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Low Oil Pressure 5w40 5w30 Weight Camchain Rattle Fixed !

cyberkev

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January 3, 2014
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City, State
London/Essex
Year, Model & Trim Level
1999 Explorer V6 SOHC 4.0
This is more a bit of advice and my experience on how I've overcome the dreaded camchain rattle and in the last day a Low Oil pressure light.

I bought the car (UK Model 1999 4.0 SOHC with all the extras and only one owner from new) around a year and a half ago and at the time it was on 89k miles with Full Ford Service history.

It was due a service and a had a bit of a camchain noise on startup so I put in some 5w40 thinking that it would be thin to get to the tensioners on startup and stop the loud metallic tensioner camchain type noise on kickdown/high revs on the motorway. This mostly worked and was a lot quiter at high revs last winter but still had a slight camchain rattle (front) on startup for 5 seconds if left standing for a few weeks. I therefore fitted a front tensioner and the ford oilway straw type modification to keep the oil in the front tenstioner. This then completely fixed the camchain noise until around 95k miles when it slowly started to return on startup if left for a week or so.

It was then in constant use over the summer and did another 3500 miles and all seemed fine. It then sat for around 7 weeks unused.

Over the last 6 weeks or so when the weather has turned cold the camchain noise progressed a bit to be noisy on idle when cold (rather than a rattle that went completely in the first 5 seconds like when I got the car). this was followed a week ago by the oil pressure 'guage' dropping to zero after warming up and at 2-3.5k revs under load (accompanied by the camchain rattle which was pretty constant all rpm). The oil pressure guage then worsened to only read occasionally on idle when quite cold and then not at all. It only did around 10 miles like this as I was concered it was telling the truth !

It turns out the oil pressure guage is not a guage at all and simply a pressure switch. I got a pressure switch (just in case) and some good quality 5w30 fully synthetic and good quality oil filter.

My plan was to do these one at a time to see if the switch was faulty (as the car drove fine apart from the slight rattle and oil guage).

I decided to do the oil change first. I did a flush at the same time. What came out was quite sludgy and thick after 9k miles. Upon refilling with 5w30 everything was perfect. The Oil pressure now reads good at all revs and temperatures and engine loads and there is no sign of any camchain/tensioner noise anywhere! The new pressure switch is still in it's box !

I think what this proves is that these SOHC cologne engines don't like 5w40 (especially when warmed up coupled with cold weather) as it is too thick for them to get to the tensioners when warm and they become noisy and the thick oil is too much to flow well enough for the pressure switch to read pressure. Also may prove they make oil dirty quite quickly and 9k miles is just too long.

I now plan on doing oil changes at 3-5k miles with fully synthetic 5w30 like I did with my 1994 Range Rover V8.

For the moment at least its the quietest its ever been even with this thinner oil and with the new tensioner and regular changes should extend it's life somewhat at it's quite young at 98k miles. I plan on doing the rear camchain tensioner sometimes but there hasn't been any noise from this so far (fingers crossed).

Comments appreciated if anyone agrees with my findings !
 



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No, it does not prove that.
It just prove that your return passages were clogged up and the oil was accumulating in the top of engine, leaving you with not enough oil in the pan - especially at higher rev, when the pump was pumping more oil. Therefore loss of pressure, probably foaming and of course no proper lubrication.
At idle rpm, the oil wasn't sucked so fast from pan and had time to return from top of engine to the pan. Oil pump was again working properly.
 






At the moment I'm using 20w60 with no chain noise ever.
It's thicker than I'd like to use but I stupidly didn't replace the rear main seal when I swapped the engine a yearish ago.

It's also pretty hot here and the engine is squeaky clean inside.
 






What it points to is 9k miles is way to long for oil change intervals on the SOHC.
 






once you have chain noise (assuming it's not tensioner related) using different weight oil isn't going to make it go away. in your case I have to agree with my98nnj and SoNic67's comments.
 












There is only 1 way to find out how long you can really go.. It is very dependent on driving style and motor condition in addition to what products you use.

Get a used Oil analysis done.

We did that with our SOHC that is in our 2006 mustang and it came back with about ready to change at 8k miles. We aim for between 6k-8k miles for an oil change..

We were using Mag 1 synthetic and Wix filters when we did the last UOA. That was almost 100k miles ago.. But at 273k miles, the motor is still going strong and I may do another UOA during this next 8k oil change.

We used Blackstone labs last time.. they sent us the "kit" for free and we just paid for the test and of course postage to them.

~Mark
 






Thanks for the comments and advice. Whatever the cause it does appear 9k miles is too long (when it's been subjected to Fords longer service intervals since new!) and it was probably sludged up and/or the 5w40 oil was too thick in 7 degree c weather (maybe taking a while to return to the sump giving low pressure) so going forwards as I normally only do a couple of thousand miles a year so I will be doing a flush and oil change with 5w30 fully synthetic every 3k miles (which works out basically yearly) as the camchains stay silent for up to those miles anyway.

I've heard the rear tensioner is much easier to change than the front I did and can be done through the wheelarch with a long enough bar ? Although the rear has never made a noise when I removed the old front tensioner it was graunchy on the halfway movement of the spring where it probably normally works and at the end of the day they are the same age even though the rear get's oil sooner. Will change for peace of mind more than anything over Xmas when I've also got to change the front left inner CV joint which is now clicking occasionally when steering (funnily enough the same side that Ford apparantly changed the wishbone on 2 years ago because of lower ball joint play) :(
 






Yes, the rear tensioner can be changed through the wheel well with a long extension. Much easier than the front one. Just pull down the rubber splash guard -- you should be able to make it past the fender liner. Be really careful that the surfaces are clean and unscratched, since that back one tends to want to seep oil.

But if that one isn't causing any problem, I would strongly suggest you leave it alone. The new tensioner is probably going to be weaker than the one in there, and if there are any cracks in the chain guide it can come apart when you remove the tension.
 






The oil that comes out of my SOHC is very dark after just a few thousand miles. IMO it is not an engine that should go for extended OCI. I also use an FL400S filter...smaller than the FL1A, but as it ages, the silicone anti-drainback valve in the FL400S seems to hold up better. I would get a light rattle on startup after some time with the FL1A (engine has ~60,000 miles on it).
 






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