How hard is it to drop an oilpan in a 94 aero 4.0 AWD to take a look at rod bearings etc???

 

Removal

1. Position the vehicle on a suitable hoist.

2. Disconnect the battery ground cable (14301).

3. Remove engine cover.

4. Remove rear engine support and transmission (7003). Refer to «Section 07-01A».

5. Remove starter motor.

6. Remove flywheel (6375). Refer to «Section 03-01C».

7. On E-4WD vehicles:

a. Support front suspension lower arm (3078) with transmission jack.

b. Note bolt arm position and remove both left lower control arm pivot bolts.

c. Remove transmission jack and allow control arm to hang. It is retained by shock absorber and ball joint.

d. Support front suspension lower arm (3079) with transmission jack.

e. Note bolt arm position and remove both right lower control arm pivot bolts.

f. Remove transmission jack and allow control arm to hang. It is retained by shock absorber and ball joint.

g. Support front carrier assembly with transmission jack.

h. Remove bolts and rear pivot crossmember.

i. Remove bolts and nuts servicing front carrier assembly to front drive axle crossmember.

j. Lower front carrier assembly enough to access oil pan (6675).

8. Drain the engine oil and remove the oil bypass filter (6714).

9. Remove the engine oil pan bolts and nuts.

10. Remove the oil pan.

11. Remove the crankshaft oil windage baffle (6L680) and oil pump (6600) assembly.

12. Note: Leave the wedge seal tabs sealed in position in the cavities between the rear main cap and cylinder block (6010) to help ensure a good seal in these areas.

Carefully lift the rear outside corners of the oil pan gasket and use a suitable sharp instrument to cut off the soft rubber wedge seal tabs.

13. Thoroughly clean all sealing surfaces with Ford Metal Surface Cleaner F4AZ-19A536-RA or equivalent meeting Ford specification WSE-M5B392-A.

Dick

 

Question, why do you need to take a look at the bearings? Is the engine it a non running condition now? What are symtoms that may lead to to belive you have a rod bearing issue? Rod bearings rarely wear out on modern engines unless the engine has been run low on oil or the oil passages get blocked. This is not likly to happen on a well maintained vehicle. If proper lubrication is maintained, the rod bearing will never wear out. The only time the rod bearings get any wear is at startup. Once the engine is running and the oil pressure has built, the bearing never touches the journal.

 

I have a 91 4.0 and the rod bearings were shot, and easy to replace. On rwd model the pan drops in 20 minutes. No big deal. There does not appear to be enough oil to these bearings and they are in stock at the auto parts stores which means they tend to wear. Mains get continuous oil but rods only get shots of oil when the holes line up, they really do lead a tougher life and my thought is that they are too small on the 4.0.

When unbolted, the pan must clear the counterweights on crank. I had to turn mine until they were up. Then the pan just dropped and the rods were right there.

Ken

My mains were text book perfect but the rods were through three layers of metal.

 

Never heard of rod bearings going bad unless there was poor maint or mech failure of some kind.Maybe poor design but the 4.0l doesn't have that problem.


Dick

 

Well..... to do it on awd aero is more difficult then on 2 wd..... I drop the oil pan on my aero in 20 minutes

 

I removed the transmission in both vans on which I changed the oil pan gasket. One of them is an AWD, but I did not have to drop the front cross member. Using a combination of open ended wrenches, sockes, flex joints, and extensions, I was able to remove the oil pan by carefully lifting the engines off their mounts and manipulating it to gain clearance.

On both types of van, it was necessary to remove the transmission, which meant removing the rear drive shaft. On the AWD, it was necessary to remove the transfer case. It was also convenient to drop the exhaust Y-pipe and catalytic converter. It usually takes me much longer than 20 minutes to do this.

 

I'm praying for no oil pan leaks as I type..LOL

 

It's along and expensive story..First I got a noise I don't even remember what it started like, but it got worse almost like a rod knock but not as loud and I noticed when I put it in nuetral or park it would go away. So I took it to a tranny shop, I thought it might be a flexplate. I was told YEAH it was the flexplate spacer that's a common thing. 400$ I was qouted. Well they say that things where loose down there?? so they end up replacing flexplate starter torque conv and after all that they say it's in the motor, they thought maybe a lifter.590$ later. So scince I didn't have time to look into it myself we decide to take it to a mechanic(a friend of the inlaws) And he says it's a burned valve and qoutes us 800$ well after a week we get a call from mominlaw and it's 1.500$ he had the heads rebuilt and the rocker arm assy is new. Get the van back I go out start it up and put it in gear put foot on brake give it a little gas and the same noise is there nothing different.NICE SO I'm trieng to figure this out...The guy at the tranny shop said it could be a pilot bearing in the crank???. This a ll started after a waterpump went out. I am going to take off the serpitine belt and start it and see if the noise goes away via the waterpump. then I was thinking of taking a look under the oilpan. AndI'm wondering if a timing chain could be doing this?? This has been the worst mechanical experiance of my life.

 

When you bring something in for a noise or something like that and they diagnois it and it doesn't fix the problem you usually don't have to pay for their mistake. When ever you bring a problem anywhere and they diagnois it tell them up front that I'm only paying to get this issue fixed.. All other tries are on them. They are the experts thats why you are bringing it to them. They will usually spend more time to get a correct diagnosis. I do all my own work but a few times I had to take relatives cars to a dealer and what a mess. One time I told them to do a pan gasket on a crown VIC. They called me back and said it was the intake leaking. I said no its not its the pan! They said do you want the leak fixed I said yes go ahead. They called me back and said it still leaks its the oil pan..Guess what I paid for, the oil pan gasket change.
They lost all their labor profits..

I would say take the van to an expert diag tech and get a real diagnosis on the noise.


Dick

 

Gentlemen,

I highly recommend that anytime you have the pan down on any high mileage engine you check the rod bearings. After all, they are staring at you and it is only two nuts to see them. The cap insert will be perfect but the rod side will be torn up. This is too easy not to do and the parts are 26.00 at autozone and they stock them, ready to go. If a parts store stocks a part, that means they sell lots of them.

If you inspect the bearings and they are ok, just put them back. It is acceptable to reuse bearing inserts if they are ok. It just doesn't cost anything to look.

Rod bearings lead a hard life due to centrifugal loads, small size and dicey oiling. They do wear out first.

Ken

 

Ken I agree if you got it down Check em out..I wish my 86 vw van had an oil pan cause the big end con rods get egg shaped and boom. It has 190k on it...time bomb.



Dick

 

99f350sd that is what I should have done. Now my wifes stressed out because I'm angry that it didn't get fixed and she feels like it's starting a family war,so I have to bite this one. The thing that pisses me off is that the inlaws heard it isn't right and they just seem to be blowing it off. And her stepdad owns a bodyshop and acts if integrety is the most important atribute and the thing is if I where one of his friends he would probably already have the van back and being looked at.

 

Well you know family.. Thank em for trying and drop it..Tranny shop is another story.


Dick

 

always look at the top bearing for wear and pattern anomalies....the top bearing carries all the compression and power stroke load....

always use plastigage to measure bearing gap and wear, center of bearing and edges....available at all better parts houses that do engine rebuilding inhouse...also mic crank rod journals for round not egg shape and same side to side

ken is right, rod bearings are now the major wear item in modern engines....modern rings and cyl.s seldom wear with good oil due to modern block alloys and ring material....modern valve guides seldom wear out, its the lousy valve guide seals that harden and crack
changing oil religiously at 3>5 miles and using only top grade oils is the secret to long engine life

easy to kill even a 765is BMW $30k engine in 20k miles with no oil changes

rod bearings much easier to do with the engine out and upside down in engine stand

the real easy way is to do it once the right way