Vovchandr

Ian and Tj are fantastic and I'm very glad to have had them there to help out. Nothing but high remarks. I'd be careful saying they are free of charge however as thats a little misleading. It was a little bit of a sticker shock once I discovered the track emergency assistance rate fee and what the $20 part ended up costing in total. That's a great shot!

Doesn't the forum host them when I copy picture into a body? Those images weren't hot linked. I was under impression when you copy an image into the body it local hosts it. This is why I can copy from my hard drive into the body and it will show up in the post (testing example below) I'm fairly certain almost all those pictures were copy and paste for the reasons described above. I didn't want the source to be broken and I figured it becomes local hosted. Edit: If I hotlink sourced them, shouldn't I have the old url in the body if I were to edit it? At least that way I could go back and find the source again if it came down to it being the problem and repost them. Otherwise I have no idea what the pictures were right now.

Any ideas as to why some of my posts got broken?

I got the bomb. Or was it that I am the bomb? The "uh oh" award (not TSA friendly) Given presumably for the many times I've said that phrase leading up and during the event. Or maybe because my over pressurized accusump grenading was reminiscent of a bomb going off?

Some cars staged tonight. There was a good group shot that was sent to Seb.

Good info. Thanks. I plan to be out on the track first day and see how it goes. Will likely register tomorrow

At some point I replaced the o2 and I think I've put the old one back at another point to return things back to "OEM" and eliminate the the replacement being an issue.

Noted. Found a micro leak when pressured at the top of the thermostat housing but can't get it to stop. Otherwise holds pressure even with the leak. Bad news. Took it for another spin and got on the highway. the same problem of stumbling after full throttle > decel > throttle appears to still be present. I'm out of ideas. AFR is also still all over the place and more on the lean side. Planning on mostly putting around the track and then getting a tune scheduled. Old water pump didn't have any defects and the current water pump is new, so I also don't think that's a problem in general. Currently holding pressure with a small weep at the top of the thermostat housing.

I pulled the thermostat entirely to eliminate potential blockages and put the cap on. So far seems so good. I still have a small leak somewhere as coolant system bleeds pressure when left for a few hours while in test. As of right an hour ago took it on a maiden voyage. It held up being on the street. No puking and no overheating. Actually runs a little hotter than I'd like but I can live with that. Doesn't run perfect but I think it should be enough to get me through the weekend. Will do more testing tomorrow. My AFR is still all over the place and I do hear some backfiring through the ITBs occasionally as I drive it. Being very careful with it so far. I might over thinking the whole bubbles in coolant through the see window. For all I know it might be normal. As of right now as long as my temp is good I can live with that.

Trying my hardest not to have to involve help but might end up needing the help of hands on experts. What significance is the registration day? Do I need to register just to have the car on the property to be looked at or pre register pending a fix? At this point I'm pending bringing it regardless. I think I could do the day with just overheating if it only happens at low speeds like it did before and other other problem doesn't come back.

Alright. The good. The bad and the ugly. The good. Appears misfire is fixed with just new cables! Starts and holds idle and sounds alright/good The bad and the ugly. Overheating/boiling issue is still there. Got upto temp. Using good coolant this time. Everything was looking good. Then I noticed drastic increase in coolant again and more bubbles and started taping as the expected happened. More and more air kept going through my sight glass, turning violent, volume increased drastically spilling over. And the aftermath This was one of the main things I was trying to fix with head gasket swap. Yet its still around. Any ideas? What do I have left? Heater core, radiator, plugged block cooling passage somewhere? New thermostat, new water pump, new head gasket, using coolant this time etc. Got a friend stopping by with a vacuum coolant system filler so I don't have to bleed it after. Don't think it's going to fix it but I'm out of ideas myself.

What's the latest time I can register by do you know?

Current stat report Battery is dead from cranking/testing. Leaving it on overnight to charge. My theory is similar to @wemtd cams might be out, might not be out, but I don't think they are causing the misfire and I can't test to see how well they are until misfire is solved. Looking back at the history of the thread #4 cylinder being cold was an issue even before I took everything apart. Clearly something is going on with it. I'm hoping it's the ignition/wires and new testing tomorrow with charged battery will let me know

Brief internet search says NON SVT is Non interference. SVT is like you said. I have regular ZX2 type Zetec from a Contour or similar with VCT (deleted) on exhaust cam. I think you might be on to something. Since #4 is missing and it's the shortest one, I can't swap the wire over. I'm about to run out an pick up another coil and another set of wires. Saw some local.

Today’s updates Compression seems good 165 145 165 162. Dry test. Leakdown looked good too. 10% or less. checked for spark with a rudimentary method of a lawn mower spark tester and 3 and 4 were firing. moved the spark plug over to see if it would help cylinder 4. It did not. here is new video with thermal. Cold start I’m likely going to try to play with cam timing next. Reading up on retarding the intake cam 5? 10? Degrees and see if that helps. Stock zetec is non interference. No idea if my cam work changed that. I don’t believe it would as to best of my knowledge it’s a stock Ford cam that has been ground and the lash caps compensate for work. Worst case scenario is a hard stop and messaging KitKat about his block?…

Here is a video soon after the first start. Holding idle. A bit of shaking, you can see it in the overflow tank

the dogs might be into something. at around 20 seconds it’s Combination of clutch and me letting the car stall by no longer forcing idle with throttle. It held idle early and then needed help after. To be fair I haven’t adjusted the cable right yet and I still have no IAC turned on or connected. So idle is a little hard to chase down right regardless until everything runs fine. as I recall it was about 100 degree F different or more. It likely I have a few things going around at same times which is what I was afraid of. priority number one is figuring out whether timing is a problem as is and needs dial in or fine as is

A few points on the phone before I get back on the computer 1) pretty important point is that pre existing timing is not recreated. I couldn’t be certain whether pre existing timing was purposeful (tune) or accidental (slip/jump). I have adjustable cam gears now so I could try to dial the cams close to what I’ve had in the picture before disassembly but I’m not quite configured that my timing is off if 3 of the cylinders appear to be running fine. (Could be all of them are off but something is else compounding. Im not ruling that out) 2) I likely have waged spark. Not sure how that effects my situation. 3) just to get that out of the way - crank case only has 2 position. TDC (1 and 4 are up) and non tdc (2/3 are up). It’s not 4 separate positions like the cam right? Want to be cover the obvious and make sure I didn’t time #4 tdc instead of #1 (assumption is that they are equal) revs are stable until the very end. Once it got warmer it wanted to stall and i needed to keep giving it throttle to keep it going. Idled very ok at first. Noise at the end of the video if I think what you’re talking about it me releasing the clutch and the it chattering. That’s normal for my sequential. I’m using a new Ford thermostat. I got very close to operating temp or right around it. I hope it’s not a timing issue because I’d be over my head but I’ll do this tomorrow. 1) swap plugs. 2) compression test 3) leak down test 4) I can swap injectors. Not ruling it out but doesn’t seem likely. 5) I’ll double check I don’t have an air leak from ITBs

Update. I need hive mind help to form a think tank. Starts. Runs. Misfiring on cylinder #4. Not sure why. Cat was glowing red and sparks were coming out of exhaust. Checked the temp on the runners and 4 was drastically colder then rest. I'll grab a compression tester and leak down tester tomorrow and try test with those I feel like if misfire is solved I'll be in good shape

Thanks. At this point I doubled down on the car working and kept my reservation at the villa. If I can't get the car sorted in time we might still go down and make a trip out of it. Im past the point of cancelation now on the room. I'm a bit anxious about the rebuild. Too many variables to go wrong for my liking and in my personal experience, statistically something always doesn't work quite right on first try. Even if I did all the labor perfect there are still a few wild cards. Is the timing being set at 0 going to work without a tune? Will this sort my overheating issue? Will the broken cam work fine? Will this solve my problem of misfire/lack of power after decel? Will my metal noise from cylinder one be resolved? Etc etc. The amount of guesswork for parts between different Zetecs compounded with uncertain history of what exact parts are in it, even after contacting the original builder and engine builder contractor makes me feel uneasy.

Well tomorrow I'll get more oil and let it be judgement day. Had a moment of stupidity earlier Cam gear was hand tight and I expected it to be spinning when we were rotating the engine to make sure on TDC. I shouldn't have had the bar in at all. My friend was curious that it was fighting him to spin and kept at it. I consulted with my other friend. He said it should be fine operationally. Just hope it runs without needing a tune

A few concerns in that video. #1 is that I can't do full pass like that due to bolt tabs sticking out in areas to go into head. #2 the amount of debris that falls down into cylinders and bolt threads makes me very concerned. Went over to a machinist friend of mine and he gave me machine bars that worked pretty perfectly so far While there I discovered that my exhaust adjustable cam gear doesnt have the right hole size so also quickly machines that down too Planning to get the head on tonight and get pretty far with reassembly barring other issues

The fun never stops! Making small progress today, getting everything sorted out. The Zetec source of year and model being a mystery is still coming back to bite. At this moment I believe its from a 1998 Contour. Up until this point I've primarily been doing 2000 Contour based on the fact that the car is a 2001 and I didn't expect the engine to be drastically older than build date. With Zetecs there few minor differences in the years. One of which in particular is timing belt either having 2 idlers or 1. I appear to have a car that had the two. Amusingly this is what the bottom idler looked like. Doesn't appear to be wear but could be. I believe it came like this but could be wrong. Car should have less than 5000 miles of wear on it but true miles unknown. Slightly different in looks with a locked bolt instead of free bolt And here is the groove Also mild head gasket/block issues. Part of the block is a bit elevated due to rust and I'm finding that my headgasket is very similar but isn't an exact match to what's on the car. Debating on using it or getting a FelPro quickly that looks identical in the cooling channels. (Ford isn't typically available same day, especially over weekend) vs

The head is back! Lash cap issue is considered closed until noted otherwise. Going to try to reassemble most tomorrow and find out what the next problem is. I see a 50/50 shot of it running well with timing zeroed out. If it runs decent but not optimal I don't care and will deal with it later. If it doesn't run well with going back to zero cam position I'll either have to find a tuner in short notice or mess with timing myself. Not interfierence Zetec I'm fairly certain) Issues in primary trying to close 1) horrible brief lack of power after decel 2) constant overheating at low speeds Honestly. If it runs decent but those issues persist I should still be able to make it. I feat it might not run well at all once zeroed back out in timing.