Timing Chain

[Dave Bencsik]

Recently, my trac has been making a rattling noise under moderate acceleration, usually around 2500 to 3000 rpm. my assumption is that since my trac has 225000kms on it, that it is probably in need of new timing chains. as this is very expensive to have done at a shop, and money does not seam to flow so freely these days, I was wondering if anyone could give me some input on the process.



Thanx

 

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha sporttracktuner,

Mine is doing the same thing. I understand that is the chain guide. There is one in the front and one in the back. Mine sounds similar to a ping. Also on startup in the morning there is a rattle from the tensioner. I went to the shop today and he said it is about 15 hours labor. He and the dealer said that he has never heard of one letting go so it may last a long time.

Good luck Ed

 

[Taylor Weicht]

okay okay. ha well if you didnt see my earlier post i had the same problem, along with others. long story short i had to buy a new engine. $5700 with labor and all new belts, tubes, wires, blah blah blah. theres supposed bulletins that Ford put out about our engines that says some possible things that might go wrong with it around 100,000 miles. Unfortunately when i took my engine in, there was an antifreeze leak and the antifreeze had gotten back up into the engine. That caused a big problem but could have been fixed. When they looked at it though, they found all the stuff that Ford said might go wrong on my engine. The major thing was the timing chains. I too had the clicking noise exactly as you say. Mine clicked from 0-45mph appx. in RPMs lower than about 3000. so if you dont have the antifreeze problem you might be able to get it fixed for cheaper or might be able to keep your engine unlike me but not sure. It took 16 hours of labor, but the new engine i got has all the updates and came with a 100,000 mile 3 year warranty. any other questions please ask i will check back later to see if you have any questions. hope i helped. it sucks and it was a pain in the butt but glad i got new engine. best of luck

 

[scott degroot]

^^^^^ Somebody is yanking your chain(no pun intended) if they told you that Ford said there may be a few things that go wrong at 100k. Ford has never issued a bulletin even remotely stating that there MAY be a problem that occurs around 100k

 

[John Z]

Yeah, I would be interested in seeing these 'supposed bulletins'. I have search all over the place for them, and have come up with nothing about issues with the engines at 100k. Besides that I would hope, if Ford is claiming their knowledge about these issues, then there would be recalls from them to start fixing the these major issues.

 

[Alan Peters]

I've yet to read on these forms of a head gasket or catastrophic coolant loose, besides tstat or water pump failure on a 4.0l. From my understanding, this engine is extremely strong and has been in the Ford line up since the early 90's. 01, 02, and some early 03's had chain issues that Ford did replace or atleast help cover out of pocket expenses for those that failed out of warranty. Atleast a billion if not more of these motors on the road today so its a very reliable motor.



Either your mechanic was blowing habadash in his habadashery, or you totally got ripped off. The most miles I've seen on this motor was a used 01 trac in northern michigan with 550,000 miles on it. If the pinging was a total issue, lawsuits and tsb would be issued similarly to the GM Chevy piston slap in the late 90's early 2000 models.

 

[Dave Bencsik]

well my mech is in the family, however, he did say that it's all just noise, and wouldn't harm anything. Though I am in the market for a newer engine that I can add forged internals to before installing, and knowing this may have affected his comments

 

[Michael Johnson 2]

I had the same rattle a year ago. It was extremely loud under load or moderate acceleration. Ford fixed it under my extended warranty. Now a year later, warranty expired and the rattle is back but not a bad. it sounds the same now as it did in the beginning. I wish there was something i could do to get it fixed but ford said "we can take a look and if its something we replaced we will cover it it but if not i will have to cover it all" that was about 3000 dollars worth of repairs not to mention rental car.

 

[george ellis]

tsb#0281. heard that Ford extended warranty for 6 or 7 years. am currently trying to restore timing after failing to mark and re-install jackshaft sprocket and crankshaft pulley. Have tried just returning #1 cyl to tdc to no avail. can anyone give me reasonable advice? Do I need to go back and synch sprocket and/or pulley to tdc? thnx.