These cars rarely have head gasket issues. They very commonly crack the heads.

Pull the turbo and pressurize the coolant system to verify if you want, but almost every time you see these symptoms the head is cracked.

 

That seems to be the common concenses, Will be diagnosing this weekend. Thanks for the reply !

 

guess cracked head also.

long blocks used to be dime a dozen to get from a wrecker, these days they want a dozen dimes for one but still they are super easy to swap out if you have the tools and the garage to do it. I would replace the whole engine... replacing the head is hardly worth it.

 

Why do you say the head is hardly worth to replace? Is my thought proccess incorrect? on that fact that the current motor only has 55k on it it would be worth replacing the head and not going through the struggle of finding a new motor and then having to travel to get it or pay out the wazoo for shipping and then also risking the new motor being defective or having 100k plus miles on it

 

Assuming the head actually is cracked, I'd compression test it and make sure the bottom end is healthy. As long as you're confident it's just a head, I would definitely lean more towards a new head replacement vs a junkyard pull. They're getting tougher to source for a decent price and with lower miles. Granted, a head swap isn't cheap either, but if you have the time/tools and are confident you can time the motor properly, swapping just the head is still a very viable option.

 

Ill be doing a compression test and coolant system pressure test for sure. Thanks for the response. Going to start looking into getting a re-manned head. And a focus timing tool set for re timing the engine

 

What are your END goals, power-wise and how you plan to drive the car (street/some track, drag race, street/daily only, etc)?
Considering its purchased as a 'project' with potentially major issues, combined with the possibility that you got a steal of a deal (vs buying a 2015 ST3 with clear title and zero issues), I see this as a great opportunity to get a nice fresh start if you have the garage space, time, and maybe money for the project. Yank the engine/trans regardless the issue (you can remove the bumper/support and pull everything out of the front). Have the block built to support more power, upgrade the turbo, rebuild the head, check the trans and upgrade the clutch while its all out. Put it back in. Done. Now you have a car thats ready for anything you throw at it sub 500whp (depending on the clutch you use) and it'll last a long time.

The advantage here is you yank the engine, tear it down, and you have a great template to start fresh and not do continuous testing chasing your tail, hoping to solve 1 problem when you possibly have 3 or 4 issues going on at the same time. While the engine is out, you have a lot of time/room to inspect and replace factory suspension with new OEM or upgraded components, clean the engine bay, replace lines/harness etc. If a car is worth $18k on the market, you get it for $10k with a damaged engine (unsure of whats wrong), figure you've got a good $5-6k or so to invest in building it and still feeling like you came out on top. A lot of this is fully dependent on what you paid for the vehicle of course 😅

 

The car is going to be my daily, I would like to get it up and running as soon as possible. I plan to do some minor mods on top of what it already has ( it has intake, downpipe and accessport). Including installing a catch can for reliablility purposes, A blow off valve and a symposer delete. And that would be it as far as performance mods. Im not entirley worried about cost of a new engine or new cylinder head or worried about the work doing either job. I just want to do the job in the most efficient way possible. If it does come down to pulling the motor I will be doing clutch and trans check. My main worry is doing the head and end up having the same issue with is cracking again. I got the car for 4k, 55k miles, Super clean in and out, Just has motor issues. Hince why im not worried about spending a additional 2k or so to get it back up and running considering the KBB value in my area is 15k for the model. Like I said I wanna do it effecientlly so if I can get away with not spending 2k, that would be great.

 

Quickest way to get the car back on the road to perform DD duties is an engine swap. Then you can build your broken engine any way you want at your own pace.

Here's the list of compatible engines:

Compatible Engine Swap List

The 2.0 gen 1 (single scroll) engine came in the following vehicles 2010– Ford Mondeo 2011–2015 Ford Explorer 2011–2014 Ford Edge 2011– 2017 Range Rover Evoque 2011– Ford S-MAX 2012–2016 Ford Falcon 2013–2015 Ford Escape / Kuga 2013–2015 Land Rover Freelander 2 2013–2016 Ford Fusion 2013–2017...

www.focusst.org

 

Thanks for the reply and info! Ill have to look in the area and see if I can find anything worth picking up

 

Most likely a cracked exhaust port, a good way to find out is unbolt the turbo and look for signs of coolant leaking..

 

Any update to this?
Funny enough, my built engine with a rebuilt OEM head is possibly cracked as ive been seeing white smoke..was on start up initially, maybe for a day or two, then went away for over a month.
then yesterday while driving, i gave it a little gas and on decel it puffed out a ton of white smoke. Then a small amount on start up (went to eat), and on the drive home.
Im not sure if my turbo seals are bad and its leaking coolant into the turbo/exhaust, or if the exhaust port is cracked.. but im removing the turbo anyways as my upgraded turbo (replacing my BNR3071) should eventually be coming my way soon. Im reallllllly hoping its the turbo, and it does have damage to the inducer blades after inspecting with a borescope a few weeks ago. Otherwise has driven just fine. Did a compression test at the same time i inspected the intake side of the turbo, and inspected the cylinders...everything looked good minus a tiny bit of scoring on cylinder 4 walls. The car doesnt have any known issues or CELs, but im leaning towards head since its intermittent and my assumption would be a turbo seal would likely be leaking more often?

It has been slowly leaking as ive been monitoring the reservoir, which could be either issue but it is definitely losing coolant (and its not the lines, heater hoses, or thermostat). Nothing on the ground (like when the heater hoses failed)

 

I noticed some people have varying levels of smoke/coolant loss when the crack starts early on, probably as the thermal expansion of the head moves around and changes the severity of the leak. Eventually it really splits open and then you get the fog machine.

Out of curiosity did your engine builder just re-use the head when you had it built?

 

I bought the car about 3 months ago for 4k, Diagnosed it and found out the main issue was a crack cylinder head. I spent roughly $800 in total on a new cylinder head and gasket kit and a few odds and ends here and there. Took me proably 4-5 solid days of work to get the old head out and the new one in. Car fired right up, Smoked for another couple weeks but eventually cleared up.

To diagnose I unbolted the turbo from the manifold and pulled back the turbo enough to see beetween the manifold and turbo. I pressurised the coolant system and quickly saw that cooalnt was driping from the exhaust manifold.