How many People with the SPI had a Valve Seat Failure?

[fordcrazi]

Originally Posted by GraySurf

Hi, First post here. My wife and I just bought a 2004 Focus with the 2.0 spi. I Have read all through this thread and have not noticed anyone complaining of the valve seal dropping on an '04? I believe 2004 was the last year of the spi could ford maybe have installed updated heads in the 04 models? I am nervous about our Focus, It has 103k on it and it runs great but I cant afford a new engine if this time bomb blows. I might be going the route of buying a reworked head. I'm going to make some phone calls to my mechanic first.

Probley your best bet is too replace that head.. I have gottin 3 from a guy in clearwater on ebay and have had great outcome out all of them.. you can see where they make a lip over the vavle seats to hold it in better.. i got little over 1k so far so good.. good luck

[Mojo5]

Bought a Focus to drive to work as a beater money saving car. Turns out I blew the engine after driving it for a month. Now the money saver is costing me money!
I haven't pulled the head yet, but sounds like I might have dropped a valve seat. Has 139K miles. I have never rebuilt a car engine before but have done a few motorcycles and 4 wheelers. I am looking foward to getting into this one.
My questions are:
- If the walls of the cylinders are still good would I do a head swap (ebay $230), and piston and ring kit?
- How would I know if I bent a rod?
- Do I have to pull the engine to do this, even if I replace the rods?
- In most cases is the lower end ok?

This is going to be a project for me and my two boys. I've got the time and I have something else to drive. Just want to fix whats broke and hoping not to have to do the lower end. I still want to keep it a cheap car to drive to work.
Any comments, pictures, step by step instructions will be helpful.
Thanks Mojo

[turntablez]

Originally Posted by Mojo5

Bought a Focus to drive to work as a beater money saving car. Turns out I blew the engine after driving it for a month. Now the money saver is costing me money!
I haven't pulled the head yet, but sounds like I might have dropped a valve seat. Has 139K miles. I have never rebuilt a car engine before but have done a few motorcycles and 4 wheelers. I am looking foward to getting into this one.
My questions are:
- If the walls of the cylinders are still good would I do a head swap (ebay $230), and piston and ring kit?
- How would I know if I bent a rod?
- Do I have to pull the engine to do this, even if I replace the rods?
- In most cases is the lower end ok?

This is going to be a project for me and my two boys. I've got the time and I have something else to drive. Just want to fix whats broke and hoping not to have to do the lower end. I still want to keep it a cheap car to drive to work.
Any comments, pictures, step by step instructions will be helpful.
Thanks Mojo

You would probaby have to pull off the oil pan to inspect the rod. The cylinder heads that are on ebay are good. Either will be ok there are 2 compainies that are on ebay that are aware of the issues with the heads that rebuild them corrected. cylinderheads.com is where i got mine. Once you pull the piston out to re ring it....you will inspect the walls of the block to make sure its ok. Make sure you fully clean out your intake. If a seat fell all the metal has grinded up and is in there. You have to get it all out...or else metal will get into the piston areas aggain and destroy your engine all over again. You can replace the head of the engine without removing the engine. Just make sure you disconnect the battery. There is no real way of saying that the lower end is ok most of the time....it is or it isn't. Regarless you gotta pull the head off the engine to see whats going on and go from there.

[LouBomb]

my brother has an Spi with 190k no valve seat failure

[Mojo5]

Originally Posted by turntablez

You would probaby have to pull off the oil pan to inspect the rod. The cylinder heads that are on ebay are good. Either will be ok there are 2 compainies that are on ebay that are aware of the issues with the heads that rebuild them corrected. cylinderheads.com is where i got mine. Once you pull the piston out to re ring it....you will inspect the walls of the block to make sure its ok. Make sure you fully clean out your intake. If a seat fell all the metal has grinded up and is in there. You have to get it all out...or else metal will get into the piston areas aggain and destroy your engine all over again. You can replace the head of the engine without removing the engine. Just make sure you disconnect the battery. There is no real way of saying that the lower end is ok most of the time....it is or it isn't. Regarless you gotta pull the head off the engine to see whats going on and go from there.

Thanks for the input. I am going to pull the head tomarrow morning. I heard that to pull the motor with a manual transmission you have to take it out the bottom. I'm hoping to be able to do the repair with the engin in the car. Thanks again.

[fordcrazi]

aslong as there's no hole in your block, you'll be able to do everything with the motor still in.. i've done 5 of them so far.. clearwater heads on ebay sell corrected heads

[Mojo5]

I pulled the head. Wasn't pretty. Couldn't even recognize the piston in cylinder 4. What was left of the rod was folded up by the crank. I will post a picture if I can figure out how. The cylinder wall has a pretty deep groove cut into it. Now what? I'm thinking of looking into a Zetec swap. Seen alot of conflicting posts on the subject.

[Luis360]

My sister was a victim of this major design flaw. But we got our SE back on tthe road. My zetec is still runing strong!

[Mojo5]

I'm preparing to pull the engine from my focus. Head is off. Fan and shroud is off. Accesory bracket is off. Doesn't look like much room to come out the top. I would like to keep the manual transmission in the car. Has anyone done this? or do I have to take both engine and transmission out the bottom?
Thanks for any input, Mojo

[jesusamares]

My dumb car just blew out yesterday, it had 165k miles on it. I really don't know which valve blew out on it but I'm just going to sell the damn thing I been having it for about 2 years and it has been giving me problems since the first day I got it. It's a 2000 Ford Focus and it happened right before I got to work.