04 Explorer 4.0L

Loud banging in the motor. mechanic believed it to be the timing chain. He removed the Hydraulic tensioner and it had crumbled. What are the chances that there are metal pieces through the engine.

 

'04 will be the SOHC. The tensioners are plastic. Did it deteriorate to the point where the chain was running against metal? Or did metal parts get ground up otherwise?

Regardless, you have tensioner bits in the oil pan at least, possibly partially clogging the oil pickup.

Then there is the matter of the rear tensioner. (I assume this is the front one, the easy one to get to....)

IMO it's at least time to pull the engine, fix all tensioners, pull the pan and clean it out, and consider if anything else needs fixing.

jmo....

 

The piece I am talking about is the cylinder that sticks out into the front of the valley. Not the tensioner arm.