Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt

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Thu 29 Dec 2011 15:56
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - John B C

Do any of the Focus 1600 of about 2008/9 vintage have cam chain engines and if so which model? There are so many different versions of the Focus

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Thu 29 Dec 2011 16:20
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - thunderbird

1600 petrol is the Sigma engine (used to be called Zetec SE) and its belt driven. 1600 TDCi is also belt diven. Neither is problematic and have quite long replacement intervals, think its 100,000 miles or 10 years if my memory of the Focus service book is correct.

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Thu 29 Dec 2011 18:40
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - Railroad.

Changing the belt though is a job only for those who have the correct tools. Both camshaft pulleys and the crankshaft pulley are fully floating, meaning that they have no key drive. The correctly torqued bolt is all that secures the pulleys to the shafts, and so under no circumstances must you slacken them for any purpose other than for belt renewal. Doing so will mean it will be impossible to re-time the engine without the correct tools, and turning the engine over with the bolts loosened will cause engine damage.

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Fri 30 Dec 2011 08:46
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - thunderbird

The camshaft pulleys are fully floating but pretty sure the crank pulley is keyed on. There is no need to loosen the cam pulleys anyway. Done several in the past, never had a problem other than having to remove so much of the engine to get at the belt in the first place, that's what takes the time.

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Fri 30 Dec 2011 08:59
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - Collos25

Long way from the FE Victors you could change the belt have a tea and a cigarette and you would be stretched to make it last longer than 20minutes.

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Sat 31 Dec 2011 09:11
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - Railroad.

Long way from the FE Victors you could change the belt have a tea and a cigarette and you would be stretched to make it last longer than 20minutes.

Quite right, and they were safe engines too. Removing the whole front on the Bedford CF van (which was simple enough) made changing the cambelt very accessible and easy.

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Sat 31 Dec 2011 09:07
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - Railroad.

The camshaft pulleys are fully floating but pretty sure the crank pulley is keyed on.

Unless it's changed on much newer models, the crankshaft pulley certainly had no key on earlier Zetec engines. Slackening the crankshaft pulley bolt would certainly cause a problem for anyone who didn't know what they were doing. Correct locking tools for the crankshaft and camshafts are essential on these engines.

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Sat 31 Dec 2011 09:23
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - thunderbird

Unless it's changed on much newer models, the crankshaft pulley certainly had no key on earlier Zetec engines. Slackening the crankshaft pulley bolt would certainly cause a problem for anyone who didn't know what they were doing. Correct locking tools for the crankshaft and camshafts are essential on these engines.

The earlier Zetec engines had keys on the crank pulley, got spares in the garage to prove it. The current Duratec does not have a keyway on the crank but that is a completely different engine of Mazda origin and has chain driven cams. The Sigma/Zetec SE (call it what you like) is Ford with Yamaha input. Should later engines not have a keyway its not a problem, there is provision in the block to insert the crank locking device, a piece of 10mm threaded rod basically, costs pence and even though you don't need to unlock the cam pulleys a cam locking device helps, a 300mm long pice of 6mm steel works a treat, costs pence again. Been using the same bits now for 10 years.

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Sat 31 Dec 2011 10:19
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - Railroad.

I suppose it depends on what we call earlier models. Certainly Zetec engines such as the 1.25 found in the Fiesta does not have a keyed crankshaft. I am fully aware that the locking tools are fairly simplistic, but my point is that if you were to slacken the crankshaft pulley without knowing that nothing else secures it to the crankshaft you'd be creating a problem for yourself, and that even the slightest movement of the crankshaft would upset the valve timing.

Like yourself I've done many of them, but for someone who hasn't they could walk right into a hornets nest. And this forum as far as I'm concerned is about offering help to people who don't know or understand.

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Sat 31 Dec 2011 12:22
Ford Focus 1600 - Cam chain or belt - thunderbird

Like yourself I've done many of them, but for someone who hasn't they could walk right into a hornets nest. And this forum as far as I'm concerned is about offering help to people who don't know or understand.

No DIYer should be attempting this sort of work without a manual, too many pitfalls on modern engines. But with a bit of common sense and a manual nothing is impossible, time consuming the first time for definite but it can be very fulfilling.

Last thing anyone should take as gospel is pub advice (there is always conflicting advice on here), it a recipe for an expensive disaster.

Remember in my youth a mate changing the head gasket on an Imp. Pleased as punch when it started first time but since he got the valve timing hopelessly wrong it did not have enough power to drive out of the garage.

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