my puma seems to be suffering from crank walk, quite drastically im realising now i look into it. i noticed about 2-3mm of play while changing my timing belt (among other things, to try and stop the now not-so-mystery rattle). i knew this couldnt be normal but had no choice but to put the engine back in and run it, as its my daily driver.

i had initialy planned on just getting a replacement engine and lobbing that in, but the more i look into im tempted to try and cure it with new bearings.

what im wondering is mainly whether or not its likely that there is any serious damage done to the crank or block, and therefore simply replacing the bearings wont make any odds. if this is the case itll make more sense to pick up a replacement engine and hope its ok...

any thoughts? is it worth getting the bearings and giving it a go? the engine is relatively low miles at 77k and has full service history. the rattle comes and goes, sometimes at idle and low load, manouvering the car and cruising at certain speeds.....

 

Whether there are now bearings available to the aftermarket I'm not sure, but I just had a look on Ford Etis and there is this note on the 1.7 Puma VCT engine page.

Surely if there is that much end float (2-3mm) the block and crank with be scrap?

Stock spec for end float on these - 0.22-0.43mm

 

this is why im asking these questions, i have no idea. ive build up cylinder heads before but never messed with bottom end stuff to this extent.

there are bearings available for these engines so theres obviously some way of changing them.

 

having read that again is it not meaning you cant renew rods or bearings individually, which is bad practice in general as far as i would assume. i wont be changing any of the components, just std sized bearings for std sized bearings...

 

Can't see why new thrusts wouldn't cure that although I'd personally change all the shells.

 

On normal old iron block motors if the thrusts/centre main bearing (if integral thrust) has failed and there is 2-3mm end float, the block and crank is scrap.

Old VW 16v failure from a few years back.







So god knows what an alloy block will look like inside with the same end float,is what I was getting at...

 

right i see, yeah thats what im worried about.

 

Easier to just buy a new short block with these, there was a revision to the zetec-se engine at one stage to address a bearing that resulted in crank end float, on the early ones the bearing was too small and got too hot iirc, altho it was a long time time ago now!

 

second hand engines are cheap enough. Plenty get rebuilt these days.

Strip yours down to find out actually what is wrong.

 

Czech mate - didn't know that, but mine is a 2002 so last of the run so presumably shouldn't have fallen into that category?

Would've thought with crank walk the noise should alter with the clutch being pressed? Mine doesn't?!

Warren I've found a puma in Buxton which supposedly has a good engine but the usual rot, no mot and the guy only wants Ł225 for it so I'm having a mate check it out for me then may just buy the complete car if it's alright. Could always whip mine apart once it's out and check it over. If there's no other issues I could just chuck some new bearings and rings at it and happy days...spare engine

 

[vulture mode on] does it have manual hieght adjust seats? [vulture mode off]

 

ill check

it definitely has rusty arches, if your interested

your cossie puma still going strong? been meaning to pop round for a while, or you could pop over to my workshop and laugh at mine and my mates shonky chariots