2 0 VCT Ford timing belt 

Great Video. I owned a 1998 ZX2 from when it was brand new all the way until 2015. If the replacement timing belt is not tightened, using the proper sequence, the timing belt will slowly roll off the the two cam sprockets. I had Midas replace my timing belt. I also had them replace the tensioner and all of the idler pullys. At every oil change, I would inspect the timing belt. Over the following 18 months, I noticed the timing belt getting skinnier and skinnier. This was because it was slowly coming off the cam gears and grinding into the shields. The belt became half its original width before I had it changed yet again. At this point, I asked a Ford dealer why there are always problems after these belts are changed. I believe ford came out with a service bulletin in regards to a proper tensioning sequence so that this belt doesn't move off of the cam sprokets over time. Also, it is highly recommended to replace the tensioner and idler pullys with genuine Ford parts. The original Midas replacement job did not use genuine Ford replacement parts. Lastly, that hydraulic pump, which is located only on the exhaust cam, is there for emissions reasons. This engine is one of Ford's first engines that does not have an EGR valve. That Hydraulic pump is computer controlled and it allows the exhaust valve to remain open so the engine can suck back in a portion of the exhaust gases, in the same manner as the EGR valves do, when the piston goes down for the intake stroke. These engines are non-interference motors, so the pistons will never hit the valves if the timing belt breaks or the cam shafts are out-of-time with the crank in any way. Sometimes the hydraulic CAM pump will get stuck. This will cause a faulty CAM sensor code reading to store in the ECM and the engine to run really crappy. A quick fix to free up the hydraulic pump is to drain the engine oil, and, replace it with an SAE 40. This will boost the oil pressure within that pump and possibly free it up. SAE 40 oil is fine for this engine because the original specification calls for 5W-30. You are simply taking the 30 weight and kicking it up to a 40 weight so as to increase the oil pressure in that pump. I ran 20W-50 from spring thru fall and 10W-40 in the winter for the rest of the time I owned the car (10 more years). I sold the car with 230,000 miles on it and the engine was still running good and strong with no issues.

you are a genius. Now check this out. I had this problem, I tore my car down to the cams only to discover that my torx set was 30 miles away. since I was ready to scrap the car I took a big pair of channel locks and spun the exhaust cam back to inline with the other. A lot of air bubbles came out. Well I turned it back and forth until air quit coming out. At this point my cams were lined back up and so far so good.

I recently replaced the timing belt on my 02 Focus zetec. I bought the tool kit for that car. I was really suprised at how easy it was to do! Now my nieces 02 ZX2 timing belt broke so I guess I get to use my tool again LOL! The kit for those that may wonder is a flat bar and a threaded pin to hold the crankshaft that screws into a hole on the side of the block under the exhaust. I used srmastertech's video since he did a Focus like mine. The ZX2 zetec has some differences from the Focus zetec.

Thanks for this. 6,000 posts on the 'net on how to do it that make no sense whatsoever (even the step-by-step ones). My job just got easier!

Big HELP, Idler pulley on timing busted. Had to replace. This video got me through the job. Screw driver to find Dead top worked like a charm!

Thanks- I often don't get the time to wait for them to order in. It's not like I've got FIVE ACRES to park cars on. lol I have to get them in and out again. Congratulations on the new place! ; )

Right on- way to go. Make sure to read the annotations. Don't turn them off.

Thank you soooo much for a fine how to. couldn't have done the job without it. If I might add a couple of things about the zetec...sometime in 99 they went from 2 idler pullys to 1. The bolt on the one idler system is not up to the job. It's a known issue that the bolt breaks. If you can reach that idler, I would recommend changing it. Be sure you get the correct diameter if you have the one bolt system. It's a tad larger. Thanks again Brian, great video!

@spelunkerd Good question. What I do is I weld it thicker than it needs to be, and then I grind it down to be close to spot on. The parts of the tool that are inserted are ground surfaces that are free of splatter and any type of randomness caused by welding. That way I have a tool with performance and I get it cheaper and right now.

@briansmobile1 I am very glad I could help. I have known a lot of people that have struggled with setup. I had a little trouble with the first one i did but I was lucky i had someone around that showed me the way to do this procedure. And thanks to the guy that saw this and called me to know where he could get the offset tool or if i had one.

@9020powrmax You can do it 180 off on the cams because the crank goes twice for every once the cams rotate.

I bought a "kit" of the Mac truck year's ago and it came with both the recessed and straight holding plates but also came with a 4" rod that screwed into the back of the block......It said it was to hold the crank at tdc???? Never used it. Lol Great vid! I absolutly love that you make most of your specialty tools.

Also the VCT Unit gear, the front torx bolt is just a plug, it must be removed to access the bolt behind this and it must be loosened to free the cam gear. A little oil will come out when you remove the plug. The bolt behind the plug takes a E-torx socket. When you start the engine the VCT unit will make noise until the oil pressure builds and fills the unit.

@RockThePylon If joeys garage is correct PLEASE let me know so I can annotate this video so other people can know. When I've done these in the past I didn't try it 180- I just always went by the book. It MAY be possible.

@William9alex It goes up once per rotation of the crankshaft. It goes up twice per rotation of the camshaft. The crank rotates twice for every two rotations of the camshaft.

@aodhanof90 The cams MUST be held exact. The cam wheels it doesn't matter. After installing and tensioning the timing belt THEN you tighten the cam wheels proper.

@bigdnelyria Only worry about the back side of the cams. Go by the nubs NEAR the cams, but not the cam wheels themselves. The cam wheels themselves don't have notches to align them.

@MrRaiomCurst WOT in "Park" has a safety, but in gear and on the road it should do fine at WOT. If your timing is off it could cause hesitation, but it will be noticeable throughout the throttle stroke.

You're right. I have spent some time on subtitles about that. Unfortunately people don't leave them on or read them.

@wafrederick Doubt it, the last escort ZX2 was produced in 03, The escort ZX2 had VCT which had a solenoid that controled the exhaust cam timing (similar to vtec) via a phaser in the cam gear. The engine in the ZX2, Contour/Mystique/Cougar/Escape is essentially the same. The only other US ford with VCT is the Focus SVT and in that application it was on the Intake cam. All you need to change is the belt on these cars, if the phaser is gummed up that is the least of your problems...

@RockThePylon Thanks for confirming that the 180 works. Hopefully this will save others from frustration and I won't have to build another tool for the next one I do. You're the man- I really appreciate your follow up. I annotated this vid at 1:12 with your name.

@MrRaiomCurst The variable cam timing is like a substitute EGR valve that reinjects exhaust into the combustion process as an inert filler to increase fuel economy at cruising freeway speeds on level ground or down hill. It may be that your valve is stuck such that it's allowing exhaust back into the combustion chamber when it shouldn't and causing bad EGR valve (stuck open) type symptoms.

Back to a question from VampireFrancesca, could you elaborate why the cam position needs to be reset if you are conducting a routine t-belt change on a normally functioning engine?

@Byootox I'm not a conosuer of French cars. Japanese, American, German, and definitely Italian. French have good food. I've been there and loved the food.

@fd390hp Some do. The timing on the Crankshaft is harmonic balancer to timing cover. I go by the piston- unmistakable. Thanks for sharing!

@Prototypexl It's WAY different than other timing belts, but it's not hard with a little instruction.

Running the engine gets it back in order- but some take a while as in weeks of daily driving and sometimes you have to reset the belt twice.

@fmartinez2580 The oil likely drained out of the VCT valve and timing got off. You can pull the upper cover and use the marks on the harmonic balancer to verify this. (harmonic balancer is the accessory drive belt pulley.)

@calistang03 The timing varies by year and engine. The correct spec for your car can be found on the label under the hood marked either "Emissions" or "Catalyst"

@aodhanof90 You have to remove the plug and loosen the bolt behind the plug. The bolts are not reverse or left hand thread. I don't recall the size. Probably T25 or T30 It's been too long. I would advise getting a set.

@petrolhead1977 You're welcome- glad I could help.

what a great homemade tool

Flat bar works great when you have the cams in right position. You are 180 degrees off!!

@MrRaiomCurst Once they slip and become "off" they stay that way till you get in and physically line them up again. Another thing that can happen to a car that has sat a long time is the piston rings can become stuck in the piston groove and not expand properly. An easy fix for this is to put ATF in the spark plug holes and let it set overnight and then blow it back out. The detergents in it free up the stuck rings. - doing this will make it smoke horribly for a while after you start it up.

TDC on compression stroke means all the valves are closed. Take a look at the cam lobs and make sure there not activating any valves, if there not, your tdc, if it is, then its opening the exhaust valve and you are on the exhaust stroke.

@fmartinez2580 The alternator stays in place. You just need to take off the valve cover-that has oil in it, but usually doesn't spill.

@jcorbat Because once is enough for getting into this timing cover/valve cover. It's the way to make SURE it turns out right the first time.

@walter9073 Just line it up with the square lobes facing up or 180 degrees from what I showed. Then you can use a flat file because the notches are off center.

@dyaballikl You're welcome. I'm honored to be of service to you!

@bestclarkesspot Possibly not, but you may. If you can get the cams right by just loosening the bolts in the end of the cam you'll be fine.

@bigdnelyria If the belt is off a tooth you get a really rough running motor or it won't start if you're off more than two teeth. Noised will vary, but shouldn't rod knock etc.

Just wanted to add something here.. My brother's Contour had the belt break. Thank God it's a non-interference engine. Anyway, we read and followed instructions EVERYWHERE and we tried over and over again to get it right. We were insanely careful to make sure piston #1 was top dead center by putting a caliper end down the cylinder and measuring. Anyway, after at least a dozen tries but the car still ran terribly and wouldn't idle. Finally, we decided to put the car back together and drive it a little. We noticed that the brakes weren't working correctly, unless the engine was running fast, they were very weak. We realized that he brakes were assisted by a vacuum line. After searching around we found that when the belt broke, the car backfired and blew a vacuum line off from behind the engine. We plugged it back in and she ran perfect.

You're MOST welcome! And thanks for adding some help too.

Ya most cars have keys that align them with the shaft and you don't loosen them.

@PnmRED You are correct! It is.

@RockThePylon I've done both. The flat one's I have a file in the tool box that works awesome. Nobody had the tool so I made one. I sold it to a guy in New Jersey. They aren't super hard to make. The guy in Jersey sold it to someone else I understand.

@calistang03 The peg is more for convenience. Some times with a belt failure you can have bent valves that create a misfire due to a loss of compression.A compression test will reveal this. More common a timing discrepancy is possible due to air getting into the VCT valve or other random anomalies. If you open up the cover and pull the valve cover and reset the timing (you'll see it's off a tooth or tooth and a half) it will likely be fine again. Common on a failed belt. = (

@William9alex Valve cover MUST come off. NOT the head. Marking the the cams on the VCT is worthless and VCT ignorant unfortunately.. . . . . bless his heart.

Usually that's lifter noise. It's seldom the belt. To learn more about this you can visit Ford forums. I'd Google the problem by the car name etc. and you'll find forums on it.

@robbnj You're most welcome!

@twiztedbacon Just line it up 180 degrees from what I had and use a flat file or piece of plate steel.

No one is perfect. I still love you anyway.

@Leanne779 You're welcome

@bigdnelyria That is correct. Always go clockwise.

It's probably fine. The VCT on these will lose timing if they sit for months with out running. You just have to re set the timing and then they're fine. Be sure to watch this video with the annotations on~!

Did about 4 of those timing belt jobs in a month, bought the timing belt SST from Ford. Haven't done one in 6 years since I bought the tool :/

Also, a zx2 , contour, and regular Focus are NON-interference engines, with the exception of the SVT Focus. The lift on the SVT cams WILL allow the valves to hit, bending the valves.

thanks a lot, this made my day so much easier. ill be contacting you with more questions.

whats the link to the other video cause this didn not help me since my timing chain is off I need to know the whole process

@topolobam You're welcome. Love ya

@damelloman You're welcome!

Something slipped. OR oil pressure took too long. Either way it's necessary to set it again. This is common on ones that have sat for months not running.

I think you mean the harmonic balancer pulley... That one you put a pry bar on either side behind it and rock/wiggle it back and forth till it wiggles off.

Dude, love the hat! I made a cool 2.0 cam lock tool for this Contour I just repaired. Thx for the tip

@VampireFrancesca On these you always loosen them.

You are incorrect on the timing by 180 degrees... I bought a timing tool kit from Massive Speed out of Illinois it has a TDC threaded pin to lock the crank down from moving and the bar that locks the cams down only goes in (one way) where the cams are 180 degrees opposite of what this video suggests. Massive Speed specializes in building Zetec and Duratec race motors exclusively. I have used this tool to set the timing on my racecars at least 50 times over a span of a decade.

Good no-nonsense video, thanks for posting, very useful!

@RockThePylon That's not sad- that's GREAT NEWS! The book I was going by sucked. No reason to perpetuate bad info eigh? This means a file will work. I'll annotate it right now.

i fix my own truck! i have an 88 bronco with a 302 v8 the hardest ive done so far was removing broken waterpump bolt from the block by having to remove all the pullies out of the way to get the timing cover off. while having the timing cover off i went ahead and replaced the timing chain sence it had almost 3/4in play on both sides of the sprokets. for two months now and over 3000miles of driving there are no water leaks and runs great. parts such as the chain are getting hard to find now.

Thanks Man, A Big help here, Need more of these on here.

@twiztedbacon You're welcome

@RockThePylon THE SLOTS ARE OFFSET IN THE CAMS!! If the flat tool will not fit you are 180 out, turn the cams 180 and the flat tool WILL slide right in!!

@briansmobile1 I'm not a him and the little cover is a hex T55. Doesn't matter at this point because one of them refuses to break. Thanks for the vid though, Good Job.

Replace the front gear at the same time,the part inside sticks and you will have problems.This is for the 2.0 DOHCs 2004 and up.Have been told of this happening on an escort and bent the valves with this same engine

@MegaFlaxman It COULD, but it isn't likely in this motor

Glad it helped you out!

take the spark plug out and either put your finger over the hole or use a compression gauge as the cylinder begins to rise if you don't trust the marks.

Thanks for the comment I'm glad it was helpful. It takes time, but if it's helpful I'll do some more!

The belt off the pulley or the tensioner slack? Or the serpentine idler off the cover?

@CharalaAnn I probably should have caught that by your user name- my apologies ; ) You're a rare find- good for you for being unique!

If you run into a Ford VCT 2.0 engine that WILL NOT run right after youve timed it several times, check the tightness of the cam caps. Loss of oil pressure there will cause the VCT not to operate properly. Im DEFFINATLY NOT a VCT fan. Specially the older ones

Hey you guys u just need a pitch-square tool the one the carpenter uses.look for the side that is wider and put it on the back of the cams it will fit on them.

Thanks Nick- I didn't know.

@turbomatt81 Yes and no. I did mine like yours, but it will work 180 degrees off, as the cams spin at half crankshaft speed. So every time the engine goes one complete revolution, the cams go half, or 180 degrees. If you spin yours over one complete revolution, you'll see the cams are now off 180 with the crank at the same position. He just made himself a lot more work building an unnecessary offset tool when he could have just used a flat bar.

You're welcome!

Changed timing belt, still had running problems. Upon changin the solenoid and pulley, i noticed ALL the cam caps were loose. Since the VCT works on system oil pressure, loss of it is detramental. Loose caps caused oil pressure loss. Retorque caps, problem gone. FROM- Wazu2u11

thanx dude !!! very informative no one told me u could loosen the two cams to time!! have a 2001 zx2 but it was a rebuild so the motor is a 98-99?? 5 stars good looking out from the green mt state!!

@ajk148700 if the belt broke while you were running it, there is a 95% chance you bent some valves. This is what ford calls and "interference" engine. Meaning there is little or no clearence between the pistons and the valves. When the belt goes, it is common for the piston to come up and whack a valve...

@ajk148700 Maybe nothing. Check compression for bent valves.

Brian the cams are 180 degrees off the tool will fit if you just turn it 180

Is that the right tool? I seen earlier in the comments that it was wrongly made ?

Thank you Brian, very helpful! I did want to mention for the benefit of Contour and Mystic owners that at least on my 96 Ford Contour the 2.0 Zetec (which does not have variable cam timing) requires the staggered cam timing tool rather than the flat .02" bar/tool. I believe this is the the case for 95-97 Zetec motors. The flat cam timing tool can be found on Ebay, I haven't been able to find the staggered one yet even at Ford. Might try Mac or Snap-on. Thanks for the confidence booster Brian!

@Espatulation What's the history? Did the belt break? Did you just change the belt? Did the car sit for 3+ months and not start?

Great info brother thank you!!

@spelunkerd If you have hand tools including a micrometer, and some patience you're good.

@briansmobile1 I guess what I'm getting at is whether I could do this all myself. I have hand grinders and a welder and cutting torch but I need help to resurface engine heads. Do I need to machine the mating surfaces to exact specs, or could I do this close enough with hand tools? Thanks for your help.

awesome doing this same job today after valve seat dropped #3 intk

@chev1988rolet Ya a file is fine- good job.

@johnz281994 yeah i was just about to say the same i have done the timing one these engines before, it is possible they use wasted spark on this engine ie fires on compression then again on exhaust so it wont realy matter if its of 180

@topolobam Thanks for the post.