Just inherited an 06 Explorer 4.0

[mhunter07]

Hey everyone. I found this forum to discuss a situation I find myself in. I recently inherited a 06 Ford Explorer 4.0. While it ran shockingly fine, I noticed right away that it had a low oil pressure light on, and the engine was making the death rattle. I figured I'd pull the engine to replace the timing system. Once the engine was pulled and on my stand, I popped the valve covers only to discover the most horrid sludge covering everything. Also, the timing cassettes were OBLITERATED. There's literally small pieces of plastic and metal everywhere.

While I realize this is a no brainer, I just thought I'd ask: Is there any chance of cleaning this thing out and reusing it without a complete rebuild? If nothing else, I thought y'all would get a kick out of seeing this picture. This thing was actually running fairly smoothly.... No idea how.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! It probably had a thick non synthetic oil being used with infrequent oil changes. I'm sure that all of the internal passage ways have sludge so it had low oil pressure.

 

[Mike65]

Welcome.

 

[Josh P]

The fact you pulled it before the timing jumped, if you wanted to take the time to clean it up it could be fixed. I'd use compressed air with a feed to some strong solvent. Remove the oil pressure sender and connect the hose there.

 

[Rick]

Welcome to this forum! It probably had a thick non synthetic oil being used with infrequent oil changes. I'm sure that all of the internal passage ways have sludge so it had low oil pressure.

When I was a kid my neighbors father bragged about never changing oil, he just added when it was low. This is the result of that kind of "maintenance".

I would check the boneyards looking for an Explorer that's there for a blown tranny, but still has a good engine.