I mean dropping the valve seat. And some mechanic told me that it dropped when the catalytic converter got clogged and it hurt the engine. But the most I've heard is that if I want to avoid this from happening I should be running the engine a bit colder because the valves weren't made with the right specs and after a 100,000 miles they become a bit loose and when the engine gets to the normal temperature or just a bit above, the valve seats would drop. Does ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?
I'm aware of the Escort/Focus valve seat problem. I bought a Focus that dropped the seat. Ford installed faulty seats when they were new. The only fix is to take it apart and have all the intake seats replaced, preferably before one drops. The seat shatters into a lot of pieces and jams between the head and the piston, bending the rod and usually shattering the piston. We can deduce that it was faulty (incorrect heat treatment) from installation because exhaust seats endure a lot more heat and abuse, but they never drop that I am aware of. I have seen seats come loose on other makes and they stay in one piece. Ford should have recalled all Split Port engines and redone the seats free of charge. But, their opinion is that an engine that makes it 100,000 miles is considered a good lifespan, even though my Honda's regularly exceed 300,000 miles and still run like new. There is little one can do to prevent this failure except to preempt the catastrophe by pulling the head and doing the seats. This reduces the eventual bill by nearly 50%.
Those old escorts ran forever. I don't fully understand your question. Are you having any problems with the engine now? If the engine is running like it always has, I think you are worrying about a stray comment from a mechanic. If one of the valves seats moves out of position, you will know. The engine will start making ticking sounds and you may lose power. If none of that is happening, you are worried about nothing. If you are having some of those issues, then take the car to a competent mechanic have the problem diagnosed and get the head rebuilt. It's not that expensive on that engine. Then you will have new valves, new seats, new guides and a very clean head.
If the valve has dropped you will hear a ticking nose when the engine is running. It the valve hitting the piston. This need to be fixed ASAP, With a stuck valve you will experance back firing or lots of smoke could out of the tall pipe especially on acceleration. Either way if you are trying to keep your car I would have the problem correctly diagnosed and this will likely means you will need a top end rebuild. These little 1.9L ford engines were pretty tough but after XX amount of miles and so many years it time for some internal engine work.
