Opinion - Timing Chain Replacement (2007 4.0L) | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Opinion - Timing Chain Replacement (2007 4.0L)

LifeExplorer

Member
Joined
July 26, 2013
Messages
12
Reaction score
2
Year, Model & Trim Level
2007 Explorer XLT 4.0L
I'm looking for an opinion on whether or not it's worth it to have one or all timing chains replaced on my 2007 Explorer 4.0 with 186k miles.

Truck is in very good shape for it's age and mileage, and no indicators of tranny problems or anything else major. But I began hearing the typical rattle sound from the engine bay between 2000-2500 RPM recently, and suspected a timing chain issue. I dropped my oil pan today during an oil change, and found bits of guide on the bottom. See image.

I generally know what I'm up against as far as repairs and cost ($2000 for full job?), just looking for some opinions on if it's worth it to drop $2k on something with high miles. Thanks!

20180924_181430.jpg
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





I would find a low mile donar engine,
 






I would consider rebuilding it at least partially. Do the head gaskets with it out and stuff.
 






I wouldn’t consider doing just one set. I’d replace all of the timing components, and as suggested, I’d consider looking for a lower mileage motor, and rebuilding all the timing related stuff before install.
 












I am a strong believer in repairing that type of stuff.
$2,000 would not cover taxes, registration, and fees if you were to buy a decent USED vehicle.And you still would end up with something with an unknown maintenance history.
If the body is good, mechanical repairs are the easy ones.
If the body were rotting away, then junk it.
 






Taxes and fees must be insane where you live. I paid less in taxes and fees for my new car.

I paid about 350 in fees on my Mounty.
 






It all depends what class of a used car you are getting.
If I needed to replace my Expl with a used decent SUV, you need to shell out around $ 20,000
With 8.375 %sales tax, that's already 1,670
Unless you are getting something for 10,000 which does not get you anything better than what I have.
And my trade in value is comical with close to 300k miles :)
 






I would think an 08 with 300k would be easy to replace for way less than 20 grand.

I think I paid about 1400 total in taxes and fees for my car.
 






What car, and when ?
Just curious.
 






Kia Forte and a month ago.
 






Parts are very expensive for the shoc engine. Plus all the machine shop time to do the heads and the engine still needs to come out anyways. By that time yout in to 1500 to 2000 in parts and labor, with a **** 180,000 bottom end.

Just get a lower mileage donar engine and replace the timing chain tensioners.
 






Thank you all for the replies. A shop quoted me about $2500 for a complete timing chain job, so I have some soul searching to do...
 






That's not bad. Cost me around 1500 and a couple months ordering and waiting for parts and actual work to do it myself. Thats borrowing what I could. Still running 100k kms later. The bottom end is pretty solid on them, the timing set is the akhelies heal.
 






I paid 2500 for my whole new engine
 






I paid 2500 for my whole new engine
If I were going to dump the money into it, I’d want to start fresh. It’d really suck to put out the cash only to have a rod bearing or head gasket failure shortly after.
 






If I were going to dump the money into it, I’d want to start fresh. It’d really suck to put out the cash only to have a rod bearing or head gasket failure shortly after.
We were thinking the same thing why spend all that money on the repair when you can get a whole new engine for a little bit more money
 






I'm looking for an opinion on whether or not it's worth it to have one or all timing chains replaced on my 2007 Explorer 4.0 with 186k miles.

Truck is in very good shape for it's age and mileage, and no indicators of tranny problems or anything else major. But I began hearing the typical rattle sound from the engine bay between 2000-2500 RPM recently, and suspected a timing chain issue. I dropped my oil pan today during an oil change, and found bits of guide on the bottom. See image.

I generally know what I'm up against as far as repairs and cost ($2000 for full job?), just looking for some opinions on if it's worth it to drop $2k on something with high miles. Thanks!

View attachment 163033
I'm looking for an opinion on whether or not it's worth it to have one or all timing chains replaced on my 2007 Explorer 4.0 with 186k miles.

Truck is in very good shape for it's age and mileage, and no indicators of tranny problems or anything else major. But I began hearing the typical rattle sound from the engine bay between 2000-2500 RPM recently, and suspected a timing chain issue. I dropped my oil pan today during an oil change, and found bits of guide on the bottom. See image.

I generally know what I'm up against as far as repairs and cost ($2000 for full job?), just looking for some opinions on if it's worth it to drop $2k on something with high miles. Thanks!

View attachment 163033
I know this is an old thread, but I just finished replacing all the timing chain guides and tensioners in my 2007 Explorer 4.0 with 140,000 miles. My Explorer is from Florida and rust free. My daughter loves driving it so I decided it was worth fixing. My final cost doing the work myself was less than $150 for parts and gaskets. I did alot of reading here and other places and determined that the $69 EBay complete timing chain set normally lasts over 100,000 miles and are about the same quality as the OEM guides. I agree that the timing chain guides are the weak links of this motor and give it a very bad name and for good reason. Ford designed it to use the same head on the right and left side which cut cost but created an engineering nightmare...
Once I got past the stupid design I was pleasantly surprised that the inside of my 4.0 still looked great except for pieces of plastic everywhere from the guides exploding. For DIY people my biggest suggestion is to remove the motor mounts completely before removing the bolts that bolt the bell housing to the block. This allowed me to drop the engine about 2-3" which was a huge help reaching the bell housing bolts. I did a ton of reading but never saw this suggestion anywhere. Once the engine is out the only other challenge is getting the timing correct. There are many good videos out there that are very helpful. I did not have the correct tools for locking down the cam shafts so I had to get very creative but once again the videos were a great help.
Bottom line this is not a difficult job but very time consuming because of having to pull the motor and all that involves.

I have never posted here before but his forum has been very helpful to me in the past so I hope this info is helpful to someone else...
 






Back
Top