Escort Endura DE

Cambelt isn't too hard to do on this engine. As it's the escort, you don't even have to taken any engine mounts off. If you buy the genuine cam belt kit from ford (complete kit with belts + tensioners - all failures I've seen have been caused by the tensioners failing), it even includes the instructions for doing it. Only additional tools you'll need are the timing tools, which consist off -

Timing pin that screws into engine behind alternator (if you remove the alternator, there should be a hole in the mounting bracket. It's a 10mm headed blankin bolt) Timing pin for Injection Pump (either 6 or 8mm depending on pump) Timing bar for cam shaft + feeler gauges (remove rocker cover and bar slides in at end, and use equal sized feeler gauges under each side to eliminate play) You should be able to buy a kit containing all the timing tools.

I think it's one of those cambelts that's a notoriously troublesome design, which would imply that it's quite a precise thing to tension it, so if you don't know what you're doing, I'd find someone who's done one before. Depends how much time you've got though - it ain't rocket science at the end of the day, and if you buy the tool needed to tension it (don't know if a clavis gauge would do) then it shouldn't be too hard.

Give it a good check-over (bushes, wheel bearings, play in steering, tyre wear, check electrical things work, washers etc etc.), and an oil and filter change and a new air filter. That'll do. Generally speaking you want to be doing an oil+filter change every 5k, and a new air filter + fuel filter every other oil change, but YMMV i.e. lots of dusty roads = more frequent air filter changes.

Oil + Filter change + air filter should set you back no more than about £30-35 in bits, and take about half an hour, unless you spill the oil all over your street and spend years cleaning it up and apologising to neighbours (been there, done that....) - as for a cambelt change, a local garage/mechanic should be able to do the whole job for about £150 (possibly cheaper).

Best quote I've had is £175 from a local Diesel indie, and £225 from the Ford Garage.

They aren't so far apart that I'd go to the Indie, since the Ford place has a name, and reputation, to fallback on if they fsck up.

Name and reputation count for absolute shit. In around October 2003 my

1.8TDi 00/W Fiesta van displayed very similar symptoms to head gasket failure - overheating (no warning thanks to no gauge, just an "overheating light") as a result of a load of thick brown gunge in the cooling system, boiling over out of the expansion tank. Everyone I asked said it was a head gasket, though I was suspicious as it still ran absolutely spot on, and the oil was completely uncontaminated - I queried this with people, and I was told "depends exactly where it's gone/blown". So I took it to the local Ford main dealer, thinking that they'll be the best guys to take it to, from a point of view of comeback if they haven't done the job properly. They quoted me around £500 for the head gasket job, which was par for the course, and I thought that if that's the only major expense over 200k of motoring (plus it would involve putting a new cambelt on, which was due anyway, and saved me paying for that job separately) then it's not too bad.

They phoned me up, saying it's basically beyond economical repair - quoted me about £2k to fix it all - a list as long as my arm for parts (including about £200 worth of radiator hoses which was a complete pisstake as there was nothing wrong with them and they could *easily* have been flushed through), and obviously a fair amount for labour. They said that what would have caused it was the oil cooler cracking across the ports (they hadn't even removed this, but I guess it was the only thing left that it could have been), and they remembered a Transit having that problem once. I was left with a non running van with the head off, and a bill for half the labour value of the head gasket job (that bit's fair enough, I wouldn't expect someone to work for free).

I then put it on ebay, saying what the problem was (a new oil cooler was only £125), and someone local to me told me that his Fiesta (same engine) had had the same problem at 40k and it was fixed under warranty, by the same main dealer that I used. So they had had previous experience of *exactly* the same problem on an identical van, and still led me to believe that it was the head gasket, without doing so much as checking the oil cooler first.

I could have just replaced the oil cooler (£125), chucked some washing powder into the coolant (breaks down oil) and given the cooling system several flushes to get rid of the gunge (a well used method to remove gunge after head gasket failure), and instead the local Ford stealership (Bracknell, near a major roundabout) got £250 or so off me for taking a head off when they knew all along the likely cause of the problem.

So, go to the independent. If they're trusted, and are using OEM Ford parts, then you're much better off giving them business than lining the pockets of thieving main dealers.

I believe JackH may have advised me to do this all along, as it's a fairly common engine, and not all that specialist so most people would be familiar enough with it, and I do believe he could have been right :-)

Forget that = £225 + parts + VAT

I'm off to see the Indie to see if thats an "all in" price