Ford Focus 2000 LX Sedan Engine Blown

My gut feeling is to leave it alone and replace the engine with what came out of it. The vehicle is 14 years old. Where do you want to be in 5 years with the vehicle.

I agree with Bohol only because the car /engine computer will be in play, so it may not play well with a different engine. But if the engine cost is similar and the computer issue is OK get the DOHC.

SOHC engine would be easiest but The SOHC engines are very expensive because so many of them have died. running SOHC engine from a junkyard with 80 to 150 K on it will cost you about $1500, DOHC engine will cost you about $300 to $400. The problem is the conversion is pretty involved and probably will take about 2 to 5 days of work for a reasonably capable mechanic who's never done it before. It's also important that when doing this conversion your donor car is the same year as your receiver car so the wiring harnesses are interchangeable. There are some years that cannot be interchanged. For example, I believe the 2000,2001 are interchangeable but not with the 2002. Even though there don't seem to be any significance differences between those models. See another thread in cargurus that deals with this SOHC to DOHC engine conversion.

Another thing, if you use another SOHC engine, It has a very high likelihood of failing as well unless the cylinder head has been rebuilt and the problems that were built in by Ford have been fixed. Good Luck