E.T.
Active Member
- Joined
- December 30, 2018
- Messages
- 87
- Reaction score
- 19
- City, State
- Ucon, ID
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2004 Explorer XLT
Here's the rest of the process:
Step 3: Drain this green stuff (and also the oil):
Step 4: May occur at any point along the way, but will occur at least once. Prepare your profanity for this one, but recall that the reason all Ford bolts are made of tungsten reinforced Unobtainum with a coating specially designed to corrode into the framework over time is so they don't fall out whilst you are driving:
Step 5: Remove everything else located in or near the engine bay, along with the hood:
Step 6: Realise your engine hoist won't fit under the front wishbones and put the truck up on jackstands:
Step 7: Remove the starter motor, then get the nuts off the studs in the torque converter holding it to the flywheel, buried in here somewhere:
By now it should be somewhere around sunset.
Step 8: Put a jack under the transmission (because who has THREE jackstands?), remove the bolts between the bell housing and the engine, get the engine on the hoist,remove the engine mount bolts (6x) then hoist that sucker out (not pictured- I wouldn't want to spoil your own moments of triumph).
Step 9: Once you have the engine on the ground in front of the truck, remove THE ONE BOLT YOU WENT THROUGH ALL THIS RIDICULOUS HASSLE TO GET TO:
Step 10: Take the camshaft bolt out. Remember: Righty loosey, Lefty tighty on this one:
Step 11: Tip the engine over and fish all the bits of old munted guide out of the cavity. Take the time to do a little jigsaw puzzle with them if you like, it's a fun distraction:
Step 12: Put the new guide in. Be sure to locate the now inevitably flat edge of the flange on the sleeve which clips into the guide facing upward so the rest of the flange actually holds the guide in. You may want to have bought a new part for this in advance of spending 12 hours taking the engine out:
Step 13: Put the fancy thing thing on the crankshaft pulley to fix it at TDC (not shown, this time because it's up to you to figure it out);
Step 14: Put this thing on one end of the first camshaft:
Note that the top edge of the thing needs to be PERFECTLY parallel with the top of the head. A squiffteenth of a degree's misalignment (which is about the amount of play in a crappy aftermarket "special tool" kit) will still let you fit the tool, but cause all sorts of nasty clacking noises when you reassemble the engine. The final adjustment can be achieved with a hammer once you have all the other tools mounted as long as you haven't tightened the sprocket on the other end.
Step 15: Put this thing in where the tensioner goes: This is your all-important indicator that the tension on the timing chain guides is designed to be greater than it will EVER be with stock tensioners in without oil pressure:
Step 16: Put this thing on yon end of the first camshaft (don't ask me why, the sprocket's pretty much aligned without it. But it is stated as required in the engine assembly manual by Ford's engineers, all of whom have at the very least a degree in Leisure and Tourism, and some of whom have even seen a computer before they are hired):
Step 17: Tighten to about 100 NM, employing a healthy dose of The Fear. 85 NM is the spec, but my left bank slipped a bit over time at spec. Remember your torque wrench probably doesn't click on the weird lefty-tighty bolt so you might have to faff about a bit (flip lever to tighten, flip lever to loosen, flip lever to tighten, flip lever to loosen until eventually it clicks when you have it set to loosen, which is tighten for a normal bolt).
Repeat steps 14-17 for the other camshaft to make sure it's aligned. You're a fool if you just trust that it is.
Step 18: Put the engine back in the truck:
Step 19: The "Tin Biscuit Game"- one of Ford's more entertaining Easter Eggs, this involves trying to get the engine and the bell housing to mate without the dust guard between them falling off the pins on the block which locate it and, eventually, the transmission. (Not shown so as not to spoil your fun). By now the sun should about be coming back up again if you are working in the summer and have proceeded at the appropriate pace, stopping to talk to the local chief of police at 3am, drinking plenty of coffee and smoking plenty of cigarettes.
Step 20: spend the next 8-12 hours putting everything back on the engine that you that to take off to get it out.
Step 21: Go for a test drive. Have a good listen to the engine. It might click if, like me, you intended to re-engineer the tensioners but didn't have the bolt. If you're REALLY lucky the little ******* will start rattling at some point like mine did owing to newly oil-starved tensioners, necessitating some rather immediate field engineering. Glad I bought a hitch vice and left all the tools in the truck. The end result:
N.B. Note right bank O2 sensor plug on rear tensioner image. Always best to give the ODB something to whine about for a day or so before it's all buttoned up
Step 3: Drain this green stuff (and also the oil):
Step 4: May occur at any point along the way, but will occur at least once. Prepare your profanity for this one, but recall that the reason all Ford bolts are made of tungsten reinforced Unobtainum with a coating specially designed to corrode into the framework over time is so they don't fall out whilst you are driving:
Step 5: Remove everything else located in or near the engine bay, along with the hood:
Step 6: Realise your engine hoist won't fit under the front wishbones and put the truck up on jackstands:
Step 7: Remove the starter motor, then get the nuts off the studs in the torque converter holding it to the flywheel, buried in here somewhere:
By now it should be somewhere around sunset.
Step 8: Put a jack under the transmission (because who has THREE jackstands?), remove the bolts between the bell housing and the engine, get the engine on the hoist,remove the engine mount bolts (6x) then hoist that sucker out (not pictured- I wouldn't want to spoil your own moments of triumph).
Step 9: Once you have the engine on the ground in front of the truck, remove THE ONE BOLT YOU WENT THROUGH ALL THIS RIDICULOUS HASSLE TO GET TO:
Step 10: Take the camshaft bolt out. Remember: Righty loosey, Lefty tighty on this one:
Step 11: Tip the engine over and fish all the bits of old munted guide out of the cavity. Take the time to do a little jigsaw puzzle with them if you like, it's a fun distraction:
Step 12: Put the new guide in. Be sure to locate the now inevitably flat edge of the flange on the sleeve which clips into the guide facing upward so the rest of the flange actually holds the guide in. You may want to have bought a new part for this in advance of spending 12 hours taking the engine out:
Step 13: Put the fancy thing thing on the crankshaft pulley to fix it at TDC (not shown, this time because it's up to you to figure it out);
Step 14: Put this thing on one end of the first camshaft:
Note that the top edge of the thing needs to be PERFECTLY parallel with the top of the head. A squiffteenth of a degree's misalignment (which is about the amount of play in a crappy aftermarket "special tool" kit) will still let you fit the tool, but cause all sorts of nasty clacking noises when you reassemble the engine. The final adjustment can be achieved with a hammer once you have all the other tools mounted as long as you haven't tightened the sprocket on the other end.
Step 15: Put this thing in where the tensioner goes: This is your all-important indicator that the tension on the timing chain guides is designed to be greater than it will EVER be with stock tensioners in without oil pressure:
Step 16: Put this thing on yon end of the first camshaft (don't ask me why, the sprocket's pretty much aligned without it. But it is stated as required in the engine assembly manual by Ford's engineers, all of whom have at the very least a degree in Leisure and Tourism, and some of whom have even seen a computer before they are hired):
Step 17: Tighten to about 100 NM, employing a healthy dose of The Fear. 85 NM is the spec, but my left bank slipped a bit over time at spec. Remember your torque wrench probably doesn't click on the weird lefty-tighty bolt so you might have to faff about a bit (flip lever to tighten, flip lever to loosen, flip lever to tighten, flip lever to loosen until eventually it clicks when you have it set to loosen, which is tighten for a normal bolt).
Repeat steps 14-17 for the other camshaft to make sure it's aligned. You're a fool if you just trust that it is.
Step 18: Put the engine back in the truck:
Step 19: The "Tin Biscuit Game"- one of Ford's more entertaining Easter Eggs, this involves trying to get the engine and the bell housing to mate without the dust guard between them falling off the pins on the block which locate it and, eventually, the transmission. (Not shown so as not to spoil your fun). By now the sun should about be coming back up again if you are working in the summer and have proceeded at the appropriate pace, stopping to talk to the local chief of police at 3am, drinking plenty of coffee and smoking plenty of cigarettes.
Step 20: spend the next 8-12 hours putting everything back on the engine that you that to take off to get it out.
Step 21: Go for a test drive. Have a good listen to the engine. It might click if, like me, you intended to re-engineer the tensioners but didn't have the bolt. If you're REALLY lucky the little ******* will start rattling at some point like mine did owing to newly oil-starved tensioners, necessitating some rather immediate field engineering. Glad I bought a hitch vice and left all the tools in the truck. The end result:
N.B. Note right bank O2 sensor plug on rear tensioner image. Always best to give the ODB something to whine about for a day or so before it's all buttoned up
