I need engine advice !!!

[grnexplr]

im new here and i just picked up a 2003 explorer from my brother with 73,000 miles on it. problem is the bottom end it gone. he always did oil changes and it was driven by his wife to haul the kids around , so its clean and hasnt had a rough life. however he was on the highway and the check gauge light came on and he pulled over , checked oil and it wasnt on the stick. put in two quarts and started it up and knockin like a pig. so the motor is done. my question is a remaned motor from ford is $3900 and a bone yard with 60k on it is $900. what is the life expectancy of these motors ? i wanna do the boneyard motor as times are rough right now but something tells me to do the remaned motor. is 60k alot for these motors ? thanks in advance.

 

[X~FACTOR]

$3900 for a remanufactured engine, INSTALLED?

 

[grnexplr]

nope... thats a ford remaned motor my cost over the counter from the local dealer.

 

[Wrench]

I take it it is an 4.0L SOHC.
I would pull the bottom end and see what damage is done. You may only need a short block and a valve job plus a new timing kit for and aft. Are your skills advanced mechanically?

 

[grnexplr]

yes sorry , 4.0 sohc it is. bottom end is DONE , no rods thru the pan but im scared to even start it cause its knockin that bad.
i know you never know what you will get from a bone yard but i was just wondering as to if these are problem pron motors like the chrysler 2.7 , you cant find a good one on road let alone in the bone yard. i just dont know if i want to spend $4000.00 dollars on a ford reman or risk doin it twice with a bone yard motor. i know the guy at the yard and he said he drove it around when it came in and it has 60, 000 miles.
i did find a thread on here and i see alot of people had well over 125-150,000 miles out of thier 4.0's . if i ended up going bone yard motor is there anything i should do to this befor i install it ?
nowhere new to cars , new to the new fords . spent 15 years wrenchin , left automotive field about 10 years ago. the actuall r&r of the motor doesnt bother me one bit , just not familiar with this motor.

 

[BIGHVM]

Yeah dont waste your money- do as suggested and have a look, look at the bearing surfaces- they must be wasted and down to the base metal, even changing them all and resurfacing the crank shaft will be cheaper than the price you have been threatened with and check to make sure all the oil feed holes are clear!
I would use a few engine flushes on it first b4 you replace anything as it will clean the engine good as preperation for the job.

 

[grnexplr]

well if i went ahead and pulled it and remove the pan and find i need to have the crank ground (trust me by the sound it would need to be ground, knocking so hard the rear veiw mirror shakes))and i put bearings in it i may as well rebuild the whole short block and rering it while im there, then where did the oil go originally ? never smoked , never leaked , therefor it must have gone down the valve guides and burned it off slowly, so i'll need to rebuild the heads also. that there when all is said and done machine work and parts wise i may as well buy the remaned motor and have a 100,000 mile warranty . im not trying to argue the point , i appriciate the input , this 4.0 is all new to me and i'm not familiar with the problem with them.
i guess though i've had luck with a couple bone yard motors i've installed for people im kinda leary to do it to my own vehicle not nowing much about the history of the 4.0's longevity.

 

[jascolt]

Just to let you know I have a 96 explorer with that engine and it has 220k miles on it now and and has never had a prob with it except now I have some kind of elec. prob. with the fuel pump priming. But nothing up to this point wrong with engine and it still works fine as long as fuel pump primes and car starts (see fuel pump thread). My wife bought the car brand new so I know every aspect of the engine's history.

 

[heathmo]

My experience

Well, I've done what he did to my 305 Chevy engine, tried to rebuild it, probably would have been ok too, if I'd used the stock camshaft, but I tried upgrading and the new lifters were a bit different and I never got it running right again, wishing to this day I would have just bought a 350 slapped the 305 heads on and called it good.

As for the 4.0 SOHC, front and rear timing chains and guides are crap, That's the biggest concern I'd have with them. There was a TSB issued on that. There are some other minor issues I've heard about them, but that's the one that always sticks out in my mind. If you've got the knowledge those parts aren't too expensive and the engine is already out so you might as well just do the TSB while you've got the chance. After that it should be great. There are guys on here that are probably near 300,000. I know there were a few in the 200,000s and as of right now I'm at 120,000. I've had the 5r55e rebuilt and the rear timing chain issue is starting to show up.

I'd probably take the junker myself. As much as I'd rather have one rebuilt already, there's some things you can do to that engine to make sure it's in decent shape as well.

Anyways, good luck. Hopefully it never comes down to that for me.

 

[grnexplr]

well i've done alot of research on here and learned ALOT from all the post i read so far. when i first heard it i thought it sounded like a card in a bicycle wheel so i assumed it was all the rod bearings gone. but i've read alot about the timing chains in alot of threads (shows how much i've missed being out of the field for 10 years except working on my 59, never knew there was a chain in the rear of the 4.0). saturday i plan to check the oil pressure and see where thats at. then ill pull the motor cause either way its gotta come out , and check the tensioners and see whats in the oil pan and cut open the oil filter , i'm gonna keep my fingers crossed and hope its just the timing chains. gonna study up the threads on replacing them and hopefully not go into it totally blind. the motor r&r is a walk in the park for me but all these timing chains are new to me...... wish me luck.

 

[X~FACTOR]

nope... thats a ford remaned motor my cost over the counter from the local dealer.

Just for comparison, I just had my engine replaced after only 87K miles because of the infamous timing chain problem. This is what the invoice shows:

$2350 A remanufactured Engine
$35 oil change and coolant change
$33 spark plugs
$67 serp tensioner (mine broke and started squeeling)
$43 serp belt
$1734 labor

plus tax it came out to $4587.00

 

[grnexplr]

$2350 A remanufactured Engine
$35 oil change and coolant change
$33 spark plugs
$67 serp tensioner (mine broke and started squeeling)
$43 serp belt
$1734 labor
plus tax it came out to $4587.00

you got a remaned motor from ford for $2350 ? is this dealer trying to hose me? he quoted me just over $3800 for just the motor plus a core charge of $500.00.

 

[grnexplr]

are fords remanufactured motor from rhino engines ? on rhino engines web site it says their 3 years warranty is backed by 4000 ford dealers nationwide. does ford get their remaned motors from rhino ?

 

[BIGHVM]

Go old school and do a compression test on it! That test reveals so much about an engines health, You can find loads of info on compression testing an engine on the net with pics- it can help reveal, week cylinders, head gaskit problems, valve leaks etc........People are forgetting the skills of old that I have used in my time!
Let us know what you do I am interested in how you sort this mate!
Good luck.

 

[grnexplr]

with the sypmtoms i have i dont think a compression test would give me useful information. i thought i had bad main and rod bearings or now possible timing chain issues. have i missed something for many many years or how would a compression test tell me if my main or rods or chains are bad ? actually the thing idles and runs fine , the noise is just deafening.

 

[ThePhoenix]

MAYBE IT JUST NEEDS ADJUSTMENT

maybe you blew the intake gaskets and the low oil was a coincidence

 

[grnexplr]

MAYBE IT JUST NEEDS ADJUSTMENT

maybe you blew the intake gaskets and the low oil was a coincidence

im wondering if it blew a timing tensioner and the low oil is a coincidence , but he said the check gauge light came on and the oil pressure gauge was zero. he said he added two quarts but when i check it it was over filled. first thing i will do tomarrow befor i pull the motor is check oil pressure and pull the valeve covers. motors gotta come out either way so hopefully time will tell.

 

[ThePhoenix]

maybe you will get lucky. these engines are pretty durable IMO

 

[grnexplr]

well took a quick look at it this morning , i was hoping it was just the dreaded "RATTLE OF DEATH" and was hoping to pull it and slap some chains and tensioners in it. had the bright idea this morning to check oil pressure by loosening the oil filter , when running with the oil filter in my hand not a drop of oil out of the filter mount. looks like the oil pump took a dump at 72,346 miles. looks like ill slap a dealer remaned motor in it cause by time i spend $900 on a bone yard motor , all the time and labor to rechain and retensioner it , id be over half way to the price of a remaned with no 100,000 mile warranty. anyone know who sells a decent reman 4.0 sohc motor for a decent price with a decent warranty.


and the big three want a bail out to help build more problem prone vehicles .

 

[grnexplr]

motors out , wasnt the easiest motor i pulled but wasnt that bad. anyone know what book time is for engine removal ? just wondering as it took me 5 hours start to finish. hopefully tomarrow ill be able to pull the pan off and see whats in side. i could hear clanking noises just turning it over by hand to get to the torque converter bolts. now to find a repalcement and clean everything up and toss it back in.