Help, power loss, missing!

[thecause17]

Well, figured I'd update...after being blown off yet again, I called today rather angry, pumped one of the guys for information.

They have decided that they're pretty sure that the timing chain jumped. They can't find anything wrong with my motor anywhere. They called their corporate hotline today, and they dont' seem to know what to tell them to do with it. The said "seems like they don't know how to fix their own vehicles." I replied with "that's not what I need to be hearing from you."

I told them flat out today I'm tired of being blown off, been told that I'd be called, and never am. It's been there a week and I am nowhere except already having a bill for something that still isnt' fixed.

They're supposedly having a meeting about it tomorrow as to what to do with it. Personally, I just want it fixed...but I haven't forgot about how long this is taking, or the new parts that are on it that didn't fix my problem...

Does anybody have the TSB for the tensioners handy? Also, I've heard before that they extended the warranty to 100k miles on them too...does anyone have that anywhere in writing, is that even true?...it seems like I already know more about this problem than they do, I might as well pad it a little. I don't get the wool pulled over my eyes very easily, and I don't budge when it comes to service...being in retail for as long as I have been, I expect service and lately when I call them, "I dunno" just isn't good enough, which is the response I've gotten pretty much every time I've had them on the phone.

They said I should expect a call by 2pm tomorrow, and if not, to call them....they can be sure i will.

 

[thecause17]

Today's update. They finally figured it out, and it's the primary chain. It did jump time. I'm going to put a low milage engine in it, it'll cost that much to repair this engine, with no gaurantee that the valvetrain wasn't damaged...they seemed to be much more helpful today and kept me up to date with several phone calls. They've been calling around for engines as well, and are looking into 3 different motors, we're going to go with whatever one has had the tensioners updated. All are in the 60k milage range, and are from around 2000-2001 model years.

So looks like I get the worse case scenario. I'm looking at a cool $2k to have everything done. Engines are $1100-$1200, they said $700 to install. I decided to take the old motor home with me, and I'll most likely look it over and part out what's good on it.

Hopefully this thread will be useful to whoever else may ever have this problem.

 

[thecause17]

Well I got it back today finally, runs like a champ $2500 later. I hope nobody else runs into this problem.

 

[bplein]

I'm glad to hear you got it going right again, but sorry to hear what it took to get there.

I seem to be down on power in my 97 SOHC, but haven't run any diagnostics, so I was hoping for an easy answer (grin)

 

[rabnestic]

Nice thread

I found this thread absolutely educational. I have a 1992 2dr Eddie Bauer thats starting to show the same symptoms. Thanks for the detailed log of events!

 

[dre2013]

yea my 96 does almost the same things...im hoping its an injector though, about to check it out here in a few mins.

 

[pharrout]

Not meaning to sound like I am to correct anyone but.....from most mechanics Ive spoken with....they said its HIGHLY unlikely a motor with the kind of timing chain deal these motors have will jump time. Its most likely they will either break or loosen so much that you hear nothing but a lot of horrible metal slapping sounds rather than an actual jump. They mentioned anything that actually jumps time is a motor with timing belts.....and not chains. I only say this because I am having all this exact problems with my engine in my 98 Explorer XLT 4.0 SOHC and I had thought it had jumped time until I broke down and made someone replace mine after being told by almost everyone that its not likely at all....and the replacement...it fixed nothing. I still have my problem and am not through with it.....I will find out what is causing it...atleast in my vehicle. Within a few days we are going to hack off the cats and put straight pipes on just to see what happens.