Guest post: Customer Service Second To None

On a grey Friday afternoon I found myself driving from Birmingham to Leeds for a business meeting. 5 miles from my destination the Focus developed an extremely loud rattling noise and to prevent any further damage the car was instantly dumped on the hard shoulder.

Focus ST170 head change - debris in inlet

While I was waiting for the AA to arrive, I gave Will a call to see when he could take a look at my engine and with some shuffling of projects he agreed to have a nose later that day.

AA patrol left my car outside Will’s house at around 10 pm and he got to work right away. An initial inspection revealed a small bracket and the screw that had been holding it to my bulkhead had fallen into one of my ITB trumpets. These were fished out with a long magnetic pen but when the car was started again the noise was still present. With the time now almost midnight and both of us tired and hungry, we found a decent curry house and put the car to bed for the night.

On the one hand it was clear I had been extremely lucky. Had either the screw or the bracket gone through my engine it would have been a very expensive fix. On the other hand we still had no idea what the problem was so Will got the car to his workshop early on Saturday morning and begun to inspect my engine.

Sadly, while this ruled out the possibility that something had actually gone through the engine (no debris in my oil etc)  the noise still couldn’t be pin pointed. It was now just before lunchtime and the head came off for further inspection.

Focus ST170 - head removed

Once the head was off it was obvious what was causing the noise. The top hat shims used to set the valve clearances from the reground piper cams had come off both inlet valves on Number 2 cylinder! The question now was what were we going to do about it, given it was mid afternoon on a Saturday and I simply had to be back in Birmingham before 9 am on Sunday for a not-to-be-missed family occasion.

Over lunch will joked that I could have the head off his race-spec Focus: ported, polished and with some aggressive cams. This had been fitted and timed up but not yet used as he was awaiting some other parts before he could turn the key on his time attack project. Just before 3pm he set to work on removing it from his engine!

Focus ST170 - head removed from WRP focus

Approaching midnight the head swap was completed. My new head was then fully timed up by 2 am and just as I thought the job was complete Will reminded me that this new head would have much greater airflow and so my car would need a remap. Loaded with energy drinks we then hit the road and Will got a basic map installed on my ECU.

At 4 am we parted company and I made it home in time to grab an hour’s kip. One thing is for sure – I have never known anyone in the car trade that will go to such effort for their customers.

I have included a couple of photos of the (long) day’s work. The top picture shows my Focus ST170 with the head removed, exposing the valves. The next picture shows Will’s pristine engine after the head had been stripped ready to place on my car. Below you can see Will swapping over my ITBs and then torquing up the freshly built engine.

Focus ST170 head change - swapping the ITBs

Focus ST170 head change - torquing the new head down

Top marks Will Pedley – I am extremely grateful for your efforts!

(Posted by Adam Arnold – running 200+ bhp Will Pedley Racing Focus ST170 with Jenvey ITBs, de-cat, knife edged crank & more!)