Zetec engine identification

Zetec engine identification

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Discussion

Nickl911

Original Poster:

48 posts

125 months

Friday 28th July 2023
quotequote all
Help needed please. I've looked through some other posts but nothing seems to answer my question.

Which is.. I've just bought a Fisher Fury with a Zetec 2.0 engine. The documentation which came with shows 2 donor car registrations, and the engine number on the Zetec matches the later car's vin which is an L reg Mondeo. The first two alphas match the year code 1994.

So the problems comes when the mondeo is registered as a 1.8cc car while the stamping on the engine block is 2.0 and the engine number has no 3 letter code after the engine number.

The cam cover is black but looks like it has been painted.

The position of the words 16v Zetec appear to be in a different place to other cam covers I've seen. Is this significant?

As is stands I'm not even confident of ordering the right spark plugs for this engine.

Someone somewhere says crate engines get their own engine numbers and not all are stamped, but as the originl vin plate matches the engine number this cant be a new (or even newer) engine .

Anyone any clues?

vw_99

180 posts

50 months

Friday 28th July 2023
quotequote all
Ford had silver (metal rocker cover) tops and black (plastic covers) tops.

Mondeos and escorts had both options. Im sure change was around 1997 from silver to black.
And focus were all "black tops"

From memory "silver tops" had differant valves.
But not sure if rocker covers or heads could be swapped.


On my mk3 fiesta with 1.6 "silver" engine i could have fitted a 1.8 "silver" head to it.

But you could also put a cvh turbo head onto a zetec block easily.

Edited by vw_99 on Friday 28th July 20:48

stevieturbo

17,534 posts

254 months

Friday 28th July 2023
quotequote all
Nickl911 said:
As is stands I'm not even confident of ordering the right spark plugs for this engine.
it is really easy.

Take the old plugs out, look at them, then buy the same. Although they likely all use the same plugs anyway


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Zetec_engine

Edited by stevieturbo on Friday 28th July 20:58

Nickl911

Original Poster:

48 posts

125 months

Saturday 29th July 2023
quotequote all
Yes the easy way to get new plugs is to look at the old ones. If only the previous owner hadn't removed them and thrown them away! But even then did he get them right? I have bought cars and found the wrong type installed. It also depends on whether the cam has been made wilder. So I'm still in the dark.

As to cam Covers the problem is the somewhat the same, they can be swapped over and over-painted and as you say the mondeos came with both.

No further forward as yet but thanks for the input.


stevieturbo

17,534 posts

254 months

Saturday 29th July 2023
quotequote all
Nickl911 said:
It also depends on whether the cam has been made wilder.
It really doesn't, unless it's some sort of 10,000rpm screamer. And even then..it probably still doesn't

Don't overthink things.

Same with plug leads, some people get worked up over them too.....when really anything half decent quality works perfectly fine.

Hell, even water in a tube works ( not that I'd ever recommend or try and drive it like so, but funny to see....they've tried other silly stuff too and it ran )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkmxaJejDco&t=...

Boosted LS1

21,198 posts

267 months

Saturday 29th July 2023
quotequote all
OP, I can't imagine that zetec's use much variation on plug temp grades. Maybe a NGK5-6 would cover all the ranges. If you went to Halfords you could scroll through a guide and look for similarities? Or, Google ford zetec spark plugs and see what you find?

Nickl911

Original Poster:

48 posts

125 months

Saturday 29th July 2023
quotequote all
Yes Halfords will do to get me started for plugs.

Still need to verify the engine type though and no-one has come up with any ideas why there isn't an engine code next to the engine number.

A haynes manual for mondeo will be my next step.

Cheers everyone

stevieturbo

17,534 posts

254 months

Saturday 29th July 2023
quotequote all
It's an old car with a non original engine because it is a kit type car.

It could literally be anything, having had anything done to it or swapped over the years.

Is it really important ? If you really wanted to get an idea of what size it is, assuming there are no external identifiers on the block, then pull the head off and measure the bore. The stroke seems to be common with them all.

Is it worth doing that ?

Does the car actually run and drive at present ? The photo you presented, clearly is not a running engine at the time taken

Nickl911

Original Poster:

48 posts

125 months

Sunday 30th July 2023
quotequote all
StevieTurbo

I appreciate your help but you are slightly missing my point. Yes it is a kit car at the moment, but the original donor car was an L reg Mondeo registered as 1.8 and the original engine block says 2.0 and the the VIN plate agrees with the engine number on the block and the engine type code is missing so something is screwey.

I kind of need to know exactly what engine it is so I can order parts for it like fuel injection manifold which kind of need to fit exactly and is one of the things that the boresize might impact e.g 1.8 or 2.0. Even using the donor car reg to order parts is iffy because "somethings screwey".

So although I used spark plugs as an example there are more issues and I'd like to get the engine running first and cheaply before I spend a lot of money and find it is a knackered engine. Yes I could remove the engine and measure the bores and check the cranks and bearings and it's on my list of things I may have to do.

I did think someone somewhere would have that little bit of knowledge that said e.g. "the Mazda Zetec-e were different and didn't have engine type codes next to the engine number" but that knowledge does not seem to be out there.

stevieturbo

17,534 posts

254 months

Sunday 30th July 2023
quotequote all
If the block says it's a 2.0, have you any reason to think it is not a 2.0 ?

I would be very surprised if the inlet ports are different in any way that prevents you buying an inlet manifold. The heads on a 1.8 and 2.0 are the same.
So just pick any manifold that will fit the space in your vehicle.