4.0L SOHC Metal Reinforced Timing Chain Guides Possible?

[Evox]

The body control module is the only thing I haven't considered. I think its location is behind the passenger side airbag if memory serves.

 

[Todd Z]

yup..... Unplug it over night and see... or pull fuse for it.

 

[swshawaii]

Rubber check valve inside hydraulic tensioners many haven't seen.

4 minute 12 second video.

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[DILLARD000]

Yep, this vid by Donalds has me convinced the root cause of TimingGuides breaking
is these OilPressurized TimingTensioners get internally gummed up with oil sludge,
not so much the internal spring wearing out.

 

[SportVee]

My 2004 Sport Trac has 260K miles on it with no major mechanical issues. Same timing chain, head gaskets, transmission etc. I use full synthetic oil and change every 5000 miles. My instrument cluster became haunted and had issues with random reading for fuel, oil pressure, and tachometer. I shipped to Texas Cluster (Ebay) and for $89 they did a complete service including changing all bulbs, has a lifetime warranty, and it was a week door to door. The instrument cluster has been working perfectly with no issues for 3 years now. My daily commute is 95% highway miles. Timing chains are getting noisy so I am planning an engine pull and major service this winter. Very happy with this truck.

 

[SportVee]

My 2004 Sport Trac has 260K miles on it with no major mechanical issues. Same timing chain, head gaskets, transmission etc. I use full synthetic oil and change every 5000 miles. My instrument cluster became haunted and had issues with random reading for fuel, oil pressure, and tachometer. I shipped to Texas Cluster (Ebay) and for $89 they did a complete service including changing all bulbs, has a lifetime warranty, and it was a week door to door. The instrument cluster has been working perfectly with no issues for 3 years now. My daily commute is 95% highway miles. Timing chains are getting noisy so I am planning an engine pull and major service this winter. Very happy with this truck.

 

[Todd Z]

Full synthetic is the KEY !!! 3-5K religious oil changes is the second key !!!

 

[TCS]

It's ironic that the timing cassettes are problematic on several different engines Ford designed or manufactured. The timing cassettes on the Range Rover L322's produced through 2012 are problematic as well. They are also problematic in some of the Jaguares using the same V-8 engine of the same era. (An engine Ford designed and manufactured with Jaguara and Range Rover).

Their problem isn't with the disintegrating plastic guides. It's with a small aluminum button on the guide rails themselves, which are met with steel spring-loaded tensioners. Obviously, over time the aluminum buttons lose out to the steel tension pins wearing away the aluminum buttons and causing slack and then failure. If driven to failure, it's catastrophic for those engines, and most of the time, there little or no warning. They typically wear out between 80k-125k miles on the clock. While the procedure to replace them isn't an engine-out operation, it's a bit of a pain in the ass. The manual says it's a 29-hour job and requires specialized tools to accomplish. The dealership will charge you around 10k to replace them, but you might get an independent to do it for $7k-8k. It's fairly labor-intensive and typically other components have to be replaced as well making it an expensive job.

In the first few years of the Sport Trac, Ford used some really crappy plastic on its timing guide rails that break apart over time. So same component but a different problem as the Range Rovers and Jaguars.

In the Sport Tracs, if the rail fragments don't block and starve off any oil ports inside the engine, a lot of time those engines can be saved without a rebuild if the owner catches it fast enough. Sometimes pieces will turn up in the oil pan. Mine is an '04; it's still running fine with over 300k miles on the clock. Sometime in late '03 or early '04, they changed the plastic they use for the guide rails.

The problem with the 4.0L SOHC engine is there is absolutely no way to replace the passenger side timing cassette without taking the engine out. Since the problem is with the plastic chemistry itself, I'm not sure a metal reinforcement would have done much good. ...maybe.

It is a as n engine out procedure to replace the timing chain in bank 1 sude. That chain is on the back side of the engine driven by a jack shsft.