I agree that a used engine would be a bad choice, as it would have the same design flaws.
This car has a book value of around $3000. Putting $2200 and another $600 for labor is not a road I want to travel down.
I think Ford should fix these dropped valve seats for free. This is a rediculous flaw and poor workmanship. I googled dropped valve seats and most of them happen in old Corvair motors, lawnmower engines, motorcycles and Ford SOHC motors.
This doesn't seem to be a common problem with cars built in the twenty first century, except for these early model Fords (Focus, Escort).
Valve seats aren't supposed to fall out. It's a slap in the face that Ford would overlook quality control on such a simple item that will DESTROY an engine.
I think Ford should fix these dropped valve seats for free. This is a rediculous flaw and poor workmanship. I googled dropped valve seats and most of them happen in old Corvair motors, lawnmower engines, motorcycles and Ford SOHC motors.
This doesn't seem to be a common problem with cars built in the twenty first century, except for these early model Fords (Focus, Escort).
Valve seats aren't supposed to fall out. It's a slap in the face that Ford would overlook quality control on such a simple item that will DESTROY an engine.
I agree, I don't understand it at all. This is an angine that Ford has been building virtually unchanged for almost 20 years so theres really no excuse for it.
Not that much will happen but you might try calling the Ford customer service division and register your complaint.
There is a revised cylinder head available which has the hardened valve seats. If you take the head to a machine shop, they can also put in the hardened seats. There are a few machine shop bullitens about this issue. I had the revised head put on my SPI right after I bought it. I took it in with 6k miles on it, making a loud tapping noise. (it wasnt a full on dropped seat but something was making noise) I talked to the tech about it and he wanted to make hours and I wanted to fix the car so he wrote it up for the head and got me the hardened seats.
why they didnt use the better seats in production is beyond me.
I just did a DOHC swap on my brothers Focus. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. His also dropped a valve seat. I just picked up the front half of a donor car, and changed out all the wiring, and everything.
Does anybody know where can I order a set of the revised hardened valve seats for my "01 Focus Se Sohc?
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