Hi all,

Yesterday, I had my SportVan professionally cleaned and the valet chap would not clean the engine bay because the engine doesn't have a top cover. Absolutely refused to. Didn't want to get water on the glow plugs, he said. I've owned my van for well over 10 years and not once has any garage (incl. Ford) said, "Your van is missing an engine top cover." (I've also had the engine bay cleaned a good few times and no other valeting folks have mentioned it either.)

I did some googling and lo-and-behold, I found an engine top cover (see pic) which I think is what it should have. Never knew such a thing existed for my vehicle, but there ya go!

So my question is ... Did the SportVan come with an engine top cover? Are they necessary? I've driven my van for ten years and it seems happy enough without it - but if it's one of those things that I should have on it, if anyone can track down a part number so that I buy the right thing, that would be fab!!

Thanks!!

:-)

Water won't hurt glowplugs.  I'd be more concerned about it getting into wiring plugs for injectors and sensors.  But as long as you're not shooting the jetwash straight at them they should be fine.

I don't know if the van came with a cover as standard or not.  Can you see the little locator posts for the cover to sit on? 

The cover pictured is the correct one for the 8v 1.6 TDCI engine - part number 1820959. 

From 2010 yours may still be the older 16v 1.6 TDCI engine which uses a different cover.

It probably had one once, but TVM would've soon costed that part out. If you buy one you will need to ensure your engine has the bolhoff pins fitted that it seats into

Could well depend on which engine as already suggested. Two Fiesta (car) tests here, with engine pics, one from 2009 (16v no cover) one from 2012 (8v +cover)

2009: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ford/fiesta/first-drives/ford-fiesta-econetic-1.6-tdci

2012: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ford/fiesta/first-drives/ford-fiesta-1.6-tdci-titanium-econetic

Sort of thing which is prone to being dropped on cost grounds as Dave suggests though, and not just by Ford. Some PSA XUD9s had a cover, some later ones didn't. Plus they are liable to "go missing" at service.😀

 

5 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

   ensure your engine has the bolhoff pins fitted 

Well I never knew they had a name - Thank you!

19 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

 

I don't know if the van came with a cover as standard or not.  Can you see the little locator posts for the cover to sit on? 

The cover pictured is the correct one for the 8v 1.6 TDCI engine - part number 1820959. 

From 2010 yours may still be the older 16v 1.6 TDCI engine which uses a different cover.

The valet guy pointed out the locator holes in the attached pic:

 

And you raise a good point with regards to when my van was built. It rolled off the line in February 2010 and considering things like the stereo is from the previous year (it has Bluetooth, but only for phonecalls, not connecting to iPods, etc - which is really annoying!! 😁), there's a strong chance that some parts are from the previous year's car/van.

And I've included a picture of the whole engine bay, if that helps:

 

12 hours ago, alanfp said:

Well I never knew they had a name - Thank you!

I've learned something new today as well!!

😃👍

17 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Could well depend on which engine as already suggested. Two Fiesta (car) tests here, with engine pics, one from 2009 (16v no cover) one from 2012 (8v +cover)

2009: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ford/fiesta/first-drives/ford-fiesta-econetic-1.6-tdci

2012: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ford/fiesta/first-drives/ford-fiesta-1.6-tdci-titanium-econetic

Sort of thing which is prone to being dropped on cost grounds as Dave suggests though, and not just by Ford. Some PSA XUD9s had a cover, some later ones didn't. Plus they are liable to "go missing" at service.😀

 

This is what my engine bay looks like:

...which to my untrained eye looks exactly the same as the two engines in the links you provided. My van rolled of the production line in February 2010, if that's any help? And although it's the SportVan with the 1.6 TDCi engine, it's Euro 4, Euro 5 (according to eBay, this is important!)

😁

That is the older 16v engine.  The cover pictured won't fit that. 

 

The cover for the 16v engine is part number 1684950 and looks like this.  However, I'm not sure they were ever fitted to this engine in the Fiesta van.

The fact that you don't have the pins for it suggests yours never had one.  Also, the rear threaded hole you've marked isn't for the cover, it just has one rear mount which is rubber and fits over a ball shaped locator above the fuel filter on the rear right of your picture.  (Large angular black metal bracket)

If you want to fit a cover, you would need two studs that look like this.  (Can't find genuine ones available in the UK - you could take them from a used engine from a breakers yard if desired)

 

And two flanged nuts that look like this.  (Again, can't find correct ones available new)

 

I had the 16v with no cover in an early 2010 Titanium, so I doubt the Sport Van of similar vintage had one either.  

 

Ooo! Thanks for all the replies, folks (and to TomsFocus for tracking down the parts and numbers!)

LostinTransit made an interesting point that the covers would cause heat retention under it, and as I understand it, engines run better the cooler they are - so are the covers more cosmetic than have any particular function? And are engines better off without them?
 

Engines run best at optimal temperature, not too cold or too hot.  In the UK, small diesel engines like this really struggle to maintain enough heat, especially in winter traffic when you have the heating on inside, sucking heat away from the engine.

LIT lives in the US where excess heat is the bigger issue.

The cover is mainly to reduce noise on this engine, although it probably does help to retain some heat in winter as well.  I had this engine in Focus's with the cover fitted and never felt any need to permanently remove it.  But equally, if the car came without one as standard, I wouldn't be too concerned about fitting one either.

25 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

But equally, if the car came without one as standard, I wouldn't be too concerned about fitting one either.

If it had been perfectly fine without for 10 years plus, I don't think I'd be too worried either.

To contradict myself slightly, I did fit one to my previous 2018 1.0 ecoboost. There are a lot of trees near where I park the car so that was in the hope of keeping wet leaves off the engine. (My current Mk 8.5 has a cover, which is amazing considering all the more useful items that have been deleted!😀)

Really, only the owner can decide if it's worth the cost/bother of sourcing one at this stage.