HELP! Ford Dealer says I need a new Engine!

notsofine89

Registered User
Not long ago my trust 89 SC started bucking and heaving like crazy.....Then it flat out died and had to be towed. The culprit? A broken bolt that holds the main belt-pulley on the front of the crankshaft. I guess there's some crankshaft senseor in there that goes ape when this happens...

At any rate, car goes into the Ford Dealer....dealer replaces all kids of crap along with broken bolt. Car runs fine for about 350 miles, then dies again in the same fashion...same broken bolt. Dealer calls factory...crankshaft endplay OK. Bolt is torqued to spec. The car goes home again. After another 300 miles or so, guess what happens? You guessed it....car starts bucking....two miles later I'm calling a tow truck. I pop the hood...at the center of the pulley that mounts on the crank, there is a hole where there once was a bolt head...

Ford dealer is perplexed.... My "service advisor" tells me that I may need a new crankshaft....which for all practical purposes means a new engine. This car is old, but has less than 100K on it. I'm by no means an ace mechanic, but I've got a good nose for Bullcrap, and I'm starting to smell some coming from my Ford Dealer.

Anyone run across this? Any advice? I live in San Francisco, where dealing with a car that doesn't run is a major leauge headache. A new motor for this cars spells death....a quick drive out to the valley, where I'll have to sell it to someone who owns a garage, and is a bit better with a wrench.

My feeling...the first time the bolt broke, the car ran without it for awhile. The fit between the pulley and crank degraded. Either the pulley worked a taper on the crank (motor is hosed) or the crank worked a "bell mouthed" condition in the bore of the pulley.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!
 
It's your balancer that is causing the problem. The losers over there should know that. It is a common prob with our cars. I would take it to Serramonte, they always seemed to know what they were doing there. Well at least the parts guys did.
 
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Wow that is some bad luck.

Are you running mods or something? I have two stock crankshaft pulleys 1 has over 100,000 and the other has over 160,000. They both still work satisfactory. If you are having all those problems it looks like you just might need a new crank. I have not heard of pulley problems with cars that are totally stock. It is only when guys start modding them out . If you mod your car for more than it is supposed to take then you will shurly have problems. Any more horsepower than 210 at the flywheel 180 at the rear wheels . You will for sure start busting parts.
 
Car is completely stock

No mods whatsoever....

The only parts that have gone in it have come straight from Serramonte Ford in Colma.

Thanks!

Mike
 
They go bad on stock engines as well. I have one in the shop that came off a stock engine and the outer ring on the balancer came unbonded from the the rubber isolation ring and you can turn it to different locations in relation to the hub.
This is a common problem now that these cars have some age on them.
Ford had a batch of these things get out that werent really machined properly and usualy failed pretty soon after being installed.
As long as the crank didnt break off there is a fix.
That hole you were talking about where the pulley used to be, Did you see a shaft sticking out of the center of that hole?
If so it should be able to be repaired and repaired correctaly this time.
 
Replace the Balancer

I have replaced three of the stock balancers on my '92 before finally getting a BHJ unit. The stockers are cr@p. They are made from aluminum with a thin steel sleeve for "strength". Don't let the Ford (poor) Quality, (don't) Care (no) Service reps try to talk you into a new engine. I'm not sure they could even get a new 3.8 SC engine anyway.

Replace the balancer with a NEW unit. BHJ is preferrable, but if you have to go with the stocker, DO NOT INSTALL A USED ONE!!! Unless you just happened to like changing them. Most likely, when the dealership replaced the bolt, they didn't replace the old balancer. The broken bolt allowed the balancer to "walk" down the crankshaft and lose contact with the crank sensor. This "walking" of the balancer weakens the sleeve and eventually the balancer will break. You can pretty much count on any stock balancer that has been removed and reinstalled on the crank to fail in a relatively short period of time.
 
If they replaced the crank bolt without replacing the balancer, that's the problem.

The bolt is destroyed by a failing balancer, so you really need to replace the balancer. Also, multiple installs on a stock balancer will cause it to loose the interferance fit and fail.

They should put a balancer on for you at cost and kiss your a$$ for not sueing them for the whole job.

Aaron
 
Mike,

If you need a good SC Mechanic in the Bay Area, Call Tom at Sprint Mechanics. Tom know alot about our car and he could help you. I always bring my 95 SC to him.

Thomas
 
I concur with most answers. You do not need a new crank or engine. You do need a NEW harmonic balancer though. Once a balancer has failed enough to break the center bolt it's toast and will again break any and all bolts that are put in to replace it. The cause of hb failure is failure of the elastomer between the aluminum hub and steel outer ring. This happens because of heat and age. Don't ever put on a used or junk yard hb, and I wouldn't ever reinstall a stock one after it's been removed especially if it's old to begin with. Your engine is stock so you could get by with a NEW stock one from Ford and it will probably last another 10 years. But a better bet is one from BHJ for about 100 bucks more. It's all steel and will last forever. Also, I think that the 5 speeds are harder on hb's than the autos. Just an opinion based the stresses of speed shifting etc. BTW, you're lucky you didn't end up stranded along the road somewhere, because commonly the hb also breaks. John
 
<sigh> Another mechanic that doesn't understand the machine before him. The dealer mechanic should have been aware of the fact that the bolt on the end of the crankshaft is not the primary retension mechanism for the balancer. Thus the bolt breaking is a sign that the primary retension mechanism is not working.

The primary method is an interference fit between the hub of the balancer and the crankshaft. If the balancer is breaking the bolt, it's hub is no longer fitting tightly on the crankshaft, allowing it to wobble and beat against the bolt, eventually breaking it.

Now, it is possible that the stress from the balancer vibrating on the end of the crankshaft would BREAK the end of the crankshaft off. If that happens, then you will need a new crankshaft.

But as long as the snout of the crankshaft is intact, the dealer should remove the broken bolt, and install a NEW balancer/pulley combination and a new bolt.
 
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