timing belt cover gasket?

[chad]

1998 2.0 4-cyl Zetec 115k

Tried to take my timing belt cover off to look at belt. Took out four bolts, and could wiggle and pull back the cover but unable to lift or slide it off. Seems like it will just break if i pull or yank any more. I read about others referring to top, middle, and bottom cover pieces, but mine seems to be all one piece (see pic).

Problem is, there is a gasket that goes around the inside of the cover that is apparently split in two on the bottom side of the cover because it was dangling from one side. I had my girl hold the cover out while I reached underneath to maneuver the gasket back in as best as I could. Put the bolts back and torqued it down, started feeling around the perimeter of the cover where the gasket would be and noticed now on the other side that the other half of where the gasket was split must have also been dangling because it got torqued down with some of it in and some of it out. Ugh!

Clearly the gasket is not gonna sit in there right, but taking the whole cover off seems to require me to unscrew things that I don't know what they are.

Questions:
1) Is this thing gonna leak oil like crazy now without the gasket sealing up the bottom of the timing belt cover? I've been reading on the forums about guys who run the car without the cover even on! But... there is a gasket, after all. So... WTF?

2) Why is my timing belt cover giving me so much trouble to get off? Is there one more thing I need to unscrew or remove before it can come off? Should I mess with it?

Any advice or experience would be tremendously appreciated! I'm pretty new to these cars, but I have been very much proactive in trying to prolong the life of this one.

In the pictures below, you can see the gasket protruding in the top pic and that the cover is all one piece in the bottom pic.

 

[SVOFANATIC]

No it won't leak oil it's just a seal between the cover and timing belt there isn't any oil in that region.

Honestly I would just leave it alone until you have a better scope of what you're dealing with. I would get a haynes manual that should help you but I wouldn't try to change the belt on your own get a competent mechanic to do it or a friend you know can work on cars and can tackle a job like this. You should only focus on the small stuff right now and get a better understanding on how everything works under the hood before taking stuff apart. I'm not trying to be rude or mean but you could accidentally break or mess something up that could be costly to your pocket.

 

[chad]

Whew! I was worried I was gonna have a major leak disaster on my hands. I was able to pull the cover back far enough to have a look at the belt. Looks to be in pretty decent shape, but it seems slightly off-center toward the outside. Straight, but as if it's just notched over toward the cover about half a centimeter or so.

The front wheels are on ramps right now and the oil was emptied yesterday, then I sprayed underneath with brake cleaner and cleaned the crap out of it so I could put a bead of copper around the seal on the oil pan. Also seen some saturation all over the block behind the heat shield - I noticed the temp sender was maybe the culprit, as I was able to tighten it about four or five turns. So... last thing I need is a new leak. I'm trying to isolate the one I already have!

Thanks for the reply!

 

[andreslobo]

On 88 and later, to get that top cover for the cam belt off you MUST remove the engine mount closest to that cover. Well you could just remove the two studs on the engine mount closest to the timing cover and the remove the cover, but it is easier to remove the engine mount. Yes it has a gasket but that is just there to keep moisture and rocks out. As for LOOKING at a cam belt to determine its health, not a good method, seemingly perfect belts can be on the verge of breaking. Mileage is the best indicator, about every 100,000 miles.

I see that you are at 115 miles. To replace the cam belt get the ford tsb, buy the cam alignment tool and crank pin (usually about $20 aftermarket). New belt, tensioner and pulleys. Follow the tsb to the letter and you will be just fine. Oh yes, access to a 1/2 impact wrench will greatly simplify the task

 

[chad]

Thanks Andres,

Don't I need a special tool or something for aligning the cams or something like that? What's the TDC business? Sorry to sound like a dumba$$ but I have never done a timing belt - in fact, I have only in the last year ever shown an interest in doing ANYthing with cars. But in that year, I have used a Haynes manual, (more recently a service manual,) and this site to learn how to do simple things step by step.

As a newbie, I have the incredibly good fortune of having a second 98 Contour 4-cyl CD4E sitting in the garage as a practice-car/parts-car. See, the transmission blew on that one (the forward gear spring thing that seems to be so prevalent with these cars after 150-160k or so). And I bought another exactly like it. (Not intentionally I swear!) Well, some things are different - the blown-tranny one is the later manufactured post-Feb 98 one (I guess that's the 98.5?), and the one I drive daily is manufactured in like Oct 97 if I recall.

So maybe I could practice the timing belt change on the practice car so I can feel confident knowing I can do it properly? I've read the how-to on here, and some suggest buying a Gates kit and following it to the letter, saying that anyone who can change their own oil can do it. I'm somewhat skeptical about it being THAT easy, but maybe I'm selling myself short.

I've changed my oil a few times, done the 3x drain and fill with tranny fluid, flushed the coolant, changed the valve cover gasket, spark plugs, fuel filter, thermostat and housing, temp sender and sensor, even the elusive PCV valve on this car. I have also changed the drive belt and tensioner on my own, but had to do it with the practice car first (although the placement of the tensioner is slightly different between 98 and 98.5).

Is the timing belt more difficult than those things? In my mind I've kinda decided there are things within my skill set, and things that would be better to just pay someone to do rather than screw around and potentially cause much bigger problems. I've always thought the timing belt was one of the latter.

With the presumption that I would have to fork out 500-600 bucks for the timing belt job if and when it failed, I resolved to just let it fail when it fails, seeing as the Zetecs are non-interference engines. BUT... I know that some people claim to have expoerience with these engines indeed bending valves. Even though it says first thing in the how-to on this site that they won't. So I throw my hands up on this one. How does a person find reliable information when so many people seem so knowledgable and confident holding completely opposing views? Got me.

 

[amc49]

They are pretty much non-interference, you'd find out quick enough by moving cams around while changing the belt, move just once where cam moves valve open on a crankshaft not turning and you bend valve by hand.

TDC is top dead center of the number one piston. That's the piston closest to the passenger side of car. TDC means it is all the way up and cannot go up anymore. At that point turning crankshaft either way will take piston back down. It's a commonly used set point for getting an engine in a known place to do precision timing work on it. The cam alignment tool and crank pin he mentioned are the special tools.

That bulge on one side of the top plastic timing cover is clearance for the VCT that engine uses, it complicates timing belt set up tremendously for people who do not know how to think themselves through a timing problem. One big fat reason why people have so much trouble changing belt on these. The car posts a code if the timing is not 100% dead on, even if close enough for car to run seemingly well. Nothing personal, but from what I've read you may be better off finding someone you can pay to gripe at if something goes wrong there. Even some shops have trouble with these. Of course there's always the practice car.

There are those who say if you can change oil you can do it but quite frankly that is a ridiculous statement and utterly untrue. Lots try then come here or the Focus/Escort/Cougar (same motor) websites trying to find out what they've done wrong. And I mean LOTS.

You really should not let it fail on its' own, there could be a towing charge 40 miles from home, or if you are unlucky the belt wads up into crankshaft or something else and does some serious parts breakage.

Like he says, you have to take loose motor mount to remove the timing cover. The mount barely pinches bottom of cover..............it acts like it will come off but you'll break it. BTDT.

 

[chad]

Wow thank you! That is great information. And good to know about the skill level required for timing belt. I've read write-ups and they seem much more complicated than I'm equipped for, considering I often don't even know what the terminology is - TDC for instance.

If I were to take loose the motor mount to remove the timing cover, do I need to worry about something serious like, does the engine need to be supported or anything?

By the way, what is BTDT? Break the darn thing?

I appreciate the responses quite a bit actually. I've spent a lot of time on the forums here, and between amc149, andreslobo, and Big Jim, I think I've learned the most. Any chance you guys have a knack for identifying leaks? I posted another thread in Troubleshooting forum with pics of a fresh leak I'm trying to isolate.

Anyway, Merry Christmas guys! Thanks for helpin a newbie.

 

[andreslobo]

I think you are referring to TSB which is Technical Service Bulletin. You can get it online for a pittance. The haynes manual does not cover the 98 and later cars, so that is why you need the tsb. Once I discovered the TSB and the need for the cam aliignment tools and crank pin it wasn't so hard, well not so hard when I finally discovered that the cam belt tension is critical, too tight and it walks off of the cam 'gears' and shreds itself in short order.

If you remove the engine mount, you must first support the engine, I use a floor jack with a piece of wood between the jack and oil pan.

I agree with AMC49. Best to have someone else who KNOWS the vct procedure do it or since it is a non interference engine (shredded my cam belt at 80mph and no problem) leave it alone.

 

[amc49]

BTDT means been there and done that..................i.e., I have broken cover before myself.

 

[jrichardson]

On 88 and later, to get that top cover for the cam belt off you MUST remove the engine mount closest to that cover

I'm assuming you mean the 98 and later and that's not true, i have a 98 vct zetec and i can remove that cover just by removing the four screws that hold it down.

 

[amc49]

Good for you, you can then remove the word MUST. It's a pinch issue between the cover and mount edge, just because yours doesn't do it means absolutely nothing, many do, both my zetec Focus are non-VCT, one does it, the other doesn't. My known for a fact '98 zetec Contour cover did lock up, I broke it with the 4 bolts completely removed. Since one broken part contained one bolt and the other had three, I simply bolted it all back up and the parts fit like puzzle pieces. Motor could care less.