Ford Failure

[pompei]

Me that is ... I have many huge gaps in my education, including having no knowledge about Ford motahs.I've heard about Essex, Cologne, Pinto, Zetec, Kent and Crossflow, and no doubt many others. Some seem to be talked about with respect, others with disgust. What are the characteristics of these, and why are some only worthy of being chucked away and replaced?

[Albert Ross]

Essex/Cologne are sensitive to oil changes, and can snap oil pump drives, plus valley gaskets and subsequent HG failures.Pinto, bulletproof, but keep belts changed, and thermostats good. regular oil blockage up top. Can burn HG between 3 AND 4, and fouls plugs if wrong grade used. Get endy and cammy f oil changes missed.

[Albert Ross]

Kent/Crossflow/HCS are pretty much the same for this purpose. HG failure, rattly top end, plugs seizing in the holes, IACV failures, and gasket leaks. CVH (You never mentioned them) Oil leaks,electrical failures, overheating, (rattles cold or hot) sluggish.Zetecs. R, S etc. Too many to list/complex for starters. 1.25 best in fester. 1.6 S small b lock 100 PS best on Mk2 Focus. 1.8 best in Mk1 Estate.Enjoy.

[wuvvum]

I'm not an expert myself, but here goes...Kent and crossflow are basically the same thing, and had a very long production life. The Kent engine first appeared in the 105E Anglia (although it wasn't crossflow back then - I think the crossflow version was first used in the Mk2 Cortina) and did service in the larger engined Mk1 Fiestas (the smaller Fiestas used the Valencia engine, which was a similar design), some Mk4 & Mk5 Escorts, and in 1299cc HCS form in Fiestas and Kas up until a few years ago. It's a pushrod lump. Pretty good engine in most people's eyes, simple and very easy to tune, if rattly.The CVH is a more modern design (CVH stands for Compound Valve angle, Hemispherical combustion chambers) and is overhead cam. It was used in Mk3-Mk6 Escorts and in later Sierras (in which it proved completely shit). It wasn't really any more powerful than the crossflow despite its more modern design, and it tended to get a bit smoky when it had a few miles under its belt. The Zetec, as I understand it, is a development of the CVH, with a twin cam head. Although the 1242cc Zetec in the Mk4 Fiesta was supposedly designed by Yamaha, so not sure where that fits in...The Pinto is another overhead cam engine, but is bigger and heavier than the CVH. It was used in the eponymous Ford Pinto, and in Europe it did service in Cortinas, Sierras, Granadas and Transits. In fact in the early '80s Ford were using three different 1.6-litre four-pot engines in their range - the crossflow in the Mk1 XR2, the CVH in the Mk3 Escort and the Pinto in the Sierra. The Pinto also formed the basis for the Cosworth YB engine. Pintos are notorious for developing rattly camshafts - the oil spray bar that lubricates the camshaft clogs up and starves the shaft of oil. They also can get smoky at high mileages. One of the easiest engines ever to do the cambelt on though.The Essex and the Cologne were the two ranges of V engines. They both came in V4 and V6 format. The Essex V4 was fitted to the Corsair and the Mk4 Zephyr, as well as the Mk1 Transit in 1.7-litre and 2-litre form; the V6, as a 2.5 or 3-litre, was used in the Mk4 Zephyr 6 and Zodiac, the Mk1 Granada, the Capri and some Transits (ambulances etc). The Cologned V4 was used in the Taunus and the like (and some early Capris I think) but we only really saw it over here in the Saab 96. The Cologne V6 was introduced over here in the Mk2 Granada, and also powered the Mk5 Cortina 2.3, Mk3 Granadas and Scorpios (including the 24-valve Cosworth version), 2.8 Capris and higher-end Sierras. V6's are generally well liked - Essex is rougher but more robust. V4s are pretty crap. Fibre timing gears can break up, which can be nasty.The one I'm not quite sure about is the 8-valve twin cam found in later Sierras and Granadas/Scorpios/Galaxys. Different people have told me it's either Pinto-based or an uprated CVH derivative, and without Googling it (which I'm too tired to do) I don't know for sure. NB: Some, or more, of the above may be bollocks. I'm going purely from memory, and it's 1 in the morning at the end of a long week. I'm sure someone will correct any errors.

[Pete-M]

The I-4 engine (the 8v Twin Cam) is Pinto based.It's also the base for the 2.0 and 2.3 lumps in the Scorpio and Galaxy / Sharalhambra. The 2.3 has balancer shafts which work rather well. The Mk5/6/7 RS2000 uses the I-4 block with a 16v head.CVHs are shite. They were computer designed and it wasn't that well done, hence them flexing rather a lot if you try to turn 'em up a bit. The head is a very good one, it's the block that's crap. Hence people making ZeVHs using Zetec blocks with CVH heads. Block flexure is why a lot of tuned RS Turdos wouldn't start when they were warm, people always blame the starter motor and then wonder why it happens again a month or so later when the starter can't turn over a hot engine.The Pinto lump is immensely strong provided you change the oil regularly, if you don't, you get the camshaft issues mentioned by the last poster. Don't forget, the Cosworth engine was a Pinto 205 block with a steel crank and rods. Not many blocks happily cope with 500 bhp but the Pinto is safe enough with the Cossie mods. Some Sierra 2.0iS engines had the Cossie spec rods and crank from the factory, they were very sought after when I had RS2000s in the late 80's early 90's. I think it was to do with homogolation, but they were definately out there as I bought a couple of 2.0iS's to pinch the block / rod / crank from for Escorts. Essex V6s are lovely lumps that were killed by emissions regs. Very torquey in a way the 2.8/2.9 Cologne lumps aren't. The Cologne is very similar to the Essex but has siamesed exhaust ports which are a bollocks idea. The 24v BOB engine from the Granada / Scorpio is a wonderful lump based on the Cologne with a tendency to knacker cam chains if you don't look after them, otherwise they're bloody great.Essex V4s are utter shit. Vibratory old crocks that should never have been fitted to a car. Drive a European spec Capri Mk1 1700 and you'll discover why. Crap. They don't do a bad job of actually propelling the car along, but they're horrible. One of the biggest automotive crimes of the 70's was replacing dead Wankel lumps in Ro80s with the Essex V4 thereby replacing one of the smoothest engines of the time with one of the roughest of all time.Kents are great, very similar to the Essex lump, but inline 4s.Valencias aren't so good, very similar to the Cologne lump but different firing order and a habit of being mentally tappetty.The lump in the early Ka can be traced right back to the original non-x/flow Kent.

[Pete-M]

Essex/Cologne are sensitive to oil changes, and can snap oil pump drives, plus valley gaskets and subsequent HG failures.Pinto, bulletproof, but keep belts changed, and thermostats good. regular oil blockage up top. Can burn HG between 3 AND 4, and fouls plugs if wrong grade used. Get endy and cammy f oil changes missed.

On a 2.0 Pinto if the belt snaps it rarely causes major grief. On the 1.3/1.6/1.8 its a much more irritating scenario.The 1.3 Pinto from early Sierras isn't a bad lump. Revs more smoothly than the others, but it's not exactly powerful.

[Pete-M]

The Pinto is another overhead cam engine, but is bigger and heavier than the CVH. It was used in the eponymous Ford Pinto, and in Europe it did service in Cortinas, Sierras, Granadas and Transits. In fact in the early '80s Ford were using three different 1.6-litre four-pot engines in their range - the crossflow in the Mk1 XR2, the CVH in the Mk3 Escort and the Pinto in the Sierra. The Pinto also formed the basis for the Cosworth YB engine. Pintos are notorious for developing rattly camshafts - the oil spray bar that lubricates the camshaft clogs up and starves the shaft of oil. They also can get smoky at high mileages. One of the easiest engines ever to do the cambelt on though.

Ahh. The US spec Pinto is a dog. It's 4 inches longer than the EuroPinto and normally 2.3 litre. In the late 80's a few muppets had a go at fitting the 2.3 Turbo Pinto from the Mustang II to Escorts and the like and nobody ever had decent results from it. Rough arse engine, that.

[Gompo]

If you fancy having this info in 'print' go to Burton Power and request a free catalogue, at the beginning there is a run through of the popular Ford motors. More focussed on tuning rather than history, but can be useful..

[Spottedlaurel]

In 1986-89 I worked on the 2nd floor next to a town centre road. Could always tell the Pinto-engined Cortinas just by the sound of them rattling away from the lights.

[pompei]

Thanks for the info! You chaps are a veritable wikipedia of things automotive

[Cavcraft]

Any particular reason why the 1.8 units fitted to Sierras smoked their tits off?

[Guest Tony Hayers]

Any particular reason why the 1.8 units fitted to Sierras smoked their tits off?

I have always been told that its the valve stem oil seals. For some reason it affects the Sierra 1.8 more than the 1600As to the I4 engine - Its a development of the Pinto block. By the late 80's the Pinto had been in production for almost 30 years and Ford was looking for a replacement for the Sierra and Granada/Scorpio - the I4. Same bottom end as a 2.0 pinto but the I4 had a DOHC head, chain driven with hydraulic tappets. The chain (single) was meant to last the life of the engine but this depends on how well the oil has been changed as the tensioner on it is plastic and can wear leading to the chain going slack and then total engine meltdown. It does have a reputation for eating head gaskets but as long as the service schedule is kept to it should not be much of a problem IME. Its a much smoother running & sounding engine than the Pinto but its not as tunable as the Pinto. A lot of people say that the reason the I4 had a 8 valve head was the Sierra and Mk 3 Granada were both in the final years so Ford only wanted a short term engine to see both models out.Ford developed the I4 to go into the FWD RS2000 Escort (MK5) and the bubbly shaped Scorpio 94- and the Galaxy, both in bored out 2.3 form with 16 valve heads.

[Guest]

Someone I know had an early 90s RS2000 and spent much time/effort attempting to bung a Galaxy 2.3 block into it. Gave up after coming to the conclusion that the Zetec was a lighter, superior lump and offloaded the entire unfinished project, using the proceeds to help fund a Focus which subsequently had a turbocharger appended at enormous cost.

[Richard]

Any particular reason why the 1.8 units fitted to Sierras smoked their tits off?

I thought all CVH engines smoked their tits off- on the rare occasions they ran at all that is.

[gallondrunk]

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[FredTransit]

.........Pinto, bulletproof, but keep belts changed, and thermostats good. regular oil blockage up top. Can burn HG between 3 AND 4, and fouls plugs if wrong grade used. Get endy and cammy f oil changes missed.

Also no damage ensued if the cam belt fails, both the 1600 and 2L are none interference engines.The other bullet proof Ford is the 2.5L naturally aspirated diesel.... There's little damage if the cam belt fails, it's so strong it usually suffers only bent pushrods.