peterwells
Active Member
- Joined
- May 13, 2005
- Posts
- 35
- Reaction score
- 22
Vehicle - 2008 Expedition, 170k miles. It has had a hard life, three kids, dog, my wife drives it like a go cart.
Symptom - car made a clattering sound on start up, particularly if it had stood a while, beyond that it ran smoothly, no CEL, etc.
Plan - keep it running for a few more years, ~30k miles. Clearly something was not happy with the timing chain, so open it up and take a look. I watched the YouTube videos and have a pretty good selection of tools.
Disassembly - I didn't open the AC system but did remove the battery tray and disconnect most of the wiring harness. Removing the passenger side valve cover and fan shroud took a lot of pushing and pulling. My experience has been that it's situations like this that lead to me breaking things. The vacuum line going to the brake booster that runs over the driver's side valve cover was also tricky - there's an impossible to access clamp by the firewall, my hunch is the tube is not longer in that clamp. The crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer did not have the threaded holes for the standard puller, so I used a general purpose three arm puller. Be sure to disconnect the fan wiring before whacking the nut to get it loose, if you don't you risk the wrench can catch the bracket that holds the wiring and straining the wires. I drained the radiator with a small plastic pipe attached to the drain point but when you jack the car up or remove the lower radiator hose (as I had to do to install the fan shroud) more coolant comes out.
What I found - both fixed plastic chain guides were broken, the passenger side was in pieces, largest being 4" long, small pieces the size of a match head. There were areas on the chain cover where the chain had ground into the cover, just hoping the filter caught the ground up pieces. The driver's side guide was broken at one end but still functional. The phasers looked to be ok (there's a video that shows what to look for) and I didn't know how to measure the chain stretch but figured it was serviceable. I tested the VVT solenoids, they were ok. Given the debris in the system I dropped the oil pan and cleaned it and the oil pickup.
Reassembly - the engine side was straightforward, I paused when I realized I needed a low range torque wrench. I didn't remove the chains but did check the timing, the marked links had faded but you could still identify the single and dual index links. I turned the engine until the single links were on the engine sprocket and then checked the number of teeth to the dot on the sprocket and made sure the camshaft sprockets agreed. The valve covers were just as much of a pain to install as they were to remove. My impact wrench (pneumatic) wasn't strong enough to apply the 90 degrees after the initial torque to the crankshaft bolt, I probably got 40 degrees - Ford must have special tool for this. I mentioned that the brake booster pipe that runs over the driver's side valve cover had come out of its clamp; I put some nuts on around the bracket that holds it to the valve cover (before it was just pushed on) - it feels solid enough.
Tools - Beyond the regular sockets and open ended spanners I have some gear wrenches which were very useful (particularly for the power steering pump). I've a eighteen inch long 3/8" socket extension which looks like something you'd never use but used it all the time to remove coil packs and valve cover bolts, it's long enough to let me stand by the side of the car and reach in. As noted I bought a low range torque wrench as there are a number of bolts that require under 15 ft-lbs. A claw tool to remove the plastic press in stud things that Ford loves for holding wires and trim in place is very useful. I needed the impact wrench for the crankshaft bolt and to undo the frame crossmember to drop the oil pan, mine was part of a cheap set and was only just about up to the job (in fact as noted above, it wasn't strong enough to torque the crankshaft bolt during assembly).
What I'd do differently - I'd clean the front of the engine before starting, maybe remove the fan shroud and go by the car wash, there was a lot of built up crud that got all over me and the driveway which I'll need to clean up. I'd take some photo's of the wiring before removing, I'm still not sure the fan wire is where it should be. I bought a replacement oil pan gasket but didn't realize the gasket is reusable.
Time taken, parts cost - I wasn't in a rush and what with disassembly, ordering parts, cleaning pieces, etc I'd guess it took three days of my time spread out over a two week period. Parts was around $300, this was for gaskets, chain tensioners, tensioner guides, fixed guides, oil, filter, etc. All the parts were Motorcraft, I've been bitten before with third party parts and failure on these parts would be expensive to replace.
Other - there are a few reports of the chain guides being broken so I was surprised to see that the part has not been revised, replacements have same part number as originals; I'm curious as to why they broke. The engine sounds a lot better on start up. The Motorcraft oil filter is MUCH larger than the one that was on the car, oil is changed regularly (although not very frequently - 7,500 miles) at a local service place - will buy some Motorcraft filters. I did a lot of the work from underneath the car, you can slide under and then prop your head up and comfortably access the front of the engine.
I have to say I was anxious about it starting up having disconnected so many wires but it fired right up.
Peter
Symptom - car made a clattering sound on start up, particularly if it had stood a while, beyond that it ran smoothly, no CEL, etc.
Plan - keep it running for a few more years, ~30k miles. Clearly something was not happy with the timing chain, so open it up and take a look. I watched the YouTube videos and have a pretty good selection of tools.
Disassembly - I didn't open the AC system but did remove the battery tray and disconnect most of the wiring harness. Removing the passenger side valve cover and fan shroud took a lot of pushing and pulling. My experience has been that it's situations like this that lead to me breaking things. The vacuum line going to the brake booster that runs over the driver's side valve cover was also tricky - there's an impossible to access clamp by the firewall, my hunch is the tube is not longer in that clamp. The crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer did not have the threaded holes for the standard puller, so I used a general purpose three arm puller. Be sure to disconnect the fan wiring before whacking the nut to get it loose, if you don't you risk the wrench can catch the bracket that holds the wiring and straining the wires. I drained the radiator with a small plastic pipe attached to the drain point but when you jack the car up or remove the lower radiator hose (as I had to do to install the fan shroud) more coolant comes out.
What I found - both fixed plastic chain guides were broken, the passenger side was in pieces, largest being 4" long, small pieces the size of a match head. There were areas on the chain cover where the chain had ground into the cover, just hoping the filter caught the ground up pieces. The driver's side guide was broken at one end but still functional. The phasers looked to be ok (there's a video that shows what to look for) and I didn't know how to measure the chain stretch but figured it was serviceable. I tested the VVT solenoids, they were ok. Given the debris in the system I dropped the oil pan and cleaned it and the oil pickup.
Reassembly - the engine side was straightforward, I paused when I realized I needed a low range torque wrench. I didn't remove the chains but did check the timing, the marked links had faded but you could still identify the single and dual index links. I turned the engine until the single links were on the engine sprocket and then checked the number of teeth to the dot on the sprocket and made sure the camshaft sprockets agreed. The valve covers were just as much of a pain to install as they were to remove. My impact wrench (pneumatic) wasn't strong enough to apply the 90 degrees after the initial torque to the crankshaft bolt, I probably got 40 degrees - Ford must have special tool for this. I mentioned that the brake booster pipe that runs over the driver's side valve cover had come out of its clamp; I put some nuts on around the bracket that holds it to the valve cover (before it was just pushed on) - it feels solid enough.
Tools - Beyond the regular sockets and open ended spanners I have some gear wrenches which were very useful (particularly for the power steering pump). I've a eighteen inch long 3/8" socket extension which looks like something you'd never use but used it all the time to remove coil packs and valve cover bolts, it's long enough to let me stand by the side of the car and reach in. As noted I bought a low range torque wrench as there are a number of bolts that require under 15 ft-lbs. A claw tool to remove the plastic press in stud things that Ford loves for holding wires and trim in place is very useful. I needed the impact wrench for the crankshaft bolt and to undo the frame crossmember to drop the oil pan, mine was part of a cheap set and was only just about up to the job (in fact as noted above, it wasn't strong enough to torque the crankshaft bolt during assembly).
What I'd do differently - I'd clean the front of the engine before starting, maybe remove the fan shroud and go by the car wash, there was a lot of built up crud that got all over me and the driveway which I'll need to clean up. I'd take some photo's of the wiring before removing, I'm still not sure the fan wire is where it should be. I bought a replacement oil pan gasket but didn't realize the gasket is reusable.
Time taken, parts cost - I wasn't in a rush and what with disassembly, ordering parts, cleaning pieces, etc I'd guess it took three days of my time spread out over a two week period. Parts was around $300, this was for gaskets, chain tensioners, tensioner guides, fixed guides, oil, filter, etc. All the parts were Motorcraft, I've been bitten before with third party parts and failure on these parts would be expensive to replace.
Other - there are a few reports of the chain guides being broken so I was surprised to see that the part has not been revised, replacements have same part number as originals; I'm curious as to why they broke. The engine sounds a lot better on start up. The Motorcraft oil filter is MUCH larger than the one that was on the car, oil is changed regularly (although not very frequently - 7,500 miles) at a local service place - will buy some Motorcraft filters. I did a lot of the work from underneath the car, you can slide under and then prop your head up and comfortably access the front of the engine.
I have to say I was anxious about it starting up having disconnected so many wires but it fired right up.
Peter
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