dac122

A good friend just bought a '95 Escort 1.8L from an older guy with less than 50K miles on the odo.

I recall with certain model years it was imperative to be vigilant in replacing the timing belts as its failure might toast your valves (and engine). I also recall that it drove the water pump, so replacing the water pump only made sense when replacing the belt, or you risk an indirect failure.

While it has low miles, time is usually not kind to parts like this.

Is this one of those engines? If not sure what else do we need to know to find out?



Thanks in advance.

 

amp_man

Yes, the 1.8L is an interference motor, and do the timing belt ASAP. My parents bought a 96 with the 1.9L and 60k miles, it broke before it got to 62k. We got very lucky, we haven't pulled the head apart to check if the valves got banged up at all, but the car seems to be running fine. I never found out for certain if the 1.9L is or isn't an interference motor, but all signs point to it being one as well.

EDIT: oh, and I don't know if the water pump is driven by the timing belt on that motor or not, but it probably is. But if it's as easy as the 1.9L, I wouldn't bother doing a water pump, I did the timing belt on that car in less than an hour, in my driveway, after dark, and the hardest part of it was getting the timing belt cover off and back on without breaking it (I broke it anyways, but not the point).

dac122

Thanks. That's just what I figured.

I only asked about the water pump, because I heard a story some years ago on one of these engines that a faulty water pump seized, snapped the belt and toasted the engine. If its that easy to replace the belt, replacing the pump might be cheap insurance.