Minnesota Focus Owners Club

I went and looked at a 02 SVT today and I have a few questions about it. Two previous owners ago replaced the timing belt but didnt get everything aligned correctly and it ran badly so he sold it. The current owner bought it pulled the head and checked everything out and replaced the belt. He correctly installed everything and he said it ran much better than before. He said he did a compression check and all the cylinders were within spec. The car idles smoothly. When I test drove it, it seemed to run fun but didnt have any power when I gave it much throttle. My non-svt zetec was much faster. The codes that it has are P0141, P0420, and P1381. I am sure the P1381 is from the timing being off and am guessing the other two are for o2 sensors and possibly a bad cat. Does anyone there there could be other things making it have no power. Does COSVT03 from focaljet post on here? He was looking to make a video on fixing the P1381. Any help would be appreciated.

If the car were run with the timing way out for a while it could have damaged/clogged the cat. This could be the cause of the lack of power and the first two codes. The timing being off could also be causing the low power output.

Could there be any internal damages from the timing being off?

If the timing were off really bad you could bend valves. hopefilly thats what they looked for when they pulled the head. The compression test should confirm there are no bent valves. If the heads good, the rest of the engine is should be good.

PBZX3 wrote:If the timing were off really bad you could bend valves. hopefilly thats what they looked for when they pulled the head. The compression test should confirm there are no bent valves. If the heads good, the rest of the engine is should be good.

If the car idles smoothly it's highly unlikely that the timing is far enough out of whack to been the valves.

hermitmaster wrote:

PBZX3 wrote:If the timing were off really bad you could bend valves. hopefilly thats what they looked for when they pulled the head. The compression test should confirm there are no bent valves. If the heads good, the rest of the engine is should be good.

If the car idles smoothly it's highly unlikely that the timing is far enough out of whack to been the valves.

I was referring to when the original owner botched the timing belt replacement. Sounds like it was so messed up he got rid of the car.

Chris (Cosvt03) doesn't come on here much, just contact him through FJ and you can arrange to meet up with him, he's a very helpful guy and quite good with these cars.

check your mani arm. if it is still there un click it an pull gingerly on the end and see if the cable snapped(happend to me cus of the C.F.M upgrade)also check maf readins, should be around 4.5 ish G/S(grams per second) , look for any unmetered air leaks. this to me sounds like a air issue. it has lack of power and no misfire..............first and foremost. finde and off road pipe install (you want the o2s in they will cause issuse id disconnected whiles diagnossing) if this changes nothing start looking at the enter side of your engine.



hay steve i am good too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im a master MFing mechanic!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah Rob, I know you're good but I also know you only get on here once in a while where Chris is on FJ all the time and he's right here in town.