My brothers POS Escort

[Smokey McPot]

Couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding. Ordinarily I couldn't give a shiny one but I've been using it this week while he's on holiday.

Its is a 1.4i, its has about 129k on the clock and probably hasnt been serviced for more than a year. Being the kind soul that I am I thought I'd grab new plugs and an air filter, however the plugs made no difference and because I had to guess which filter it needed I got the wrong type, so thats a non starter.

I looked at the current one and its not too skanky.

When driving it appears to hit a wall in the revs at around 3500 - 4000, it refuses to maintain its momentum up hills and is generally very slow. More slow than when bought it.

It has some shit like insulation coming out the exhaust that looks like cobwebs.

I appreciate that this isn't a ford forum, but would anyone be kind enough to offer some suggestions as to the causes for such an issue? I've looked 'pon de internetz and the best I could glean was that the catalytic converters are prone to collapsing, could this explain the cobweb shit coming out the exhaust?

In exchange for mechanical information I will trade you knowledge of something I am good at, like science, cooking, DJing or building lego.

xx

[summeh]

It has some s**t like insulation coming out the exhaust that looks like cobwebs.

Thats the baffles... wire wool...

If its causing a restriction (probably is) it can cause the cat to melt and block the system up, which will cause HG failure.

Get it sorted if I was you.

[summeh]

just pull it all out.

[Smokey McPot]

I see....

[Wobba]

That in turn might mess up sensor readings from the exhaust perhaps. A service with filters wouldn't probably go amiss either...

If you can be arsed, removing the exhaust sections and really clearing them out might be worth it if you have the energy.

[Smokey McPot]

I'll let him know, its more effort than I can be bothered with. I dare say he'll just park it in the garage car park and tell them to fix it...

[number1]

Is it a Cvh (ohc) Or Hcs (ohv) im thinking the 1.4 was the cvh, not unheard of for headgaskets to go on them, but yeh check the cat, no smells of rotten egg when driving?

The 1.3 Hcs "Rattler" engines just go on and on me and a few friends tried to destroy his old battered escort fitted with one of these engines, even dropping it into a lower gear when flat out in third didnt hurt it, we blew the gearbox though, thought that was the end of it, a month later i seen it doing the rounds on the local stock car track...
The engines probably still going around now!

[Smokey McPot]

I dont honestly know. The plate under the bonnet gives an engine code of F4, and it is an injection engine. I've not looked for anymore information.

It doesn't smell of eggs, but there is a strong smell of petrol when idling.