Can breaking the timing belt on your 1999 ford escort zx2 damage the engine?

Answer 1

None of the ZX2's had or have interference engines. The shop manuals list them as interference but they are referred to simply as 'Escorts'. The Escort (not the ZX2 but the 4-door) had a different 2.0 and it is an interference engine. This is why there is so much confusion. There are 4 reliefs cut into the top of each piston to clear the valves should the belt break during engine operation. The same is true for the Zetec engine found in the Contour/Mystique and the Focus Zetec, excluding the SVT Focus. The SVT has increased compression and therefore is an interference engine.

Something often overlooked is the variable cam (VCT) on the exhaust cam of the ZX2 Zetec and some Contour/Mystique Zetecs. If you replace a belt before there is a failure, then the procedure is simple. However, if the belt breaks while the engine is in operation, you often need to reset the VCT gear. Otherwise, the VCT will not be able to operate in the correct range and will set a P1380, P1381, or P0340 code, or all of them. The P0340 is misleading because it is defined: Cam sensor circuit malfunction. Most people or shops replace the cam sensor and find the code persist because the real problem is the physical timing. I don't know why the PCM sets this code for bad physical timing. Maybe it sees the timing is off and doesn't know the difference between a bad sensor and bad timing.

Any case, there are several text and video how-to's for doing this job. There is only a small handful that show you how to do it correctly. Search out Team ZX2 dot com for the correct way to timing the engine.