VCT Issues (p1383)

Thinking they have to be within 2 degrees.

IIRC the spring on the intake springs opposite of VCT on the exhaust like Contour. Contour exhaust when sprocket is held solid, cam rotates forward toward front of car to relieve the most tension and put the VCT at the zero end stop position. That position is where the camtool bar then goes easily into back of cams to line them up.

You can check the intake by going the OTHER direction, toward firewall until you feel the cam hit a stop and then you are at zero stop there. A check is to rock the cam back forward and the spring resistance grows but you are fighting the VCT filled with oil too and hard to tell that. Anyway, move cam back to firewall to hit the stop and then put camtool in both cams and you are at dead zero where you are supposed to be to not get any code at all. Problem being, when you tighten the cam sprocket the cam then turns slightly to throw you off, or the VCT lets the cams move off zero stop to make both cams not line up, you have to chase the intake every time you move the cams by belt.

The camtool bar is .200" thick and using a looser tool can make problems too, you think you are on but not. The slack in the slots kills you. I use a 3/16" thick 9 inch long piece of keyway stock bought at Home Depot for little $ and at .187" thick I take apart a feeler gauge set and use a .012" or .013" feeler on both cam slots to add up to the .200" and works perfect and dead tight.

Engine at TDC using crank stop bolt and camtool in both backs of cams and the intake at zero end stop and you get no code.

Blitzinq said:

New member here, I have spent countless hours trying to get my VCT set back up right after doing a timing belt job. I think I have followed every guide, every piece of advice, every youtube video method I could find anywhere and still have this reoccurring problem. I see this very common, I realize it is very finicky, I know my timing is spot on, its just getting the VCT right.

I have followed Cos's guide, to a T, and feel like everything should be spot on. I think I am up to about 6-7 times doing this now. The first couple times I can see where I might have not done it quite right, but I am 99.9% confident I am doing it proper now. I even tried Tom's method of advancing the intake cam a couple degrees (I have code p1383) while the VCT bolt is loosened. I still have the same code. His advice would say to keep advancing slowly until it works, I am not sure I feel comfortable to keep doing this. At some point, even if the engine spins freely by hand after doing this method, what if the VCT activates while driving? I feel this could cause potential issues if moved too much, can the VCT move enough to then bend valves while driving? Either way, Tom has said time and time to do this method and that it will work. I feel the PDS method should also work but I have not had success doing that either. I still get p1383. I seen some people had mentioned to check and see if the spring in the VCT is still good, how would one do that? I feel like I am in a losing battle right now and really I am unsure on how to proceed.

Any new age advice on this? @hEaT @amc49

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If you rotate the engine around now and set crank to TDC, does the cam bar slot in? Guessing no because the slot on the end will be retarded? Did you loosen the exhaust cam gear up when doing the timing belt job too?

This is what I would do so you don't have to loosen the belt up or mess with the tensioner:

• Set crank to TDC and check cam bar alignment
• The exhaust cam should slot in. If not, hold cam with a crescent wrench, loosen exhaust cam bolt, adjust exhaust cam to TDC, hold and tighten
• Now see where the intake cam is
• Keep all bolts tight and cam tool in exhaust cam, and gently rotate intake cam toward the windshield (use the same spot you hold it at when tightening). It should have a bit of play and then stop.
• Remove the little oil cap on the end of the VCT gear and use a rag to catch all the oil
• Keep working the cam with a wrench back and forth gently and you'll hear the oil coming out. Keep going until you hear it stop and the oil stops flowing out of the gear
• Rotate cam back to the windshield until it stops and the VCT gear tries to move (this is PDS) - Is the cam bar lined up? I assume it'll still bit a bit retarded as of this point if you're getting the P1383
• If the cam bar doesn't line up, hold cam and loosen the inner bolt on the VCT gear
• Once cam can freely move, line it up with the cam bar and tighten
• Re-check by rotating the cam forward and back a few times and then finally toward the windshield to PDS - Does the cam bar slot in? If yes, torque everything and try again. If not, loosen and re-adjust.

It's hard to test the spring in the VCT gear with the timing belt on, but essentially how I test with the belt off is with the cams held with the cam tool, I grab the outside of the VCT and rotate it clockwise to get all the oil out. There should be spring that pulls the gear counter clockwise to PDS. After you get the oil out, the gear should want to sit on its own at PDS. Some may have a tiny bit of play off the stop which is okay. If the gear has no resistance after the oil is out, then the gear needs to be replaced.

hEaT said:

If you rotate the engine around now and set crank to TDC, does the cam bar slot in? Guessing no because the slot on the end will be retarded? Did you loosen the exhaust cam gear up when doing the timing belt job too?

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Yes, every time I rotated the engine over a couple times the cam bar would slot in perfectly. I loosened both the intake and exhaust cam gears when doing this procedure.

hEaT said:

This is what I would do so you don't have to loosen the belt up or mess with the tensioner:

• Set crank to TDC and check cam bar alignment
• The exhaust cam should slot in. If not, hold cam with a crescent wrench, loosen exhaust cam bolt, adjust exhaust cam to TDC, hold and tighten
• Now see where the intake cam is
• Keep all bolts tight and cam tool in exhaust cam, and gently rotate intake cam toward the windshield (use the same spot you hold it at when tightening). It should have a bit of play and then stop.
• Remove the little oil cap on the end of the VCT gear and use a rag to catch all the oil
• Keep working the cam with a wrench back and forth gently and you'll hear the oil coming out. Keep going until you hear it stop and the oil stops flowing out of the gear
• Rotate cam back to the windshield until it stops and the VCT gear tries to move (this is PDS) - Is the cam bar lined up? I assume it'll still bit a bit retarded as of this point if you're getting the P1383
• If the cam bar doesn't line up, hold cam and loosen the inner bolt on the VCT gear
• Once cam can freely move, line it up with the cam bar and tighten
• Re-check by rotating the cam forward and back a few times and then finally toward the windshield to PDS - Does the cam bar slot in? If yes, torque everything and try again. If not, loosen and re-adjust.

It's hard to test the spring in the VCT gear with the timing belt on, but essentially how I test with the belt off is with the cams held with the cam tool, I grab the outside of the VCT and rotate it clockwise to get all the oil out. There should be spring that pulls the gear counter clockwise to PDS. After you get the oil out, the gear should want to sit on its own at PDS. Some may have a tiny bit of play off the stop which is okay. If the gear has no resistance after the oil is out, then the gear needs to be replaced.

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I will try this all again, at this point I am up to about 20 attempts, but I feel like I am so close right now. The last time, it took about 15-20 minutes of drive time until the code appeared. So I think I am really close. I am also going to test the VCT spring too, just to see if it is still working properly.

hEaT said:

Other thought too, what timing belt tensioner did you use? My current car, when the previous owner had it, was a PAIN to get set correctly. I was helping and we were using the Gates tensioner. We had issues with the belt walking and P1383/P1381 codes.

The Ford tensioner supposedly has a stronger spring for the VCT specifically on the SVT. If you are using a regular parts shelf tensioner for the Zetec and not the Ford one (which they discontinued a few years ago), that could also be part of the issue.

This spring can be used in the Ford Zetec tensioner, Litens, and Continental:

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Matt also has tensioners with the spring installed, but it's pretty easy to pull it apart and replace the spring.

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When I picked up the car, it still had the OEM Ford tensioner on it, even though the previous owner replaced the belt. Upon seeing this, I bought all new components to replace it all again. Knowing that the Ford SVT tensioner was unique, I kept the internal spring from the old OEM Ford tensioner and installed it into the Tensioner recommended by Matt, a Litens one. So this should all be good here.

I will try your above steps and see if that works for me! Thank you for all the help. I know it has been asked a million times and explained a million different ways, it really seems like a tricky thing to get just right. Had I known not to loosen the intake cam bolt from the start, I would have never touched it!

Just read post #6 and the same thing I do but for the VCT oil bleed thing. It should work fine. All this mush about lining up TDC, two cams and the VCT has to time as well, ergo the zero stop has to be on to be in time. Not rocket science but people sure make it look like it.

If Ford would just have said it straight out to even help their own mechs instead of the silly sprocket loosening to then send the rookie mechs to the best ones to ask what they are doing wrong and the experienced guy not even knowing can only offer up 'you did it wrong, do it again' and pathetic. When I first went to do my Contour VCT I found the method lacking and could not grasp how they did not include the VCT as a timed device. I later found the explanation some 100 pages away from where it should properly be, right at how to time the engine.

No wonder they have fits getting the twin VCT engines timed right and those now have timing marks right on the VCT cylinders as well as cam marks too.

Luck...............