Hi, guys. My father took his 02 1.4 focus (either a ghia or zetec aint sure off top off my head) to a guy i know who is a retired mechanic to have timing belt and tensioner replaced. Car went in running very quiet but prehaps a little sluggish. The guy rang me and said the HG is showing signs of leaking, so best to do that,which includes a skim. Ok told him to do it and 3 days later (dont work weekends) had it back, sounds really knocky and under power! The guy said the noise wil go when the hydraulic tappets fil with oil? Just phoned a premium number for a ford helpline and the guy said this engine does NOT have hydraulic tappets but shim set tappets and should NEVER skim there heads....he thinks that the tappets need setting to cure the knocking? Anyone able to give advice on what is correct here, i.e hydraulic tappets or not? Shound not skim these heads os you can? Also how hard is it to set these tappets? Cheers

You can skim the head, but the valve clearances should have been rechecked and adjusted.

Yes, its shims.

Could be actually the engine knocking due to bad timing up.

Valves want checking!

Piggy :)

You can skim the head, but the valve clearances should have been rechecked and adjusted.

Yes, its shims.

Could be actually the engine knocking due to bad timing up.

Valves want checking!

Piggy :)

just had a garage mechanic to listen to it and he said it was/sounds like tappets. Also spoke to the guy who did the car and he said he was not aware it was shimed tappets, thought it was hydraulic, so looks like he put them back in in the wrong place to what they came out...how hard is it to reset these tappets? Is there a guide on her or anywhere else i could use to do this adjustment/set up? Any special tools needed? Iam technically minded and do most work on my cars, but never taken a head off a car and played with tappets etc...is it that hard, just thinking of saving the £££s ;)

Would need to remove the rocker cover, then when engine cold, check all the gaps between the lobes and the valve buckets, compare to manual/autodata. (obviously when the lobe is pointing away, so the largest gap possible)

Then find the ones incorrect, do the math and order new correct shims.

time up engine.

Remove cambelt.

Remove cams.

Remove the buckets that need new shims, remove the shim, replace with new correct size and reverse the above!

Pretty big job!

Duno how he wouldnt know, bearing in mind the shims easily fall out of the buckets sometimes!

Piggy :)

Would need to remove the rocker cover, then when engine cold, check all the gaps between the lobes and the valve buckets, compare to manual/autodata. (obviously when the lobe is pointing away, so the largest gap possible)

Then find the ones incorrect, do the math and order new correct shims.

time up engine.

Remove cambelt.

Remove cams.

Remove the buckets that need new shims, remove the shim, replace with new correct size and reverse the above!

Pretty big job!

Duno how he wouldnt know, bearing in mind the shims easily fall out of the buckets sometimes!

Piggy :)

ok, so almost 1 week since work on car, and now my dad is p!ssed off, once extremely quiet car, now knocking like mad, engine managment light on, temp gauge going mad (no loss of water), smoking alot, no power and no oil on dipstick also 26 miles to £15 petrol!! I had 3 mechanics say its a tappet noise, 2 garages turn the work away, anyway, a mech we know in my dads street is now away and not back until new year, when he said he wil reset the tappets, mech theory, guy who did the car did not put tappets back in dis-assembled order? But why loss of oil? Would bad mpg be due to tappets opening/closing incorrectly causing more fuel being burnt/lost? He renewed the plugs today, 2 good tan colour and 2 black wet, with reduced electrode compared to new ones..a mech i spoke to said best and cheapest way would be get a second hand head and fit that, due to time of resettimjg tappets etc..what you guys recon

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