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Dropped Valve Seat?

17K views 19 replies 8 participants last post by  Bilbo 
#1 ·
2000 Ford Focus 2.0 Liter SOHC.

The car ran fine. I started it the next morning and there was a god awful clanking noise comming from the engine.

I pulled the plugs. The #3 spark plug looks banged up.

The clanking noise is gone with the #3 plug out.

Today I put the #3 plug back in and the clanging noise is gone, but it still has a pecking noise.

If the valve seat is gone and pulverized now, should I still hear a pecking noise?
 
#3 ·
every one Ive ever pulled, the piston is ****ed. Its fixable but it might be cheaper to find a good salvage engine.
 
#4 ·
TXFO said:
every one Ive ever pulled, the piston is ****ed. Its fixable but it might be cheaper to find a good salvage engine.
The best I can find is $1500 for a used engine or $2000 for a rebuilt one.

So I would rather piece this one together if possible or sell the whole car for parts.

I will be back to let you guys know more after the head is pulled.
 
#5 ·
I can do a Ford reman longblock for $2179.96 plus a $1000.00 core (can you tell they want it back?)

That is complete from pan to valve cover and has a 3 year 100k parts and labor warranty on it.

I can typically get these done with no shipping charges on the new engine or on the core.

Not cheap but better than a used one that'll do the same thing your old one did or a Billybobs no name reman with a questionable warranty.
 
#6 ·
FORDSVTPARTS said:
I can do a Ford reman longblock for $2179.96 plus a $1000.00 core (can you tell they want it back?)

That is complete from pan to valve cover and has a 3 year 100k parts and labor warranty on it.

I can typically get these done with no shipping charges on the new engine or on the core.

Not cheap but better than a used one that'll do the same thing your old one did or a Billybobs no name reman with a questionable warranty.
Man that's a no brainer.
 
#7 ·
FORDSVTPARTS said:
I can do a Ford reman longblock for $2179.96 plus a $1000.00 core (can you tell they want it back?)

That is complete from pan to valve cover and has a 3 year 100k parts and labor warranty on it.

I can typically get these done with no shipping charges on the new engine or on the core.

Not cheap but better than a used one that'll do the same thing your old one did or a Billybobs no name reman with a questionable warranty.

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.
 
#8 ·
Rip said:
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.
 
#10 ·
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.
 
#11 ·
A buddy of mine says that taking the head off would be a waste of time because it sounds like a rod knocking or a wrist pin.

He also doesn't believe that a valve seat can fall out.

So I don't know what to do. Is there a way to tell if the pecking noise is because of a dropped valve seat or rod knocking?
 
#15 ·
I started the engine with #3 plug out in order to move the car onto some ramps.

Something came lose and clanged around. There is no compression blowing out of #3 spark plug hole.

Oil came pouring out of the motor from somewhere.

It's screwed for sure now I guess.
 
#19 ·
Rip said:
Will a DOHC engine bolt up to the transmission in a 2000 Focus that came with a SOHC engine?

SOHC motors are hard to find around here.
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.
 
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