Help with Fiesta 1.1 engine problem

Help with Fiesta 1.1 engine problem

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Size Nine Elm

Original Poster:

5,167 posts

291 months

Saturday 11th December 2004
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Venturing into unfamiliar territory in this forum...

First of all set the scene. Bought a 1.1 Fiesta 18 months ago as a runaround.

Its used a lot of oil in that time, but no sign of leaks, and no smokey exhaust.

Its also lost a cylinder three or four times in that period, and a clean of the plugs has fixed it - although one of the plugs has always been a bit fouled with oil.

This has now happened again, but cleaning the plug doesn't fix it, and worse, after cleaning it, if the engine has turned over half a dozen times, and you take the plug out again, it has oil on it.

My (amateur) guess is that the piston rings are worn/screwed, and oil is coming up past the piston.

Any more educated diagnoses out there?

If it is the piston rings, any idea of cost to fix - this is definitely beyond me. I'm assuming engine out and opened up to get at the pistons.

Also is it worth it - car is probably worth 7-800 squid at best.

Many thanks in advance for your erudite comments...

If I can't get it running I'll just have to use the TVR more. So its not all bad.

Neil

Pigeon

18,535 posts

253 months

Saturday 11th December 2004
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I'm inclined to agree it sounds like the rings. To get at and fix them involves taking the head and the sump off, undoing the big end bolts and lifting the piston and con-rod out the top. Sometimes you can do this with the engine in the car, but it's not always much easier, and you may well find that the bore is damaged once you get it apart, in which case the engine definitely needs to come out and be rebored. An engine swap might be a better idea.

annodomini2

6,914 posts

258 months

Saturday 11th December 2004
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Would probably work out cheaper to try and get a decent engine from a scrappy. With there being so many 1.1 fiestas about should be able to get a wide choice and relatively cheap.

Then just need someone to swap them out if you're not prepared to do it yourself.

With labor being the major cost in this sort of repair, the engine swap will take less time.

Size Nine Elm

Original Poster:

5,167 posts

291 months

Sunday 12th December 2004
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Thanks for the responses - pretty much what I thought.

OFI

26 posts

235 months

Tuesday 19th April 2005
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my engine got a bit crappy so bought a new one (1300) for £125 guaranteed and delivered
wasnt too bad saved me having to buy a whole new car as the rest of it is sound