02 V6 Engine Noise

[Bipolar Xplorer]

Alright first post on here but my car ran great in the morning, no problems. Go to start it later in the day and suddenly my poor 02 explorer XLS is a mess. Since then she has some trouble starting up sometimes, others she starts right up. Constant ticking/rattling sound that gets worse higher in the revs with a terrible grinding sound the moment you let up on the accelerator at around 3k+ RPM all coming from the front driver's side of the engine. Runs rough at times and sometimes bogs/stalls out when accelerating from a stop. She's throwing cam and crankshaft position sensor codes and changing them did nothing. This all started up out of the blue one day after running with no problems just hours before. My biggest concern is that my poor baby jumped the timing from maybe a broken guide? I've heard that they tend to break early on and considering I'm at 170,000 miles she's way past due The tick/rattle doesn't go away so I'm guessing it's not the tensioners.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to include all of the information and hopefully you guys can confirm my suspicions or at least point me in the right direction if I'm wrong before i have to open her up.

Thanks

 

[plasticseng]

Sounds like the classic symptoms of jumping time due to broken guides. You can pull the bottom oil pan and see what kind of debris you have. The guide pieces will mostly end up down there. Pulling the lower pan is a simple process (at least on a 2WD). It's a flat pan with a one piece gasket.

 

[Tech By Trade]

It doesn't start after it jumps. It bends valves. Odds are you can still salvage the engine if you stop driving it now and pull it and replace the cassettes.

 

[plasticseng]

They don't always bend valves. It depends on how much they jump. If they just jump a tooth, they will exhibit the symptoms above but not bend the valves.

 

[Bipolar Xplorer]

As i figured, crap. Is there any luck in me being able to change the front cassettes and guides while leaving the rear one alone and timing the engine without pulling the engine? As of right now it only sounds like the LH cassette and I know it'd be better to change everything while I'm at it but 3 grand at a shop on a car worth about 1 grand and after the money I put into it getting it running already (ex. part of the PATS system broke recently and I had to drop almost $500 at the stealership to have it recoded for a $20 part) that'd be a bit much. I'd pull it myself it's just a matter of finding the time and this car being my only transportation. Is there a good thread laying around for timing these engines? I heard there's no markings or keyways to help.

 

[Tech By Trade]

Pop the valve covers and have a look, but odds are both sides are shot. Wont know until you check. I ended up pulling the valve covers and the timing cover before I took the engine out of mine, just so I knew what i was getting into. Usually it will get better as RPM increases because the tension naturally occurs on the chains, at idle they grind against the head and shave aluminum into the oil, that and the timing dropping a couple degrees gives it that diesel sound.