Check the crank shaft end play,, fairly common for the flex plate to crack and/or walk and start rubbing do to excessive clearance.. Did the engine comp out ok after the CKP change?

 

I removed the tansmission today and seen that the fly wheel was completely cracked all the way around the bolts. I was suprised it was still turning the engine over. You will not see it untill you remove the bolts because there is a round plate that covered the hole area that was cracked. You can see that the fly wheel is rubbing by viewing threw the inspection plate on the bell housing if you slowly spinn the engine over but you will not see all the damage untill you remove the fly wheel.

 

If you want to check crankshaft end play while it's apart.. S/B 0.004-0.010 Their prone to crack there,,, but the end play should be checked so not to stress the new plate..

 

I have a 2001 Escort ZX2 with about 52,000 miles on it and am having similar issues. About every month or two, the engine will not start. It backfires and I end up flooding it. Once it is deflooded, its fine. Also, once in a great while, it will stall. The first time this happened, I was going about 40/45mph and is stalled while in motion. Pulled it over, wouldnt start. Tried to start it many times after and when it did start, as soon as i pushed on the gas it stalled again. Got it going about 20 min later and seemed fine. Next morning wouldnt start at all.
Our family mechanic has no idea whats wrong with it and this goes beyond the general knowledge of the people I know. I bought the car around August and the history is really unknown. We put brand new spark plugs on it about 2 months ago. Does this sound like a similar issue or something else? If you have any advice or ideas on what to do, I'd greatly appreciate your input. There are no engine lights on and I dont have much time to monkey with it.

 

Sory but it sounds as if you have a different problem. Sound electrical to me. Have you checked all the electrical conections on the engine? Good luck hope that you do not have to spend too much time and money trying to figure it out. Intermiting problems are very hard to trouble shoot. If it were to completly stop runing it sure would make it easier to troubleshoot.

 

I have a 1999 Ford escort it starts by it self without
the key I put a new starter and unplug the ignition but doing the same thing any ideas

 

I had an escort. It did the same thing and turned out to be the fuel pump. But yours should of fired up with starting fluid if that was it.