The previous owner mentioned that he used to fire it up once a year, but at some point, the battery gave up the ghost and the engine hadn't run since.
When I started inspecting the mechanics, I made discovery: the cambelt was a genuine Ford part. That leads me to believe it is the original belt from 1999 - making it a staggering 27 years old! Needless to say, trusting a rubber belt that old is a recipe for disaster.
A full overhaul was in order. I installed a complete SKF belt kit, which included fresh pulleys and a new tensioner, and swapped in a new water pump while I was in there to be safe.
Generally speaking, a cambelt change on these engines is fairly straightforward. The cams have a handy milled slot at the back, making it easy to lock them right at TDC. Down at the bottom end, there should be a factory timing mark on the bottom pulley and the sump to line everything up.
However, because my engine is fitted with an aftermarket Raceline sump, that factory timing mark is nowhere to be found. To get around this, I had to drop a rod down the spark plug hole and use a dial indicator to manually measure and find absolute TDC on the crankshaft. It took a bit more time and precision, but knowing the timing is dead-on is absolutely worth the extra effort!
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