst the poor engine was idling
4) The tappets all seem to slide smoothly back against the cam lobes when turning the engine slowly by hand
5) I think that the EGR valve head and associated cam-scroll around it are not 100% OK; the brass scroll has a slight movement on it when pryed by screwdriver against the inlet manifold, and that seems wrong, but also the whole valve sliding motion seems sticky and yet slack when operated manually, i.e. I think it has fallen apart inside the manifold. When I removed the (new'ish) electrical motor unit off the front of the EGR assembly, it sprung returned to its rest position by around 90degrees, as if it had not been able to turn the EGR cam assembly at engine shut-off. I don't know if this is normal on this particular engine/software, but it seems suspicious that the motor returns to a position that the valve is not normally parked-at itself.
6) The cooling system holds pressure as good as I can expect for my SP pump unit (it has a very slight leakdown itself), test pressure 15psi cold&full of coolant, decays to 10psi after 10minutes.
I'm short of time, due to a problem-customer with a problem-car on top of scheduled work and the civil engineering I'm doing right now, so I'm not going to be able to look at his for a couple of days now. It annoys me, because the answer is very close, and I'm homing-in on the inlet manifold now. Little or no combustion from cold on two cylinders that are not next to each other physically, but are adjacent in firing order, seems a bit strange, but would tally with foreign-body ingress? The engine is so simple, right now it would probably be better to just strip the head off and stop procrastinating about the whole thing, however I see it as a task to get a solid diagnostic before doing anything drastic. If only I had a few hours in a row to work on this, rather than pushing it back and forwards out of the workshop as the next heap rolls back in......
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Post by valhalla on Oct 17, 2019 23:29:12 GMT 1
Just in case you’ve forgotten the servo pump used to stick on these & make them rattle as well, Just a thought I had the same thought this afternoon. Whilst I lifted the cam cover off, I had a look at the vacuum lobe and follower, and it appeared to be OK for marks where the contact had been lost during a 360degree cycle.....but now you mention this, I might do a deflection test on the follower to see if it is sticking at all. This problem is certainly very common on the VW engines with the same axial pump design - my own 2.5 TDI has just that same issue when hot (and I have learned to "tune-out")...... |
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Post by valhalla on Oct 17, 2019 23:36:44 GMT 1
And another thought from today;
I took the ancilliary drivebelt off the front of the engine, then span all the pulleys by hand. All smooth and free, especially the new water-pump, that is, in fact, driven off this belt... 
And yes, the cylinder head is properly cast-iron, now that I have bothered to look, so where the online Wiki for this engine got alloy from, I don't know!
All I need to do now is get a hat-trick and ensure that, as mentioned above, the bottom-end is a chain, not a wet-belt..... |
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