03 sport Trac XLT - Chain Rattle at startup | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

03 sport Trac XLT - Chain Rattle at startup

Boonie2

Active Member
Joined
June 9, 2015
Messages
53
Reaction score
0
City, State
South Florida
Year, Model & Trim Level
2003 Sport Trac XLT
first let me appoligize for bringing this up again , ive read everything i can find on this but , I cant seem to find a MFG Date that ford upgraded the casettes and tentioners on the 4.0 engines.) 03 Sport Trac XLT 132k miles
I only get the rattle "sometimes" on a cold startup and never hear a thing while driving.
Id just like to Know when these were addressed by Ford.
Mfg. Date for my truck was Jan. of 03 according to the door sticker.
seriously thinking of the "accusump Preoiler" mentioned by "2000Streetrod" in this forum either way ...
any insight would be appriciated , :thumbsup:
 



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!
.











If you're getting a rattle sometimes and only at start-up I'd say it's hydraulic tensioner related. Some say the tensioners should be replaced around every 75,000 miles as they loose their tension over time. There is also an oil passage restrictor that can be installed to increase oil pressure to the front tensioner. As far as I've heard, Ford did not redesign the timing chain cassettes until sometime in 2005. Installing a pre-oiler system to provide oil pressure to the tensioners before starting the engine is a really good idea, but it does nothing to prolong cassette life.

The easiest way to assess cassette damage is to drop your lower oil pan. If you find broken pieces of tan colored plastic, your cassettes are broken.
 






first let me appoligize for bringing this up again , ive read everything i can find on this but , I cant seem to find a MFG Date that ford upgraded the casettes and tentioners on the 4.0 engines.) 03 Sport Trac XLT 132k miles
I only get the rattle "sometimes" on a cold startup and never hear a thing while driving.
Id just like to Know when these were addressed by Ford.
Mfg. Date for my truck was Jan. of 03 according to the door sticker.
seriously thinking of the "accusump Preoiler" mentioned by "2000Streetrod" in this forum either way ...
any insight would be appriciated , :thumbsup:
I too, have an 03 ST with the 4.0-v6. It rattles after it's sat for a few days which really bothered me. I came across diy instructions on how to modify the starter relay with a push-button to operate the starter before I use the key to start. About a 5 second turning of the starter refills the oil galleries and when the motor fires up it doesn't rattle. I'm thinking of going back into the relay and running a couple of wires to a push button on my dash to do this without having to open my engine compartment to push the relay button. That's my story!!!
 






That rattle at cold startup is what destroys the front and or rear cassette. No oil in the hydraulic tensioners allows the chain to move the plastic part of the cassettes back and forth rapidly, fatiguing the pastic and resulting in failure.
You will not get round this problem unless you build oil pressure in the hydraulic tensioners before the engine cold starts.
The solution is to pre oil, as mentioned or fit new timing components which have been updated some time ago, when exactly I do not know.
I have a pre oiler on my ST and have zero rattle since installed. To see what I did search for thread "pre lube and centrifugal filters".
Even fitting new timing components you will eventually get rattle at cold startup as Ford doesn't seem capable of making the cassettes bullet proof.
 






The upgrade did nothing for the rattle, all it did was make it possible to put new cassettes in without pulling the head. The rattle is lack of oil pressure or a weak spring in the hydraulic tensioners. The pre-oiler pressurizes the tensioners rendering the springs moot.
 






I have the same 2 second chain rattle on first cold start of the day, but no noise at any other time or RPM. I replaced both tensioners with OEM Ford parts and it made no difference. The Cloyes tensioners I installed made noise at all RPMs, they were quickly removed and returned as defective.

I'm thinking of installing one of these kits from Insta-Lube: http://www.engineprelube.com/timingchaintensioners.html
 






first let me appoligize for bringing this up again , ive read everything i can find on this but , I cant seem to find a MFG Date that ford upgraded the casettes and tentioners on the 4.0 engines.) 03 Sport Trac XLT 132k miles
I only get the rattle "sometimes" on a cold startup and never hear a thing while driving.
Id just like to Know when these were addressed by Ford.
Mfg. Date for my truck was Jan. of 03 according to the door sticker.
seriously thinking of the "accusump Preoiler" mentioned by "2000Streetrod" in this forum either way ...
any insight would be appriciated , :thumbsup:
 






Its ur timing chain tentioners I don't know whe re there located at but my dad had a 01 ford exsplorer sport trac and he replaced them and the rattle went by by when he replaced them
 






Back
Top