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Spi valve seating

6K views 36 replies 12 participants last post by  murrayjay57 
#1 ·
Recently pulled apart my block for cleaning and some upgrades. I went to check the valve seats and found nothing wrong. Even had a pro check the head and he found nothing wrong. I believe i have found the angel of all spi focus. :rolleyes:

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#2 ·
Recently pulled apart my block for cleaning and some upgrades. I went to check the valve seats and found nothing wrong. Even had a pro check the head and he found nothing wrong. I believe i have found the angel of all spi focus. :rolleyes:

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Pro mechanic? Not his area of expertise. Pro machinist, he's the man!

The problem with these valve seats is that they are within tolerance, according to Ford. Even an expert mechanic (unless works at Ford) wouldn't know the problem. I called Ford dealership to ask about rings and guy was friendly until I brought up valve seat problem, then denied all knowledge that he'd ever seen that happen, (BULLSPIT)

Since they are within tolerance, measure all day long, still will come out right. What you do is, take a metal punch, turn heads upside down, take a hammer and punch over 4 pieces of aluminum from heads over valve seats at very edge (after pressing in new ones, don't bother doing it with the old) and you have corrected problem.

I hope this doesn't cost you too much money...
 
#5 ·
I had a mechanic blatantly get in face and tell me he has been a mecahnic for 35 years and i'm talking out of my ass about a valve seat problem. He said he has worked on focuses for years and I should never not believe what I read on the internet.

This is after I gave my SPI more than regular maintenance, and I babied the cap out of it. I took the car to him after the motor blew with 160K on the odometer. I told him the problem with these engines and I offered to pay for him to do a zetec swap. At this point he treated me like shit and refused to do a zetec swap. He basically called me a idiot ad said he will only put in the car what it came with.

Three days later he calls me back and tells me he just off the phone with a friend that owns a parts yard. He said it looks like I was right, and it would actually be cheaper to do the zetec swap because of the on going valve seat issue you can't find a rebuilt spi for under $2000. this is before shipping. On top of all that I would have to pay for 10 hours of labor @ 75 bucks a hr. Then I would also need to pay for fluids, hoses, and possible other parts. He said at the cheapest I was looking at $3500 easily.
 
#6 ·
So after my I told you so speech. I told him not to bother looking into the zetec swap i had enough of him and would come and get it. I not going to make a mechanic tell me what engine i'm putting in my car when I'm paying him to do it.

I did the swap myself with the help of a friend for just shy of $1300 that's counting the $500 hundred for the use of his garage and engine hoist.

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=296946











 
#8 ·
Yes sir. They are a direct bolt up. The zetec and spi use the same trans housings but the regular zetecs trans is geared different. But they are a direct bolt up and work fine you would never notice the difference unless maybe you drag raced a zetec.
 
#14 ·
I paid $500 for the engine, harness, ecu, alternator, powersteering pump, passenger side motor mount and a/c compressor.

I had to buy all the coolant lines, power steering line, throttle body and cable. The engine came with a throttle body but it was broke.

I got a damn good deal from a scrape yard, they just happened to have gotten a complete '02 focus zx3 that day. I told them what I was doing, and they said come and see what we have and make list and we will pull it for you for $500. The car was in a front end wreck so the coolant lines and stuff was unusable. They also got a lil cut happy with the throttle cable and the power steering lines.

http://www.carconnectionohio.com is where I got it from, down in Middletown.
 
#18 ·
Much better than the SPI? The zetec has 20 more hp, the SPI has one common (preventable) problem and better gas milage.

Sure the zetec is a bit better, but much better?

Lets try and give the SPI a little credit. it is not the complete turd everyone seems to think.
 
#20 ·
Honestly if I could have found another spi I would have dropped it in insted. The spi is reliable as hell I rarely needed to work on it and when I did it was easy as hell to do so. I really liked the spi and it was even better being the only spi at focus meets unless of course david showed up and stole the show. I'm actually in the process of finding another zetec something with less miles. I'm having no luck with this one. I would study up and make sure you get one with a real good warranty, and the least amount of miles as possible.

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#23 ·
In a previous post someone said the auto spi trany is direct bolt up to the zetec. This is true, but you do need the zetec flex plate, as they are not a match. The zetec has a position sensor on it that reads the flexplate. I know because i did the spi to zetec swap in 24 hours and could do it blindfolded. I did a write up of the swap somewhere on ff 1.4 years ago while I did it.
 
#25 ·
I would ask all the people in the onsite broken SPI thread if they considered this engine to be reliable.

Any engine that runs fine for a time and then suddenly drops a valveseat the next time you start it is not reliable. Maybe one doing it yes, but MANY do it, enough to make anyone owning one worry when theirs will, that is absolutely not the definition of reliable.

How much better is the zetec? How about on average close to an additional seventy five to hundred thousand miles more life in many cases. I can't imagine anyone thinking that is a small advantage.
 
#29 ·
One preventable problem does not make an engine unreliable. (Ask svt owners about their timing belt)

If a person knows of a preventable problem and chooses not to prevent it, that is the owners fault, not the engines.

No one ever said the valve seats were not a problem. the most definitely are. but they are a preventable problem.

now, you show me how many zetecs are on the road with 200,000-250,000 miles with nothing more than preventative maintenance. exaggeration and hyperbole are not great debate tactics. I think most zetec owners would be happy to get 150,000 miles out of their engines. an SPI with a new head can do that in it's sleep. and many spi's without the new head dropped their valve seat in the 140k-160k range. (though some were much sooner)

if you are going to be a troll, at least be a well informed troll. then someone might actually listen to you.
 
#26 ·
Most likely said from someone who has never owned a SPI.

The engine has one flaw, if rebuild first it would be flawless. How many issues does the zetec have? Not that it isn't reliable either but I've seen issues out the wazoo. Zetec is serious pain in the ass to work on over the spi aswell.

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#28 ·
I feel ya on that. The same reason I never did mine, but I look back now after my zetec swap and the car is just a paper weight currently awaiting yet another engine swap. It would have been so worth it. To still be driving it with no issues.

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#30 ·
I'm replacing mine this summer with one from Cylinder Heads International, and I'll be sure to announce it happily somewhere in this SPI section of the forum. Gotta show that there's still some running! It's not the most glamourous way to spend money, but it's a necessity. It shouldn't cost too much anyway. The head itself is $225, and I don't think the labour will be much more than $500.

I've learned my lesson from other SPIs on here, that's for sure. It's tempting to spend money on actual modifications (I've allowed myself Eibach springs/shocks), but it would be downright stupid of me to refuse to do anything to remedy a significant problem that I know all about. I like the SPI anyway! Sounds very unique.

Thank god I only have 20K miles on the car.
 
#32 ·
'One preventable problem does not make an engine unreliable..............If a person knows of a preventable problem and chooses not to prevent it, that is the owners fault, not the engines.'

Someone should at least look up the difference between 'preventable' and 'KNOWN preventable', that difference would include Toyota's throttle by wire problems as well as the Firestone tire fiasco, and also most of the pople here who bought Focus SPI thinking they were getting good cars only to later have them blow up in their faces.

Only someone out to lunch would think anybody would take apart in a major way a known good running engine to fix something in it. Today's world has us expecting the quality to last, not fracture in pieces. I personally would dare it and if it happened then never ever buy that brand of car again.

'The engine has one flaw..............'

'Only 1 flaw, but man is it an expensive one... And It's hard to get motivated to replace the head before it happens.'

'I feel ya on that. The same reason I never did mine...........'

SPI guys right here in this thread, I don't hear reliable there at all...........apparently the preaching is falling on deaf ears.
 
#33 ·
Yes, the SPI is a flawed motor. Yes, I am pissed off at ford for their complete disregard for the serious problem the SPI has.

But just because there is a serious design flaw in a motor does not make it a completely worthless piece of garbage. Apart from the one problem, they are very reliable, easy to work on, and very fuel efficient motors. (the main reasons I have not sold mine)

Will my SPI eventually die and leave me stranded on the side of the road? probably. Does that diminish the ten years of flawless service my little SPI has given me? no.

Every car will eventually have a catastrophic failure. The question is, when does that happen, and how reliable is it up to that point. So far my little SPI has given me 116k over ten years with nothing more than standard maintenance and a new alternator. That is pretty good for an $11,000 econobox. Plus the fact that I still get over 30mpg. To me, that is quality that lasts.

I am very happy with my SPI, and I would not trade it for a zetec. And I am sure I am not the only one who believes that.
 
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