Neglected 1988 Escort valvetrain pics.

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To properly own a convertible, you must have indoor parking everywhere the car is driven to. BMW 3 seies 'verts use a retractable hard top which solves the problem.
 
To be honest I owned a few Fords with this engine and worked on many more when I ran a Garage in the early (ish) 90's.

It is not the best but it is far from the worst.

I wouldn't flush it or anything.

Just use a decent oil and change it at shorter intervals

Thw Shell oil you mention seems a decent choice for this old CVH lump.

Course Vibratory and Harsh as we used to call them.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
is that related at all the the one we had in the US?

IIRC My grandparents had a early 80's escort wagon..
it popped the headgasket and almost self destructed.


Related to the Merkur XR4Ti.
 
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Originally Posted By: maxdustington
Originally Posted By: FirstNissan
Great looking car, terrible maintenance history. I hate to see such a great car with such a neglected history. Good job with your maintenance schedule so far.


Girl's car

Why? men can't enjoy convertibles?
I get way more compliments from men that i do from women about the car.


You missed my point, it was owned by a girl. That means that it's appearance was kept up but it's mechanical maintenance was neglected.

My car was the same, owned by a girl and parked inside. Original brake fluid, trans fluid and power steering fluid at 190000 kms. Worn out suspension with two broken front springs that poked into the strut mounts when I finally got around to changing them.

I love the car dude!
 
Originally Posted By: maxdustington
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Originally Posted By: maxdustington
Originally Posted By: FirstNissan
Great looking car, terrible maintenance history. I hate to see such a great car with such a neglected history. Good job with your maintenance schedule so far.


Girl's car

Why? men can't enjoy convertibles?
I get way more compliments from men that i do from women about the car.


You missed my point, it was owned by a girl. That means that it's appearance was kept up but it's mechanical maintenance was neglected.

My car was the same, owned by a girl and parked inside. Original brake fluid, trans fluid and power steering fluid at 190000 kms. Worn out suspension with two broken front springs that poked into the strut mounts when I finally got around to changing them.

I love the car dude!

Ah, in that case you're right, sorry for misunderstanding your comment.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Rand
is that related at all the the one we had in the US?

IIRC My grandparents had a early 80's escort wagon..
it popped the headgasket and almost self destructed.


Related to the Merkur XR4Ti.

Not at all, the Merkur Xr4ti was based on the European Ford Sierra.
 
Originally Posted By: bigjl
To be honest I owned a few Fords with this engine and worked on many more when I ran a Garage in the early (ish) 90's.

It is not the best but it is far from the worst.

I wouldn't flush it or anything.

Just use a decent oil and change it at shorter intervals

Thw Shell oil you mention seems a decent choice for this old CVH lump.

Course Vibratory and Harsh as we used to call them.

Haha i am well aware of the CVH's reputation, this is my second CVH, we used to have a Mk5 Escort 1.6 Ghia Estate with a carbed 1.6 CVH, it made it to 280.000 Km with no problems, we had it 10 years before it got broken up for spares and scrapped, in the end the engine burned some oil but ran ok, we just did normal servicing to it, the fuel economy was [censored] though, similar to my 3 litre MkII Capri.

This Xr3i has Bosch K-Jet Mfi and the fuel economy is a lot better, but still harsh when you get above 4000rpm, for sure, what does surprise me is that it doesn't seem to burn any oil at all, or smoke.
 
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Rand
is that related at all the the one we had in the US?

IIRC My grandparents had a early 80's escort wagon..
it popped the headgasket and almost self destructed.


Related to the Merkur XR4Ti.

Not at all, the Merkur Xr4ti was based on the European Ford Sierra.


Ooopps, my bad. Brain [censored].
 
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver

Not at all, the Merkur Xr4ti was based on the European Ford Sierra.

And didn't that evolve into the Ford Mondeo, sold a short while in the US as a Contour/Mercury Mystique which ironically returned to America as the 2013-current Fusion?
 
I think our Spanish friend is being prudent. Gradually seems to be key- but I couldn't tell you why.

I got a 160,000 mile truck and changed a bunch of consumables and before you know it my radiator and water pump were losing water, my AC compressor began sqeaking (Chevy truck with its own seperate belt) reduced engine power messages, parking brake won't release, oil lines leaking.....

All this it seems from doing too much all at once and as was already stated- protesting from a new owner. And this is a 2003 so I bet an 88 really needs some pampering and just get driven easily while 'adjustments' are happening and maybe that harshness above 4000 rpms will fade away and restore itself with mild, quality maintenance.
 
Originally Posted By: nthach
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver

Not at all, the Merkur Xr4ti was based on the European Ford Sierra.

And didn't that evolve into the Ford Mondeo, sold a short while in the US as a Contour/Mercury Mystique which ironically returned to America as the 2013-current Fusion?


The Mondeo was the replacement of the Sierra that came out in 1993, completely different car to the Sierra, the Mondeo was FWD and used the new Zetec engines while the Sierra was RWD and used the old OHC Pinto engines.
 
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
I think our Spanish friend is being prudent. Gradually seems to be key- but I couldn't tell you why.

I got a 160,000 mile truck and changed a bunch of consumables and before you know it my radiator and water pump were losing water, my AC compressor began sqeaking (Chevy truck with its own seperate belt) reduced engine power messages, parking brake won't release, oil lines leaking.....

All this it seems from doing too much all at once and as was already stated- protesting from a new owner. And this is a 2003 so I bet an 88 really needs some pampering and just get driven easily while 'adjustments' are happening and maybe that harshness above 4000 rpms will fade away and restore itself with mild, quality maintenance.

I understand, simply because it's had a lack of mechanical maintenance and i'm trying to just do the basic service items before the summer heat starts, i'm putting on a timing belt kit soon that includes a new water pump too, i don't want this thing to overheat.
 
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Originally Posted By: bigjl
To be honest I owned a few Fords with this engine and worked on many more when I ran a Garage in the early (ish) 90's.

It is not the best but it is far from the worst.

I wouldn't flush it or anything.

Just use a decent oil and change it at shorter intervals

Thw Shell oil you mention seems a decent choice for this old CVH lump.

Course Vibratory and Harsh as we used to call them.

Haha i am well aware of the CVH's reputation, this is my second CVH, we used to have a Mk5 Escort 1.6 Ghia Estate with a carbed 1.6 CVH, it made it to 280.000 Km with no problems, we had it 10 years before it got broken up for spares and scrapped, in the end the engine burned some oil but ran ok, we just did normal servicing to it, the fuel economy was [censored] though, similar to my 3 litre MkII Capri.

This Xr3i has Bosch K-Jet Mfi and the fuel economy is a lot better, but still harsh when you get above 4000rpm, for sure, what does surprise me is that it doesn't seem to burn any oil at all, or smoke.



If you get bored with the current engine and gearbox some people do convert the Mk3 and Mk4 Escort to a Zetec engine with the later gearbox.

Have never done it but have been told that it makes a huge difference.

I never found the. cVH engines to be that noisy or rough.

When compared to modern stuff sure but they were fairly strong.
One of the places that does lots of stuff for Fast Fords still trades today in Essex.

Burton Power.

http://www.burtonpower.com/
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
is that related at all the the one we had in the US?


Not really. I mean when compared to either my 1985 Escort GT or my 1995 Escort LX, the body looks different and stuff is in different places in the engine compartment. The valve cover looks somewhat like the one in my 1985 Escort. There were no convertibles for the US market.
 
Originally Posted By: bigjl
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Originally Posted By: bigjl
To be honest I owned a few Fords with this engine and worked on many more when I ran a Garage in the early (ish) 90's.

It is not the best but it is far from the worst.

I wouldn't flush it or anything.

Just use a decent oil and change it at shorter intervals

Thw Shell oil you mention seems a decent choice for this old CVH lump.

Course Vibratory and Harsh as we used to call them.

Haha i am well aware of the CVH's reputation, this is my second CVH, we used to have a Mk5 Escort 1.6 Ghia Estate with a carbed 1.6 CVH, it made it to 280.000 Km with no problems, we had it 10 years before it got broken up for spares and scrapped, in the end the engine burned some oil but ran ok, we just did normal servicing to it, the fuel economy was [censored] though, similar to my 3 litre MkII Capri.

This Xr3i has Bosch K-Jet Mfi and the fuel economy is a lot better, but still harsh when you get above 4000rpm, for sure, what does surprise me is that it doesn't seem to burn any oil at all, or smoke.



If you get bored with the current engine and gearbox some people do convert the Mk3 and Mk4 Escort to a Zetec engine with the later gearbox.

Have never done it but have been told that it makes a huge difference.

I never found the. cVH engines to be that noisy or rough.

When compared to modern stuff sure but they were fairly strong.
One of the places that does lots of stuff for Fast Fords still trades today in Essex.

Burton Power.

http://www.burtonpower.com/


I would never ever put a Zetec in it, the car is 100% original including the engine ofcourse.
I know about Burton Power, bought stuff from them for my Capri many times
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: zzyzzx
Originally Posted By: Rand
is that related at all the the one we had in the US?


Not really. I mean when compared to either my 1985 Escort GT or my 1995 Escort LX, the body looks different and stuff is in different places in the engine compartment. The valve cover looks somewhat like the one in my 1985 Escort. There were no convertibles for the US market.

The valve cover looks the same because they used the same series of CVH engines.
One thing the US for sure did never get was the Mechanical Bosch K-Jetronic Injection this car has.
 
That's a great car; Ford tends to sell dumbed-down versions of their Euro cars to the US- the current Focus ST?RS and Fiesta ST excluded.
 
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