Death rattle

[Frisco]

A friend of mine has a 1.7 MHA engine that he was planning to put into a westfield (or the like)

When we last had it running it sounded like it had the begining of big end knocking. The loud rattle from the bottem end at 2.5-3k rpm.

I had heard that the bottem end was supposed to be weak on these. Is it the mains or the big ends that give the trouble?

Is it worth putting a new set of bearings in or will the crank be fuggered?

 

[Dal]

It's not especially a 'weak' aspect to the engine, it's more likely to have been starved of oil at some point in it's life. Not good for any engine.

You could put some new bearing in it if you can do it yourself and save lots in garage labour charges. The 1.7 is getting quite rare for spares so might be worthwhile trying to fix.

The associated problem may be that if the bottom bearing has gone, the pistons being out of line may have damaged the nikisil linings in the piston bores. New engine (or expensive re-lining) in that case.

 

[Frisco]

I suppose just pop the sump off and have a look see if the crank journals are scored.

The car was driving fine before hand, it only started to knock one or two days becore he stopped driving it.

 

[DradusContact]

You might be better getting a 1.6, alot more of them out there and easier to tune, if thats waht your planning to do.

 

[Frisco]

Not a fan of the 1.6 TBH.

Anyway, ill strip the the bottem end and see how bad it is. hopefully its no worse than a crank regrind and a set of shells.

I just wanted to know if there were any known faults that cause oil pressure problems or lead to premature (and very quick in this case) bottem end wear.

Is it known for the pressure relief valve in the pump to stick?

 

[Frisco]

Ok, the bottem end is apart and its spun a shell on No. 4 all the others seem ok and the crank has got out of it with no damage which is bloody lucky.
I can see where they get their weak bottem end rep from, the bearing surfaces are stupidly small for an engine of this type.


Anyone know any decent online suppliers that do 1.7 bearings? Are the shells common to any other ford engine?

 

[Frisco]

Ford dont sell any bottem end parts for the zetec engines? Well thats a load of s**t if ive ever heard of one.

They will only sell complete short motors which are 4K!

 

[DradusContact]

1.7 hasnt been made for a long time, not suprised about getting bits.

I thought they were obliged to provide bits for 10 years after production ended, or is that a myth?

 

[Frisco]

They are obliged to cover parts for 10 years from the end of production but tecnically they have themselves covered by selling the short motor.

Its the same story for most of the zetec engines apparently. Its a bad show by ford IMO