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Sealed Power timing chain kits vs Cloyes or OEM Ford quality?

Auspuff

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November 16, 2017
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City, State
Dubai
Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 XLT 4L SOHC 4WD
Found this in the timing chain part numbers thread and figured it might be worth its own thread title ...

Has anyone used Sealed Power Timing Chain kits for the front and rear 4.0L SOHC?

They look like they are built tough but also expensive.
I'm interested in this too.

I searched the forum, and a few others, for comments about quality and reliability of Sealed Power and other brands of timing chain and tensioner kits. Partly because I'm having a serious headache trying to figure out the parts list I need from Ford.

I see Cloyes, EngineTech, Sealed Power kits available on RockAuto for about $300-$400. I saw a cheaper kit on Amazon ($100 or $200 with water pump) from Evergreen.

A TL;DR of my search so far ...

Don't buy aftermarket kits for the timing components, get genuine Ford.

If that advice is ignored, Cloyes seems to be a popular choice, but see this thread for comments from 2000StreetRod (short version, Cloyes sounded ok but then looked not so good compared to Ford) ...

SOHC V6 Timing Chain Parts Sources

I found a few other threads from owners with Cloyes kits that failed sooner than expected. I also found a number of comments and threads rating Cloyes quite high. I wonder how their failure rate stacks up compared to using Ford parts. I expect Ford parts fail sometimes also.

Internet comments about Sealed Power seem to be positive in general ... I didn't find much about their timing chain kits for the SOHC 4L motor. They are a bit more expensive than Cloyes.

Does anyone have first hand knowledge of Sealed Power kits compared to Cloyes or Ford parts?

Or EngineTech or Evergreen, also companies I didn't find much about.

There are other kits available on Ebay and Amazon for $cheap, but from everything I read, they sound not much better than using a bicycle chain to fix the timing.
 



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Engine tech is garbage. i used the kit and the tensioners were junk, and have been replaced with Cloyes. I would compare them to an Ebay special. The rear gear didnt fit the cam on the passenger side. I ended up reusing the original. It has 60000kms on it now without issue but not worth the headache.
 






I was going to actually have input and do a thread like this, I have a 4.0 I traded for recently for some work, came out a 99 Sport with 136K that was wrecked, well turns out when I got the engine I found a Ford reman sticker on it from 2006, pulled the valve covers and it's got the updated timing guides, so I'm going to subscribe and see what's said.
 






For the amount of work (and cost if your not doing the work) I would stick with genuine Ford parts. Even the Ford parts are a poor design, but I believe they're probably better quality than all of the Chinese stuff out there. Cloyes might be an acceptable substitute, but personally I'd stick with Ford parts for this job. Don't get me wrong, I usually feel that most Ford/Motorcraft parts are way overpriced and I rarely buy them.
 






I have the Cloyes kit to be installed soon. My SOHC has 152k on it now, and I did the front parts right at 77,450 miles, when I bought the truck. I hope the Cloyes parts will be okay, the Ford parts I used before were fine but the front tensioner and guide components looked flimsy. So I expect the Cloyes parts to be similar in construction. The balance shaft tensioner is super fragile.

The first time I did the front stuff, I didn't do that balance shaft tensioner or chain, until it broke just fingering it, checking to see if it seemed okay. I then discovered that the balance shaft was out of time, the timing marks didn't line up. I hadn't driven the truck yet(it was totaled when I got it). I then bought the balance shaft tensioner, chain, and gear, plus an oil pump, and R&R'd the balance shaft to re-time it properly. I'd like to not have to do that again, to leave the balance shaft untouched. I'll see what that all looks like in a couple of weeks. I'd rather do without the balance shaft.
 






I recently replaced the timing chain, tensioner, and gears on an OHV engine, and used Sealed Power parts. They were made in Germany and were identical to the Ford parts they replaced. The same manufacturer obviously supplied both Sealed Power and Ford.

I would assume the same applies to the SOHC engine, but not certain...
 






I recently replaced the timing chain, tensioner, and gears on an OHV engine, and used Sealed Power parts. They were made in Germany and were identical to the Ford parts they replaced. The same manufacturer obviously supplied both Sealed Power and Ford.

I would assume the same applies to the SOHC engine, but not certain...

OEM OHV engine parts are still made by Behr/Mahle(Thermostat for example) and Victor Reinz, they are OEM to other German Brands like BMW. No surprise, it is a German Engine!

Ford HGs are stamped Victor Reinz.
 






I sent an email to Federal Mogul and received a reply saying that the Sealed Power kits I was asking about (KT4035S and KT4056S) are "mostly made in the US by Cloyes".

I don't know how "mostly".
 






Cloyes is a very old company that obviously is a source for other companies. They likely have varying quality products, sold through different end sources. That makes it very hard to select parts.
 






The same manufacturer obviously supplied both Sealed Power and Ford.

I would assume the same applies to the SOHC engine, but not certain...
I forgot to say in my previous post, I asked Federal Mogul if they were original equipment suppliers for the 4.0L motors. The reply said "We were not the O.E. supplier"

I don't know if that means FM weren't or Sealed Power weren't or both.

That makes it very hard to select parts.
Ha, no kidding. I've spent hours just trying to find the correct part numbers for my motor, let alone then trying to guess at quality.

I see RockAuto has another kit listed, either new since I started this thread, or I missed it before.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=8305440&cc=1304413&jsn=15039

MELLING 3398S for $360+ for engines with Balance Shaft. From picture it appears to have all 4 tensioners, guides, and chains but not all sprockets (only the ones in the complete cassettes for LH and RH timing chain replacement).

Is Melling any good? Or still go for Ford original?
 






I've used about every set out there. You pay for what you get, point blank. I've had good results with the higher end aftermarket guides and tensioners but nothing fits like oem ford. Most aftermarket tensioner plungers are subpar at best. OEM chains look the best quality by far, cloyes arnt the prettiest.
 






Melling is a good brand, and boomin is right too, price on this kind of stuff reflects quality. The key factors are the quality of the plastic in all of the guide components, the external tensioner springs inside, and the steel of the other tensioners. The rest is important, but the weak links are what I mentioned, those wear out first. Importing parts leaves tons of room for skimping, outside facilities don't concentrate on quality like the original designers did.
 






The V6 OEMs (at least the OHV) are German companies who supply to BMW, Mercedes, etc. I know Victor Reinz makes the HGs. Tstat is Mahle. Timing is probably the same supplier that made the crappy Audi timing components (chains are also in the rear).
 






The best timing chain kit money can buy. As these motors age, it will be harder to find quality parts and suppliers, it’s in every bodies interest to sort out the chaff from the wheat, by us the end users reporting our success and failures we can support the best of these companies, in this instance price doesn’t matter, but quality does. There is another important point to make here, its how much care did you take in building your engine after the timing chains failed?, did you check the valves or cams weren’t bent, are the oil passages free, how clean was the motor?, there are some very small orifices in the timing tensioners, if these get contaminated they will jam open and won’t pressurise, any one of these points will cause a timing kit to fail no matter the quality.
 






Agreed. It’s nice to save a couple hundred bucks, but time is money. If I have to pull the engine again and re-do the job bc the cheap parts I used failed, that’s far more than $100-200 of aggravation.

I’ll try cheap if it 1) isn’t critical and 2) is easy to replace. Otherwise? High quality parts. For engine internals, OEM or bust.
 






Found this in the timing chain part numbers thread and figured it might be worth its own thread title ...


I'm interested in this too.

I searched the forum, and a few others, for comments about quality and reliability of Sealed Power and other brands of timing chain and tensioner kits. Partly because I'm having a serious headache trying to figure out the parts list I need from Ford.

I see Cloyes, EngineTech, Sealed Power kits available on RockAuto for about $300-$400. I saw a cheaper kit on Amazon ($100 or $200 with water pump) from Evergreen.

A TL;DR of my search so far ...

Don't buy aftermarket kits for the timing components, get genuine Ford.

If that advice is ignored, Cloyes seems to be a popular choice, but see this thread for comments from 2000StreetRod (short version, Cloyes sounded ok but then looked not so good compared to Ford) ...

SOHC V6 Timing Chain Parts Sources

I found a few other threads from owners with Cloyes kits that failed sooner than expected. I also found a number of comments and threads rating Cloyes quite high. I wonder how their failure rate stacks up compared to using Ford parts. I expect Ford parts fail sometimes also.

Internet comments about Sealed Power seem to be positive in general ... I didn't find much about their timing chain kits for the SOHC 4L motor. They are a bit more expensive than Cloyes.

Does anyone have first hand knowledge of Sealed Power kits compared to Cloyes or Ford parts?

Or EngineTech or Evergreen, also companies I didn't find much about.

There are other kits available on Ebay and Amazon for $cheap, but from everything I read, they sound not much better than using a bicycle chain to fix the timing.
Hi I have a Landrover discovery 2006 fitted with the Ford 4L V6 motor and have just rebuilt the motor with a Cloyes timing chain kit, I’ll keep the forum updated with the reliability of the kit, one thing to note is the motor had done 314000k before the cassettes disinterested, the damage that did was six bent exhaust valves and a bent right hand side cam. When you are reassembling the motor it’s a good idea to spin the cam in place before fitting the chains, if there is any resistance replace the cam otherwise you will put undue pressure on the new timing chain and it will fail prematurely, no matter who maid it.
 






The best timing chain kit money can buy. As these motors age, it will be harder to find quality parts and suppliers, it’s in every bodies interest to sort out the chaff from the wheat, by us the end users reporting our success and failures we can support the best of these companies, in this instance price doesn’t matter, but quality does. There is another important point to make here, its how much care did you take in building your engine after the timing chains failed?, did you check the valves or cams weren’t bent, are the oil passages free, how clean was the motor?, there are some very small orifices in the timing tensioners, if these get contaminated they will jam open and won’t pressurise, any one of these points will cause a timing kit to fail no matter the quality.
My rear timing chain has failed after 100ks I purchased a Cloyes kit on line and on receiving it noticed it differed from the photo, the rear cartridge had a different cartridge to the one in the photo so I contacted Cloyes and sent photos, to there credit I received a prompt response from there technical department saying it most likely was there’s, I also noticed the chains supplied were sloppy in the links however they were installed, now here’s the thing when the factory Ford timing chain failed it bent six exhaust valves and the camshaft and didn’t break, it looks as good as the day it was installed, the Cloyes on the other hand snapped and no valves or camshaft were damaged so this proves the Cloyes chains are of a lesser quality than original Ford that are marked Italy. I’m still to find out what caused the chain to snap, the motor was idling for 10 minutes when the chain snapped.
 






That sucks.

I haven’t heard anything good about Cloyes kits. They used to make good timing components, but it seems like the stuff they make for the SOHC is pure junk.
 






I'd go with oe ford first, if not that, then melling.
 



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That sucks.

I haven’t heard anything good about Cloyes kits. They used to make good timing components, but it seems like the stuff they make do the SOHC is pure junk.
The only way to find out what’s going on with aftermarket parts is for users to report there stories, as our vehicles age good quality replacement parts will be harder to find which leaves the consumer venerable to inferior part manufacturers and there suppliers. Ford manufactured 25 million 4L V6 motors over many decades, so there’s going to be a big demand for motor parts to keep these motors running, enter cheep oversees imports found on the internet with few recourse for refunds the only other option is to call them out.
 






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