PLASTIC PIECES IN MY OIL PAN WTF??? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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PLASTIC PIECES IN MY OIL PAN WTF???

Lefy

Well-Known Member
Joined
December 13, 2002
Messages
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City, State
Westchester, NY
Year, Model & Trim Level
98 Sport 4x4 4.0 SOHC
got my lower oil pan off filter off oil is out.


got some major questions though.
i've got some plastic pieces in the bottom of my lowerr oil pan and that can never mean a good thing
does any one have any idea what these pieces are.

i'm taking a break to eat then i'm bakc out there to remove the upper oil pan.
i started removing the bolts for the top pan only to find them covered in dark black sludge this can't be good eigther so i'm gonna see if i can drop the upper pan and see if i can clean everthing out and get to the oil pump.

i'm doing this in my drive way and i'm hoping those pieces aren't from the cam chain tensioners. of something else that important and expensive/super hard to replace.

it looks like i'll ber able to remove the top pan from the truck with the engine in the compartment, which is a huge plus. huge,
i'll get some pics for proof. and for further reference.
 



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are you talking about the tranny? if so the plastic is normal.. i think its from the factory.. if you do a search this has been talked about before.

Mike
 






How many pieces are there? If it's the first time your tranny has been opened there should be one plunger lookin thing in there. I posted this same question about 5 months ago!
 












no it's my oil pan not tranny pan.

it's my oil pan and it doesn't looks like that at all.
they look like plastic pieces like a inch long and about an eighth of an inch thick.. a whole bunch of them. i'll take a pic of them too.

this has nothing to do with my tranny..

i'm trying to find out why i don't have any oil pressure.. so i'm tring to get to my oil pump.
while still haveing the engine in the truck on my 98 sport. 4.0 sohc

thanks for your help.
 






SOHC

I think he is talking about timing chain guides!
 






Wow that is weird.
 






Any possibilty they are hardened and broken valve stem seals?
 






any one else have any idea what these things are in my oil pan are.

whatever they were they got chewed up by something.
i'm thinking they maybe parts from the oil pump as they are coated the same color as my oil pan, or maybe they sat down there for a while.

i'm working on geting the upper oil pan down.
got some more things to get out of my way before I can get to the last bolts hopefully.
 






I'm voting for pieces of timing chain guides. If they break off, they have a clear drop down to the front of the oil pan.

Valve guide seals are smaller and I don't think they could make their way down to the pan anyway.
 






Are there enough pieces that they could have covered the oil pump pickup screen? if so, cleaning all the plastic crap out might fix your oil pressure. But you still nned to identify the source of plastic pieces. I also vote for the cam chain guides.
 






Bad News

Sorry to say this but you need to take your truck in and have the timing chain guildes replaced. I had this same thing happen to me, and that was what it was. :(
 






ray how much did it cost you or did you still have it under warrentee.

did you have the oil pressure problems too.??

did your oil pump die??

also to get to the timing chain you have to take the whole front end of the engine off to get too it.
does this require to remove the engine from the bay.

is this anything a aspiring mechanic could do. i would really love to be able to fix basically anything on my truck. so i'm sorta set on trying to fix it myself.


give me your opinion thanks
 






From what I have read (I have not had to do it myself, FORTUNATELY!), working on the timing chains/tensioners in the SOHC is a PITA and requires special tools. It does not look like an easy task. Not saying it can't be done, but the manual makes it look VERY tough without buying several special tools.
 






It was about $1100.00. I was at around 100k so warrenty didn't cover it. How good is your warrenty?
I don't know if the engine has to come out or not. I paid the dealer. I would look and see if you can get it donw under warrenty if you can.
I did not have a oil pump problem as the chunks were fairly large.
 






dam alright I'm probobly gonna have to bite the bullet on this one and just pay it if I don't find the thing that is messing up my engine.


also i'm all out of luck on warrentee covering it I'm at 126000 miles and I bought the ex off my aunt for dam cheap about 3000 miles ago.

now i know why the deal would only give her 4500 for 98 fully loaded sport,
hopefully once i get this fixed I'll be on my way to lifting it and tires dam this blows... instead of rims and tires and add a leafs and tt I'm paying for my engine to be fixed and still have the same old explorer dam.

what a kick in the balls.
 






I found the same thing. What happened was I used my 1997 XLT for a big moving day from San Francisco to Sacramento.

20180531_121247_Richtone(HDR).jpg

Usually
this would be a mellow, 1.5 / 2 hour drive. Usually. But on this day it was rush hour, which has increasingly become rush hourSSSS (2 pm - 7 pm)...

So I was stuck in bumper to bumper at times, hauling a heavy load... and I didn't get to rest the engine until about 3 hours of running time (with another 45 minutes to go).

So I get to Sacramento... and after it had cooled down a bit, I go to start it again. Uh oh. I hear the dreaded DEATH RATTLE sound. Mind you. This is the very very first time I heard it.

I disable the vehicle and don't so much as start it for about a week.

Finally, a week later, I have the free time to investigate... I rip off the oil pan. And I find this.


20180607_084959.jpg


These are chipped up pieces from the timing chain guides.

So, moral of the story is.

By the time you hear the rattle... it's already too late!

This engine runs beautifully. It's received all kinds of updates. New radiator, belts, water pump, transfer case, brakes... new front end work, new ball joints, control arms... not to mention SYNTHETIC OIL only changes for the past 90K miles with regular changes every 4 - 5K miles. Because of this meticulous care, it has still been running strong at 233,000 miles!

HOWEVER.

The long drive blew up one of the tensioners most likely. The chain has already been slapping around enough to do damage.

What is my diagnosis and plan moving forward?


The oil pump is clean. The oil was clean. By the looks of these two pieces... maybe they are just a few chunks and maybe the rest of the guide is fine? Maybe, just maybe, with new tensioners, she will hold?

So I plan to replace the tensioners today. I got a pair by Cloyes from Rock Auto.

I am going to prime them nice and tight.

LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE. DON'T WAIT FOR THE RATTLE. REPLACE THEM SOONER THAN LATER!

20180607_084959.jpg


20180531_121247_Richtone(HDR).jpg
 






UPDATE:

20180607_125517.jpg



So the one on the left is the old, lower one by the passenger side, front wheel. I couldn't believe it... When I got it out. I went to press it with my thumb and it literally exploded. The piston part shot out and the spring came flying out.

The one on the right is by Cloyes. It seems to bear a stronger resemblance to the OEM tensioners.

Long story short. I put in both the lower and upper replacements. The upper tensioner was not as bad, it looked OEM... thank God, so I am 99% sure that the two little pieces of chain guide I found in my oil pan were from the lower guide only.

SIDE NOTE:

For the upper tensioner: it's not as easy as people make it look on "youtube." There are plenty of little hoses and things that need to be taken off carefully. I was trying to finish the job in one afternoon, rushed a bit and wound up breaking the little rubber coupling that connects the plastic pipe from the breather to the air intake. Looks like this:

Ford 97JZ-9P904-AG 97JZ9P904AG Hose Air Inlet | eBay

Ford dealer wants 150.00$ for this part. Cheaper ones are 110.00$ Guess what. Went down to Pick and Pull in Rocklin, out of 8 Explorers on the lot... 1 still had one in there. Got it for 5 bucks. Lucky save...

NEW TENSIONER INSTALL RESULT:

So I primed the tensioners nice and good like I've been told to on youtube.

On start up, it made the rattle for about 5 seconds and then went away.

Randomly, something toward the back of the compartment, that didn't sound engine related started rattling. Sounded like the CATs... Decided to warm it up as fast as possible to get those new tensioners working, drove it around the block and into town for a wash, etc...

By about 5 minutes into the drive all sounds went away.

Doesn't make any rattles at start up now either.

Same night. Took it on a longer drive, about 200 miles round trip, going up Highway 50 toward the Sierra Nevadas. Did some camping. Ran completely fine.

VERDICT: Runs just as she always has. No noises. I think I may have dodged a bullet.
Someone thought they were doing the truck a service by replacing that lower tensioner. Well. They replaced it with junk and made it even worse. Don't use cheap tensioners people.
 






No amount of pulling over and waiting would have stopped this. That motor was a ticking time bomb from the second it left the factory. Sitting in rush hour traffic should be totally fine for towing. You might as well wait for the rattle. Some rattle for months on end with no issue, and it you wanted to preempt and chance of rattle you’d have to swap them out every 50k. I don’t feel like yanking a motor any more than I have to. In fact, I don’t ever want to yank a motor for maintenance, so I’d never own a SOHC.
 



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