[Gear] crunch time & losing its cool... RFU's adventures with a MK2 Focus that escaped death and proves to be a free* car

[RoverFolkUs]

So, after an unfortunate incident involving water entering into my Focus's engine, and killing it very well indeed, I'm faced with 3 options. 

1) - scrap the car 

2) - swap the engine

3) - do an "Autoshite rebuild" 

I initially said it's curtains, but now I've had time to reflect on the situation, I have decided that I am not going to give up on the car immediately, and give things a chance. 

What is an Autoshite rebuild you may ask? 

Well, it will be a cost effective engine rebuild. 

I have the tools, equipment and knowhow. The time? Not really, but I'll make something work.

This thread will be a diary keeping track of things. Don't expect regular updates, I'll be attacking it as and when I have time. 

Plans may change along the way, but I've opted to do an Autoshite rebuild.

Second hand parts will be used, items will be reused. If anything about this concept upsets you, this isn't going to be the thread for you I'm afraid. 😅 ,- It's a 17 year old Ford Focus, worth probably no more than £1500 as a going concern so I'm applying a very conservative £500 initial budget to include the consumables and service items along the way. Whether I buy another engine for spares and make a good one out of the two, or only buy the spares I need is to be decided. 

I'd really not want to buy a complete engine because you don't know how good it is, how long it would last, how well it's been looked after and, particularly important for a Duratec, how much of an oil burner it is. 

This kaput engine was absolutely perfect before this, so I'd like to retain everything that isn't broken, ideally. 

For those who are interested in the rebuild, great! But if nothing else, it will be a helpful place to write everything down so I can remember important details along the way...

Stage 1 - Diagnosis 

So, what was the damage? 

Ordinarily, I would whip the plugs out and whirl it over to remove as much water as possible. (After trying by hand at the crank pulley first, of course)

This is the first hurdle, the engine has locked up even with the plugs out. 

Upon further inspection, we have the following results. 

Hmmm, we've either got at least 2 extremely bent rods there, or broken ones..

Predictably, the engine is simply locked up despite having no water in the cylinders now. Shunting it in gear did free it off a bit but it then locked up again

What next? 

Stage 2 - Teardown, inspection and parts inventory to follow...

 

[somewhatfoolish]

Chodspeed.

[loserone]

Brilliant!  Just don't tell the budget tyre waxoyl chap will you?

[RoverFolkUs]

1 minute ago, loserone said:

Brilliant!  Just don't tell the budget tyre waxoyl chap will you?

Leave Sierraman alone 😉 although I'm surprised he hasn't come along to remind me/confirm how much of a daft idea it is! 

[somewhatfoolish]

Just scrap it M7.

[Ghosty]

Now this is Autoshite. Watching with interest.

 

[New POD]

In 1986, my mate Ian, took the head off a marina engine, and the sump, removed all four rods, one of which was bent, rebored, the cylinders, refitted 3 of them with the original pistons and new oversized rings, and the forth rod and piston came from a visit to a scrap yard, and got it going.  The most autoshite nature of this that it was done in the street outside his house. 

You have a workshop ? And more skills than Ed China, so it should be easy for you. (Probably) good luck. 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I was hoping that you'd go ahead with this.  Watching with interest as I hate to see a good MK2 Focus die!

[sierraman]

I’d just stick another engine in to be fair. They don’t usually chomp through the oil that bad till they hit 120k ish. 

Im a bit of the mind new engine bits in an oldish engine never seems to work too well so even if you picked up another engine for £150 you could even use that to replace all the bent bits. The valves, cams etc will all be fine. 

[grogee]

Watched with interest. Nobody seems to bother with this sort of fix these days. 

On a related note, I'm glad I went through those massive puddles VERY slowly last weekend. 

[sierraman]

Where it’s one known quantifiable fault then it’s usually worth mending. The times though you read on here and it’ll go something like this... ‘Not sure what to do with my 2007 Fiesta, the clutch is going, the engine smokes a bit, it’s got this funny cutting out issue, the sills want welding and it stinks’. You just think ‘fuckin throw it away it’s totally bollocksed!’.

If it’s otherwise good though I’d spend it in the current climate, obviously years ago a major fault wasn’t worth putting right when you could pick a car up cheap, I had no particular sentiment to them so it would get broke up and another car purchased. That’s Bangernomics! 

[RoverFolkUs]

16 hours ago, New POD said:

In 1986, my mate Ian, took the head off a marina engine, and the sump, removed all four rods, one of which was bent, rebored, the cylinders, refitted 3 of them with the original pistons and new oversized rings, and the forth rod and piston came from a visit to a scrap yard, and got it going.  The most autoshite nature of this that it was done in the street outside his house. 

You have a workshop ? And more skills than Ed China, so it should be easy for you. (Probably) good luck. 

Not sure I'd be doing this outside my house because I don't fancy getting at the manicat fixings without oxyacetylene. 

Sorry, wielding and bragging about oxyacetylene makes me a millionaire garage owner, so I shouldn't say that 🙄

Workshop yes, I'm not sure about more skills than Ed China because he's a very skilled man! But thank you for the compliment! (Was it a compliment? 😅)

15 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

I was hoping that you'd go ahead with this.  Watching with interest as I hate to see a good MK2 Focus die!

Me too to be fair. It's a solid car otherwise. "Ran perfect beforehand m8" 😅

14 hours ago, sierraman said:

I’d just stick another engine in to be fair. They don’t usually chomp through the oil that bad till they hit 120k ish. 

Im a bit of the mind new engine bits in an oldish engine never seems to work too well so even if you picked up another engine for £150 you could even use that to replace all the bent bits. The valves, cams etc will all be fine. 

Yeah for sure that's the better thing to do and it's definitely what I'd recommend from a commercial point of view. But I'm purely interested in seeing what the bare minimum is that it will take to fix it to be honest, I think/hope it will be surprisingly little. 

With all this being said, due to the sheer damage done to the conrods I wouldn't be surprised if one has smashed a hole through the block, I haven't inspected as far as that yet, if that has happened it will obviously be a new engine. 

Like you say, the top end will be fine, I wont even bother getting the head skimmed and pressure tested by the machine shop because it hasn't overheated. 

I'll probably do a davenumbers head skim (in his legacy, what an absolute legend by doing that! Even though it was before my time here, I've seen his thread)

I guess there's a chance the hydrolock could crack the head so I'll do a leak down test of course. But this is vanishingly unlikely, as the conrod is the weakest link, as I've determined here! 

14 hours ago, grogee said:

Watched with interest. Nobody seems to bother with this sort of fix these days. 

On a related note, I'm glad I went through those massive puddles VERY slowly last weekend. 

Yes certainly not the bottom end. Hardly anyone will even touch the top end. 

To be honest, once I've got the head off it's not actually that much more work to get the pistons out. Fingers crossed the damage will be isolated to [X] number of piston assemblies. I'm 99.9% certain the crankshaft will be unscathed. I'd be extremely surprised if its snapped it! 🤣

12 hours ago, sierraman said:

Where it’s one known quantifiable fault then it’s usually worth mending. The times though you read on here and it’ll go something like this... ‘Not sure what to do with my 2007 Fiesta, the clutch is going, the engine smokes a bit, it’s got this funny cutting out issue, the sills want welding and it stinks’. You just think ‘fuckin throw it away it’s totally bollocksed!’.

If it’s otherwise good though I’d spend it in the current climate, obviously years ago a major fault wasn’t worth putting right when you could pick a car up cheap, I had no particular sentiment to them so it would get broke up and another car purchased. That’s Bangernomics! 

Basically it's the only fault yes. 

I was going to do the cambelt, water pump and thermostat in due time anyway so that's £150 or so that I was already happy to spend and will be part and parcel of the rebuild. Add on a head set for £100 or whatever, maybe piston rings and big end bearings, but I'm inclined to reuse if possible! Say another £80-100 for those. 

I've seen a complete bottom end on eBay for £150. Sounds like lunacy but if it comes to the worst case I could salvage the pistons out of it and if the stat housing is miraculously intact then that's a healthy £60 saving immediately. Sounds bonkers but it isn't so much when doing my man maths. 

I've seen a complete engine for £420. That's a little more than I'm willing to spend on an engine that I haven't heard running and/or seen up to temperature. 

If I went for a replacement engine, I'd just buy another complete car that's failed its MOT at scrap money, take it out after hearing it run and then get a refund* from the scrap man for the other shell and my old engine... Now there's an idea, if I can find another car!

[RoverFolkUs]

Also, thank you to everyone for all the comments of support. 

I'd be surprised if I make much more progress in the next couple of weeks, I did say it would be a long haul! But stay tuned! 

[Stinkwheel]

Following, in case my focus engine lets go 😆

[Rust Collector]

I know that deep down you want to fit this high quality used engine for £149:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284485205247

It's got all the things you want to see:

• Lifted using cut up seatbelts - check
• Sitting on gravel in the corner of an overgrown yard - check
• Pipes and cables cut through - check
• White paint pen - check
• Definitely possibly came from a low mileage car maybe perhaps - check

And as if you needed anything else to tell you it's meant to be, the breaker is called 'AS Car Dismantlers'!

 

[juular]

I am a big fan of Autoshite budget engine rebuilds. Watching with interest.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Following with interest. Best of luck, chap.

[RoverFolkUs]

20 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I know that deep down you want to fit this high quality used engine for £149:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284485205247

It's got all the things you want to see:

• Lifted using cut up seatbelts - check
• Sitting on gravel in the corner of an overgrown yard - check
• Pipes and cables cut through - check
• White paint pen - check
• Definitely possibly came from a low mileage car maybe perhaps - check

And as if you needed anything else to tell you it's meant to be, the breaker is called 'AS Car Dismantlers'!

 

• Wrong one - check 

🤣

That's the puny 99bhp unit so I'd have to swap in all of the VVT gubbins

Different inlet fannymold as well, etc etc 

[Rust Collector]

1 minute ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Wrong one - check 

In that case it's the full house, get it bought!! 🤣

[tooSavvy]

On 21/06/2023 at 05:43, New POD said:

In 1986, my mate Ian, took the head off a marina engine, and the sump, removed all four rods, one of which was bent, rebored, the cylinders, refitted 3 of them with the original pistons and new oversized rings, and the forth rod and piston came from a visit to a scrap yard, and got it going.  The most autoshite nature of this that it was done in the street outside his house. 

You have a workshop ? And more skills than Ed China, so it should be easy for you. (Probably) good luck. 

Similar vein.....

I got a 'scrap Talbot *Horizon1.0 engine' (an IMP engine, but upright FWD) and stripped it in my back yard.

Took my 'spare IMP 875cc block' to the machine shop, with the rods and pistons out of the 1.0 block, and just said "bore to match, M8!"

A set of Cord 'ridgedodgers' rings (cheapest option) fitted upside down + 1.0 Reinz gasket= vroom

*533KNX tax record shows 930cc

*EDIT... from a Sunbeam 'in your life'

👍

[sierraman]

If you are pulling engines out of dead cars all day you would usually chop the loom. Quicker and less hassle than fannying about releasing connectors etc. 

[Rust Collector]

7 minutes ago, sierraman said:

If you are pulling engines out of dead cars all day you would usually chop the loom. Quicker and less hassle than fannying about releasing connectors etc. 

I know, but I needed to pad my list out for comedic effect 😅

[Noel Tidybeard]

just bloody scrap it m8

[somewhatfoolish]

5 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

Similar vein.....

I got a 'scrap Talbot *Horizon1.0 engine' (an IMP engine, but upright FWD) and stripped it in my back yard.

Took my 'spare IMP 875cc block' to the machine shop, with the rods and pistons out of the 1.0 block, and just said "bore to match, M8!"

A set of Cord 'ridgedodgers' rings (cheapest option) fitted upside down + 1.0 Reinz gasket= vroom

*533KNX tax record shows 930cc

*EDIT... from a Sunbeam 'in your life'

👍

As we're sharing meandering reminiscences about long ago spannering; I helped a mate put a replacement head on his Allegro 1750, we adjusted the valve clearances by holding the oversize shims on the spinning disc of a 9" angry grinder. Only a few fingerprints were sacrificed in the name of BL automotion and the scars healed. 🤣 

[sierraman]

Just now, somewhatfoolish said:

As we're sharing meandering reminiscences about long ago spannering; I helped a mate put a replacement head on his Allegro 1750, we adjusted the valve clearances by holding the oversize shims on the spinning disc of a 9" angry grinder. Only a few fingerprints were sacrificed in the name of BL automotion and the scars healed. 🤣 

I bet that lasted long! 🤣

[Split_Pin]

At first I was thinking 'WTF just throw it away' but then I remembered about 5 or 6 years ago I was in a similar situation with my old Corsa (which also turned out to need a fair but of welding).

It had a mystery knock so I bought an engine hoist, contacted a grass track racer who had the presence of mind not to throw away an identical engine to the one I needed, hired a van, collected the engine and over the course of a few months tinkering and some help from fellow shiters, changed the engine. 

I sold the car 2 years ago but I still see it about.

So, go for it, we'll worth doing IMO, however you decide to fix it.

[sierraman]

Those old Sigma engines are easy enough to find and repair. Some engines, it has to be said, never seem to be ‘right’ once they’ve been apart. 

[horriblemercedes]

2 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Those old Sigma engines are easy enough to find and repair. Some engines, it has to be said, never seem to be ‘right’ once they’ve been apart. 

I don't think any engine has been 'right' after I've put it back together 🤣

[sierraman]

Just now, horriblemercedes said:

I don't think any engine has been 'right' after I've put it back together 🤣

The older ones, probably pre 2000 design seem to be ok but the newer stuff especially diesels and direct injection petrols, it’s a sealed unit in effect, once it’s fucked you have to throw it away and get a recon unit or a crate engine. I’d probably blame small capacities for coolant and oil meaning that a slight drop in either is catastrophic. 

[Pieman]

As a Mk2 Focus owner this will be very interesting and I might learn something along the way.  Following.