Northman Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 First time actually doing chains on a 4.0 (helping out a friend) has turned to crap. 02 Ranger with 4.0 and 91,000 miles This all started out bad: He brought it to a shop to have timing components replaced for typical noise. Months later he towed it out as a non running vehicle. I accepted his plea for help. initially figured it was an small oversight somewhere. something not plugged in, bad ground, crank sensor, what ever. found no compression on bank 2. Began disassembly to pull the head found that they only installed a new guide, and never actually set the timing, bank 1 valve cover was never removed. I replaced the head, chain, sprockets, tensioner, etc... as he had bought a kit, but opted to just do the left bank. a few months later I get it back and the other bank now is making noise. (no surprise here) I did the bank one chain,sprocket and guide replacement with a new tensioner get it back together and running and I have a constant clacking noise now. no codes, I only have a generic scan tool at home so limited data. I immediately checked compression thinking the worst. decent compression. both banks. (only sampled 1 from each) I'm gonna pull the valve cover off but doubtful I'll be able to see much. This is my first 4.0 chain replacement despite having 10 years of Ford dealer exp and 13 independent shop exp. any words of advice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchan68 Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 If you were able to get it from a non-running status to running, you've already done good because it means you've used the five Rotunda timing tools properly to get it running. What was the original reason for changing the timing chain guide to begin with? Assuming it was a failure, where did all the broken pieces of the guide end up? In my experience, a cassette failure on any 4.0L SOHC engine has always meant the whole engine failure would only be five minutes behind. By what you describe, I suspect some broken pieces of plastic got sucked up through the oil pickup when you first managed to get it up and running again, but hadn't produced any noticeable engine noise symptom..... until now. For future reference, any time you get into the timing drive components on any 4.0L SOHC engine, you have to time BOTH banks to get it 100% right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northman Posted September 18, 2016 Author Share Posted September 18, 2016 It originally had a bank 2 guide failure. previous tech replaced that. I cleaned out pieces of the guide when I went after replacing the head and setting the timing. (both cams set) it left me and a couple months later said more noise, can I replace the bank 1 cassette. I accepted and before he got it to me quit running. I removed the engine and did the job looking for damage. none found going in. upon completion still no start. diagnosed the fuel pump crapped out. installed fuel pump. fired right up, but now this clacking noise. since my first post I rechecked the base timing, inspected the valve train, spun it over by hand nothing found, checked the compression on the whole bank (1) have 150psi on each. pulled the starter just to double check I didn't leave and converter nuts loose. I'm probably gonna pull the valve cover again and get my borescope from the shop tomorrow so I can look deeper into things. No Good deed goes unpunished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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