2.0L Duratec Rebuild

[ashyers]

I went through that chasing various tappets. I had to use various online sites and cross reference until I could figure out how the p/n system worked and I could order the thickness required. The parts guys at the local dealer were useless. I eventually ordered through Tasca with p/n only and no humans...

[JohnCh]

I went through that hassle too. It was easier to find and order the Duratec tappets from a Mazda dealer. Ford dealers didn't even seem to know what they are

 

Croc, didn't the K series have headgasket issues? Could the use of pantry items be related? :jester:

 

-John

[yellowss7]

The plastic dowels on the early k series did cause head gasket issues. They were later replaced with metal ones. That helped correct that issue. Speaking from experience

[Croc]

Could the use of pantry items be related? :jester:

 

-John

 

Definitely not related. Plastic dowels came out of the pantry. The Rover K series engine head gasket issues came from using panties. Both leak you know! :jester:

[JohnCh]

The rebuild has been on hold while I awaited delivery of the missing gaskets for the oil pump and for the water outlet at the rear of the head. The later wasn't actually causing delays since attaching the water rail is one of the last things to do prior to installation, but it is needed. The online Ford dealer I use for Duratc parts normally ships quickly, but with Covid-19, it took much longer than normal, and then USPS seemed to misplace the package for a few days. Thankfully it's here now and the plan for this weekend was to finally begin reassembly.

 

First step was to install the oil pump which arrived with my first shipment of rebuild parts back in October. At the time, I took a quick look to confirm it was correct, and although there were some slight differences to the casting from my circa 2002 pump, the key aspects were the same. However, this morning I discovered something overlooked during my initial examination: one of the two locating dowel pins was missing. The pump body is machined to accept it, but it was neither installed nor in the box.

 

Then I took a look at the oil pump gasket to make sure it was correct. It is. However, the water outlet gasket wasn't even close to the correct shape. Rather than a flat plastic gasket with 4 bolt holes splayed out, this was a rectangular extrusion that was meant to fit in a groove. The part number matched the order and a visit to their site showed the drawing of the correct part. However, entering that same part number on a different site revealed a drawing of the part I received. Hmm...

 

A visit to RockAuto's site was next to view photos of both parts from various manufacturers. The water outlet gasket is a little odd. They show both styles and the descriptions match, but one shows a hybrid with the extrusion fused to the flat gasket. My best guess is that the Ford setup uses both, but the water rail just requires the flat gasket. Photos below of the flat, extruded, and hybrid versions.

 

 

 

 

The oil pump photos created more confusion. Two of the pump brands include photos of the back side where the dowel pins are located. However, both show only the single dowel pin like I received from the Ford dealer. Given the pump body is machined for the second dowel pin, this seems odd. Does anyone have any experience with this? If not, I'll give Peter at Raceline a call on Monday.

 

Thanks,

John

[wemtd]

John.

I'm not sure about the oil pump. WRT the water outlet... My experiences with the 2.0L Duratec is there are (at least) two versions of the engine: one made by ford, one by Mazda. As far as I've been able to determine the Mazda version had a plastic water outlet connector (for which there is a groove to accept the rubber gasket with the little tab on it). The other is the Ford cast aluminum water outlet connector (or visa-versa).

Not to be outdone: in their catalogs both plastic & aluminum water outlet connectors have the same part number. I learned this the hard way; and was only able to sort this out by finding a ford dealership who had both parts in stock. The difference in the catalog was only identified by price difference (same part # again). When I imposed on the clerk to put his hands on both parts for me: he returned to the phone after 15 minutes to report that indeed there was a difference. For better or worse I've always used a nice bead of RTV to seal mine.

 

Good luck

p.

[JohnCh]

Thanks Paul. These parts are both for Fords, and they show they are for the same years, so it's not even a running change. Looking more closely at the RockAuto listings, there are different part numbers for the two styles although the descriptions are the same. Unfortunately the online listing at Village Ford, where I initially ordered the gasket and is shown below, includes a drawing of the part I need, but uses the part number of the other gasket. I guess there is no point making this easy

 

 

It appears that part # 6G9Z-8255-BA is for the extruded gasket, and 1S7G-8255-BD is for the flat gasket. I'll know for certain once the order from RockAuto arrives. Now if I can just figure out the deal with the oil pump...

 

-John

[JohnCh]

I spoke with Peter at Raceline this morning and once again he came through. It turns out Ford stopped fitting the second dowel pin to the oil pump about 10 years ago, so that is the new normal and perfectly fine. This means I am ready to start reassembly...until the seemingly inevitable next issue arises

 

-John

[JohnCh]

Those of you keeping score at home may remember Issue #3 from this post where I identified that Raceline had changed the sump design since my early unit and had supplied some O-rings in my rebuild package that were not utilized in my version. Peter explained they changed the connection method between the oil pump and the port at the top of the sump that leads to the oil pickup. Both versions make this connection via a wedge-shaped aluminum block that bolts to the oil pump and seals that area with an O-ring, but these wedges differ on the sump port side. My version has grooves cut on both faces of the wedge to accept O-rings, but the new wedge only has a groove cut into the oil pump side. The sump side is machined flat and seals to the sump via an O-ring assembly that is pushed into the sump port. This assembly, which Raceline calls a thimble, consists of s very short aluminum tube to allow oil flow, with O-rings fitted to the outside at each end. To accommodate this approach, the sump port is drilled to a much larger diameter and is reduced down to the correct size via the thimble. Apparently this newer design made it easier to assure that the hole in the wedge and the sump port are perfectly aligned. These photos show the sump port, wedge, wedge temporarily attached to the oil pump, and the pump/wedge assembly sitting on the sump port.

 

 

 

 

 

Things turned interesting on Saturday morning when I started to assemble this area. After removing the old O-rings on the wedge, I discovered that the grooves are cut to accommodate two different size O-rings. One looked like it would accommodate the 2mm x 19mm O-rings I was supplied, but the other was a smaller diameter and the groove was much larger. Out came the calipers to measure both grooves:

 

O-ring 1

Outer Diameter = 23.52mm

Inner Diameter = 19.66mm

Groove Width = 1.93mm

Groove Depth = 1.98 - 2.21mm (this varied a bit)

 

O-ring 2

Outer Diameter = 23.88mm

Inner Diameter = 18.08mm

Groove Width = 2.92mm

Groove Depth = 1.32mm

 

Looking at groove 1, there is a problem. The groove is deeper than it is wide, and is not machined to uniform depth. That means that an O-ring which will fit into the groove won’t protrude above the surface and create a seal. I connected with Peter at Raceline this morning and shared the pictures and measurements. He seems to recall they used an oval cross section O-ring from a Zetec oil pick up tube, but will have to do some digging to confirm. Looking on RockAuto, the Zetec in the Focus doesn’t appear to use O-rings for the pickup tube and digging through websites of O-ring suppliers and manufacturers, no one seems to make oval cross section O-rings.

 

I ordered some plastigauge this weekend and will use that to determine the actual clearance between the wedge and sump port. If it’s really tight, liquid gasket may suffice which is the easy solution. If the initial design really did use an oval O-ring that is now unobtanium, then a trip to a machine shop to recut the groove may be the answer.

 

This build remains…um, interesting.

 

-John

[coffee break]

I thought I heard a thumping sound, was that you banging your head against a wall? :banghead:

[JohnCh]

Nah, I had to stop doing that a couple of months ago. Given the frequency, my doctors feared I was at risk of developing CTE. These days, I just scream obscenities at the top of my lungs followed by very heavy drinking. In fact, I'm having a big ass martini right now.

 

-John

[JohnCh]

Thanks to prompting from another forum member, I may have had a breakthrough on the O-ring issue. He asked if it was possible the old O-ring was really two stacked O-rings that created a virtual oval. Although certain that wasn't the case, thinking about it, I vaguely remembered the O-rings were pretty distorted, so out to the garage for another look.

 

One O-ring was pretty flattened, but the other was more wedding ring shaped and upon closer examination appeared to have tiny numbers molded into the side. These weren't legible with the naked eye -- or at least not mine -- but a USB microscope shows 1S7G 6625 AB. Closest I can find online is 1S7G 6625 AA, which differs only in the last letter. Apparently that simply designates the version number. Fingers crossed it's the right part and arrives in a reasonable timeframe.

 

 

-John

 

.

[Kitcat]

I am starting to think that brain surgery would be simpler than a Duratec rebuild!

[JohnCh]

Good point. In the future, when pointing out that something isn't that difficult, rather than say "It isn't brain surgery" we can say "It isn't rebuilding a Duratec."

 

-John

[Croc]

I am more impressed with John's calm, patient, philosophic acceptance of what has to be incredibly frustrating hiccups. This thread will be a valuable resource to rebuilders of early adoption Duratecs in the future. Mind you I suspect John has also improved his beer consumption being locked down with a Duratec. :cheers:

[JohnCh]

The part arrived and I just did a test fit; we have a match! Hopefully I can spend some time in the garage this weekend assembling the engine. Which reminds me, has anyone started a pool yet on when I discover the next blocker to that process?

 

-John

[papak]

I have the older Raceline wetsump. The fellow I acquired it from had converted to the Raceline dry simp stop om his 2.0l Duratec. I contacted Raceline and the sent me an"update" kit so that the older wet-sump would work with my 2.3l Duratec. I recall the wedge and the o-rings. I considered the higher output oil pump but stayed with a new stock one. There is no really valid way to measure the internal clearances in the oil pump but by installing a new one, you are pretty much assured of decent oil pressure. I run 0W40 Mobil One and see 85-90 psi cold and 20 psi at a hot idle.

 

If Peter can't find the proper o-ring, he should send you a correctly machined wedge. I just had some parts sent over from England. One week via Royal Mail, 3 days via DHL currently.

[JohnCh]

Thanks, but I'm set. The o-ring (actually a gasket) arrived and is the correct part. I'm curious about your update kit comment. Are you referring to the oil pump/oil pickup interface, or do you mean a balance shaft delete kit for the 2.3L? My wedge was machined correctly, it's just that they changed the design after the first dozen sumps and that gasket was no longer used. To convert to the new one would require machining the sump as well to allow the thimble assembly to fit.

 

Thanks,

John

[papak]

As I recall, the kit included the wedge and a new windage cover, several o-rings and a short section of pipe. A couple of the rings were square cross-section, if I remember correctly, to fit the grooves in the wedge. Haven’t had it apart since. It would have been nice to get a new tubular screen for the return filter. Have fun!

[JohnCh]

Interesting. I wonder if there are more than two versions? According to Peter, the wedge without an o-ring groove on the sump side has to be used with the thimble assembly, and that requires the top of the port to be opened up from 16mm to 24mm. If you didn't have to do that machining and you are using the thimble, then there must have been an interim version. The photos below were taken from the most current installation instructions and show the assembled thimble, port with larger top section (have to look hard to see the step), and the thimble in place.

 

 

 

 

-John