1998 Explorer 4.0 possible timing chain failure.

[Bill Martin]

My 1998 4.0 Explorer quit me driving to work the other morning. A little history on it. It has 170000 miles on it. 3000 miles ago the engine was pulled and the timing chains were replaced. Everything seemed to be working fine until driving to work last week. Driving 60 mph the engine lost power. It didn't die just wouldn't pull it's self. Got pulled over and the engine was running really rough. I had to keep working the gas pedal to keep it running.The engine didn't make any strange noises, just running rough and reving up sometimes to about 3000 rpm. It would restart and countinue to run bad. When it would rev up the engine sounded good without any kind of strange noises. Also no warning lights came on. I had it towed to a local mechanic shop and they said it was the timing chain. They diagnosed it by checking the compression. They said there is no compression on the left side of the engine. I just have a hard time believing it could be the timing chain/chains. They also want to sell me an engine. This is not the same shop that did the timing chain replacement. Thanks for reading my long winded post. Just trying to supply as much info as possible. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[koda2000]

No compression on one side sounds like you jumped time, in which case a replacement engine would be the only fix as the valves on the side with no compression are now bent. Personally, I'd look for another vehicle.