Yeah I've had vehicles with spun bearings and they almost always feel loose in the rods.. heck I just rebuilt a 22r with a sloppy bearing and it was loose and not spun yet. These are all tight so I think they will be good but I'll mic or plastigauge them to check.

I'm leaning towards not rebuilding the whole thing.. with the amount of miles it has on it I think I'll get it running again and hope to get 5 yrs out of it (60,000 miles) and then evaluate at that point. Looks like rebuilding these is quite expensive. Probably just do timing guides, maybe a timing kit, and then new rod bearings and it'll be good to go.

I think with the minimal knocking it did there will be very little damage. I rock crawl and we often run engines without oil for a short period and while it's not great for them it's not bad if it's at low rpm/load for short periods. Like I say afaik the only knocking it did was idling in the driveway for 30 seconds before I killed it asap.

I'll see about a shop manual and then I can check the timing chain spec to see if it needs to be replaced.

Thanks once again guys.

 

If you take the front of the engine apart for the chain guides it would be foolish to not replace the cam chains at that time. On my Navigator it was the small chain that broke and that was at 139,000 miles. Don't take the chance for the few bucks you might save by reusing the original chains.

 

Well that's the other idea.. timing chain kit, water pump, anything else in there while I'm at it? Maybe oil pump? Any sensors in there?

 

No, just the timing chain kit should be enough. Was there a lot of sludge in the pan or was it just kind of dirty?
To do the chains you will have to remove the cam covers and possibly the intakes. I think the EGR should be replaced at that time as it is in the very back of the upper manifold and it might as well be done while it is apart instead of later. Just because it's such a PIA to do once everything else is together. The rest of the sensors should be alright.

 

Yeah, I'm actually curious if I have to remove the valve covers.. cause there's a lot of crap covering them. It's too bad there's no cheap rebuilt heads or I might consider a full rebuild. However, I can't imagine it's cheap to get 32 valves redone..

 

There is a bit of black film on various engine components as I have seen in several engines.. looks pretty normal for its age. No massive sludge buidup or anything. The stuff in the pan is all very gritty and in small chunks. I plan to take a picture of the pickup screen, it's something to behold.

I'm pretty sure it's very brittle nylon or such.. it does however tend to break down pretty easily (like when you rub it between you fingers) so I was worried it might be dislodged carbon, but I think nylon makes more sense.

 

To remove the front timing cover you will need to remove the valve covers. If these motors are like the all the other modulars you will not need to remove the intake to take the timing cover off.

 

From your description I don't think you have to worry too much but, I would still check the bearings on the last two rods.That ground up nylon might indicate a cam chain tensioner went bad. Then again it could be that the tensioner wasn't getting enough oil to maintain the proper tension. Whichever it is you will need to have a good supply of solvent for cleaning the various parts that will be re-used. Have your parts person order a new tensioner and compare yours with the new one and if the wear is minimal use yours. Did you open your oil filter? Did it look like it caught all of the grainy nylon and not let any through? If so, you should be safe by just a good clean up and new chains and tensioners. The more you tell makes me think the noise was a lifter and not a rod. I think you fell into an outhouse and came up smelling like a rose with this one. when you get done you should have a really nice truck for under $2,000 that is worth over $7,000. Congratulations. Just don't forget to call Inland Revenue and pay the VAT. The Crown needs your bucks.
Have a great day and keep us posted.

 

hahaha, yeah I've been having good luck lately.. I had another car given to me that was in very nice shape as well. I gave that one to my father in law though, not enough time to do it all.

I pulled the filter apart.. it caught a lot of it but I think some bypassed as it broke the rubber seal on the front of the filter. I'm guessing the pressure was too much for it and the element was completely plugged.

So.. hmm, hopefully it will all flush through and not get caught in a gallery or something. Maybe that's grounds to pull the engine and clean it all out, not sure.. hmm.. maybe I'll pull those bearing caps right soon, that could give me a good idea of how things look.

 

You just keep gettin' lucky.
I think checking the bearings would be a good safety precaution. One more thing for you to check and that is to take the oil filter mount off the block and check inside for that granulated nylon. If there is none or just a tiny bit you will almost for certain be safe.

 

OK, I finally got it taken apart. Been a busy summer! Anyway, I did it without removing the valve covers because.. wow, is there a lot of crap on there and is it tight. The cover came off no problem with the valve covers in place but I won't be able to change the chains this way.

So it was definitely the guides. There are two parts to them, a white inner 'race' that is meant to slide against the chain, and a black plastic housing made of a different material. The white guide material wore down just opposite of the tensioners on both sides so it was eating into the black material. So it's not really a case of them getting hot and breaking down or such, it's just that the guides themselves wore through entirely.

I can't find a new pickup tube for sale so I guess I'll have to try and clean it. I'd like to change out the chains while I'm in there but they do seem to look in good shape and there's no slop around the sprockets so that's a good sign.

Will be ordering parts tonight I think.

 

I know its a PIA to remove the covers to replace the chains but, I believe you are making a serious mistake in not doing the job right. There are a lot of posts about broken chains at about 150,000 miles. If the chain breaks you will have bent valves and even more expense and labor. Think about it.

 

PIA is an understatement.. I think if I were going to do that I'd just pull the engine.

How do they do them in the shop? Is this the type they pull the cab on?

 

If you decide to pull the engine it would be easiest to look at a Excursion or F250/350 first. They have a removable crossbar in the radiator support that when it's removed there is a lot more room to manouver in the engine bay. I would do it if I were going to do another Expedition or Navigator. Look it over carefully and make some tabs to weld onto the part you remove so it can be bolted back into the same place.

The diesel trucks are the ones they usually lift the body off of for major engine work.

 

OK, so I took it all apart and put it all back together.. went to fire it up and it's only running on the right hand bank of cylinders. I do have good oil pressure now though .

So, my guess is that the cam timing is out on that side causing it to not fire properly somehow. The wreak of unburnt fuel in the exhaust is pretty amazing.

I just thought I'd post and see if anyone knows of any possible sensor or wire or something I may have overlooked before I go and take the front cover off again to check the timing.

I noticed that when I rotated the engine without oil in the tensioners it seemed like it jumped a few times. I checked the timing when I put it together but then I did the rod bearings afterwards and I'm afraid it may have jumped a tooth...