Rear timing chain question with pic

[adambant]

Thank you so much Dale! Tousley Ford definatly has better prices than the 2 dealers by me. My total savings ordering the rear tensioner and the oom12 kit from Tousley is almost 50 dollars! I wont get to tear back into the truck until monday. Will update monday night. Thanks again.

Adam.

 

[adambant]

&@^$(!&#!

Well.....tore into the truck today. Here is a video of starting it cold after sitting for over a week just, so you can hear what im hearing:

I stopped pulling things apart once i got the right valve cover off and discovered that the rear guide is in fact now broken:

After discovering that, i pulled the rear hydraulic tensioner and now i believe i know why the rear guide broke AFTER i put everything back together, I guess this one of those times where that 'ol saying "you get what you pay for" rings in all to true

So, i am NOT happy to say the least. But I guess i need to just bite the bullet and start pulling the engine and work on it as much as i can in my "spare" time


Adam.

 

[2000StreetRod]

Thank you for posting

Adam, I'm real sorry about your guide failure! Thank you for posting the video showing the locked up hydraulic tensioner. I agree that a locked tensioner would cause excess stress on the guide forcing it to break at its weakest point. Was the tensioner a Ford product or some aftermarket product?

 

[adambant]

Bummed.

The tensioner is part of a Duralast brand (Autozone) timing chain kit i bought off of ebay for $160 that has "everything". All sprockets, chains, guides and tensioners for the whole engine. Guess some things are worth paying a little more for...as this clearly was a defective part.

Im hoping to work a few hours every nite during my evenings prepping the motor for removal, and then taking off from work on a saturday so my dad is around and we can hopefully bang it out in a long saturday ull the motor, replace ALL the guides and tensioners, and at the least set the motor back in the truck by the end of the day. Thats my tentative game plan. But weather and work/personal life have a tendency to get in the way . We'll see how things go, and I'll update here and there.

Adam.

 

[2000StreetRod]

Good luck

1 SOHC V6 Engine Removal Procedure

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

Good luck, you'll be happy with the explorer once you have all the problems worked out.

 

[adambant]

Small start

Spent a about an hour and a half out on the truck tonite. Got everything either removed or unhooked that i can do from standing over the engine. Could and probably should have spent more time and started things underneath as tonite was relatively warmer than usual, but i'm just unmotivated and really didn't feel like rolling around under the truck right now So got the radiator, fan, alternator, pwr steering and A/C, vacuum lines, fuel line all out/undone. Also put second soaking of PB Blaster on the exhaust bolts and on the motor mounts as they look pretty rusted as well.
Won't get to work on the truck tomorrow nite, but it will still be spent truck related atleast. Me and the old man are going to his buddies house to pick up his engine stand and engine hoist that he's lending us.

Looking at ordering the front and rear chain guides from ford. Im using the part numbers from the thread, but im not sure, can i order just the guides or does it only come as the kit (guides, chains and sprockets)?

I took a few pics of my "garage"

 

[2000StreetRod]

guide assembly

The guide assembly now only comes as part of the cassette. I just happened to purchase some new old stock on eBay and get the front guide assembly by itself.

Try to attach your lift straps/chains so the engine is balanced to keep the crankshaft axis aligned with the transmission shaft axis when the two separate.

 

[adambant]

Try to attach your lift straps/chains so the engine is balanced to keep the crankshaft axis aligned with the transmission shaft axis when the two separate.

Thanks, will try my best. I'm thinking of lifting the motor by the headers. Seems to be the easiest/most practical things to attach to....?

 

[BubbaFL]

Thanks, will try my best. I'm thinking of lifting the motor by the headers. Seems to be the easiest/most practical things to attach to....?

That's how I lifted mine, no problems.

When I did it, I had to do rearrange some of the steps listed in the HowTo's. I removed the entire drivers side downpipe + cat from the truck, then unbolted the passenger side downpipe. After that I unbolted the engine from the mount plates (3 bolts on each side, hard to see, easy to reach) and dropped it an inch or two so that I could reach behind the engine and get at the drivers side upper transmission bolts. Took out the wheel well liner to get at the passenger side ones.

I have no idea how the pros around here can get those upper bolts from under the truck or that little hole under the console - I couldn't even see them all from there, let alone get a socket on any of them.

If you don't remove the motor mounts with the engine, make sure you take the oil filter off! I didn't do this and it got hung up, big PITA to set the engine back down so I could unscrew the smashed filter (which was leaking oil all over the place at that point).

 

[adambant]

Keep it coming!

If you don't remove the motor mounts with the engine, make sure you take the oil filter off! I didn't do this and it got hung up, big PITA to set the engine back down so I could unscrew the smashed filter (which was leaking oil all over the place at that point).

Thank you for this! I was thinking i would just leave it on until after i pull motor! Theres nothing like getting advice/tips from people that have done it before

I just got back from picking up the borrowed engine hoist and stand. Was planning on pulling it this saturday BUT, another stinking snow storm is supposed to hit tomorrow, and if you saw my "garage" you know that means bad news. Im doing it next weekend no matter what, i dont care if i have to shovel out everything lol. Thanks for the tips guys!

Adam.

 

[janolsson]

Be sure to check the starter wiring loom. Its sometimes attached to the engine mounting plate via a bolt with a flat head at the top and a nut underneath.
You can get at the top tranny to engine bolts thro the wheel arch with the flap removed using a 13mm flexihead ratchet spanner (when i did mine this became my new favourite non powered tool, even beating my lump hammer!!!)
To undo the torque converter nuts i used a combination of extensions to have the ratchet at the front of the engine to get more turning space.
I also placed a plank in front of the aircon rad to protect it if the engine swings forward.
Obviously the bonnet needs to come off, get a pal to help as that SOB is heavy

I found Tascaparts.com cheaper than toulsey.

 

[adambant]

Prepping

Ok so the new FORD guides, chains, tensionser etc. came today. The hydraulic tensioners are a night and day difference from the duralast ones, they "glide" in and out, and require much more pressure to do so than the duralasts(aside from the seized one of course). Lesson learned.

Ok so I'm still planning on pulling the motor saturday morning. Going over things, trying to make sure i got everything.

Engine stand attaching bolts...? What can I use for this? Do i have to buy these? If so any chance we know what size?

And if I decide to pull the upper pan to replace the balance shaft chain etc., could i 1. re-use that gasket, 2. just use RTV, or 3 a combo of RTV with old gasket? Or is this just foolish and I should just replace the gasket?

Uhm I think thats all the questions I have floating around my head at the moment.

Thanks, you guys and this site rocks.

Adam.

 

[2000StreetRod]

Upper pan gasket

I seem to remember there were tabs in the upper pan (reinforcement section) gasket rear rubber section that fit into corresponding notches in the block near the rear main bearing cap. Those tabs are probably attached with sealant and may tear if you separate the gasket from the block. However, the upper pan may separate cleanly from the gasket. The upper pan gasket costs about $22 from Tousley. I chose to replace mine rather than risk a leak. Other members have torn the front rubber section when removing the timing cover and used RTV to repair it with no leakage.

I purchased bolts and washers to use with my engine stand. I believe some members just use their transmission to engine bolts. I believe the bolts are M10-1.5x??mm depending on the thickness of your stand mounts.

 

[janolsson]

For peace of mind use a new gasket.
As streetrod said there are rubber tabs that recess around the rear crank seal area (make sure you clean these out real good as they will have old rtv and even rubber from old gasket in them. RTV should be used at certain points there and where the front curved bit is and where the front timing cover meets the block.

See if you can download this pdf SOHC engine assembly here. It has all the torques procedures et al. You may want to buy a low torque, torque wrench as a lot of the bolts require 3-4 Nm. Beware if you over torque the outer upper sump bolts they will snap!! (ask me how i know LOL) Also follow the instruction on lossening the inserts for the upper sump middle bolts before refitting. The manual says to replace the seals on the 2 upper sump bolts that are not in the lower sump but if your old ones are good and clean this is unneccessary. And lastly pay attentioon to the alignment of the upper sump in relation to the rear face of the block as get this wrong and the tranny will push/pull on the upper sump and break the gasket seal.

Once you tear into it all will become clear and seem less comlicated than just reading posts on it.
enjoy

 

[janolsson]

Oh just thought i would add this;
I used a length of old car seat belt tied to the headers to lift the engine. Works well and easy to tie and untie on the headers.
You can also lift/install with intakes, alt, belt tensioner and tb still attached. You will have to take off the P/S pump and the air con mount bracket. But you don't have to open up the aircon system, just swing it out of the way into the battery box (battery removed)

 

[adambant]

Tonites "slowgress"

Thanks streetrod and janolsson for your very good tips/advice! I spent a few hours out in the brisk 19 degrees tonite
Started out doing a bit of quick organizing and soon realized i was one valve cover bolt short....hmmm of COURSE theres only one place it could be.... in the cylinder head of course. Thankfully I found it and was able to get it out with my magnet, dang thing was so close to dropping off the edge by the rear timing chain and into the abyss. Moving on:

Had a heck of a time getting the top starter bolt cracked loose, mainly cause i didnt have enough room to get anything big with leverage up there. Ended up putting a closed end wrench on it, putting a pipe against the end of the wrench and a couple wacks with my mini sledge did the trick.

Did another round of PB Blaster on the exhuast bolts.
Marked the first visible torque converter bolt with the flywheel.

Not a overly productive night, but i did do a lot of looking and thinking for the trans bolts.

Heres somthing I found:

Guess I'm not the first one in here...? I didn't touch any of the trans to engine bolts, so that one is either loose, or its the wrong bolt and has been bottomed out. You guys know better than me at this point. And am I correct in assuming that both the engine and trans have what i call "junkyard scribble" on them? The trans is kinda hard to see but it does have a faint yellow scribble on it.

Tomorrow I hopefully will get started a lot earlier and manage to get everything completly apart and ready to pull the motor. All i want to have left saturday morning is to remove the hood, undo the last few bolts in the trans and the engine mounts and then lift away!

 

[adambant]

Little off topic but..

Was going thru some stuff on the mazda forum and found the thread from my mazda6 engine swap back in august. Thought I'd post in case anyone's interested in my other engine failure.

http://forum.mazda6club.com/3-0l-v6/239093-removed-my-engine-yesterday.html

 

[2000StreetRod]

bolts

On my 2000 the valve covers bolts do not separate from the valve covers. Avoids them getting lost and simplifies removal and installation of the covers.

The transmission to engine bolts are various lengths. Most likely that bolt should be swapped with another position. You can tell where they go by the thickness of the casting.

When you have the engine out the last eight digits of the VIN will be marked on the rear of the block on the driver side just below the head. If they don't match the VIN for the vehicle then the engine has been replaced. You can tell the year of the engine by its marking. VIN location

When you mount the block on the stand do not attach the mount to the lower reinforcement section. You may need to remove the cradle and it is made of cast aluminum that is weaker than the block.

 

[adambant]

Got the motor out, it is currently hanging on the engine hoist at the moment. Came in to get lunch. Do i HAVE to remove the flywheel? Or can that stay in place?