We use OEM parts on our vehicles. They are all Police Cars. We get Motorcraft parts on all engine parts or sensors. Go to this site and price them through Ford to compare to aftermarket. I would change the chains also. Just purchase the timing kit and install all of it.

http://www.fordparts.com/Landing/Motorcraft.aspx

 

Thanks, i've got a dealership in close range with rock-bottom prices on most of this stuff, so I'll take your advice and go the Ford route.

Now for the update.. the shavings depitcted in the pictures of the valve cover and the cam gear are apparently plastic. I put them up to a magnet and nothing. They feel thin and malleable like plastic to the touch, and I tried grinding them into my fingers and they disintegrated. So they're plastic. But I'm not out of the woods yet. I did find one metal flake, not a shaving but a small quasi-circular flake that the magnet would not pick up, it was sitting on the cam gear itself. I presume the chain guides/arms are aluminum? Further, as one of my friends pointed out, that cam gear in the picture is a little worn. I may end up replacing the sprockets this go-around.

Here's where I'd welcome more input from the forum. It's apparent that I've probably got metal in the oil pan, in the oil pickup tube, etc. So that I know what to expect, for planning purposes, what should I expect to do to clean all of the metal out and hopefully save this motor? Oil pan will need to come down I'm sure, what does it take to make that happen with the engine still in the vehicle? Will the oil pan come out in-place, or will I have to pull out the driveshaft, unbolt the tranny, and slide it back a few inches to get the oil pan out? Once the oil pan is out, then what? I presume clean the pan, clean the oil pump pickup screen, what else?

Thanks again for the advice!

 

Quick update.. I spent several days trying to get that blasted water pump out. Knowing that she was probably in for a timing set and a set of lash adjusters and cam followers at the very least, I didn't want to sacrifice the existing water pump trying to get it out, even if they are only 25 bucks. I put an ungodly amount of downward force on the pump body using a 1/4" male ratchet in the lubrication hole in the top of the pump (I presume you use it to lube the bearing), prying back against the block with probably more than 150 ft-lbs of force.. it didn't budge. What finally got it out was me tapping on the spindle (which I didn't want to do) back and forth, left to right, and then wedging in my wood chisel in the top, and eventually a prybar. After spending hours and hours over several days trying to get it out while being as gentle as I could, a good 15 minutes of fervent work in that manner finally got it out.

Now I face a similar fate with the crank pulley.. so far I can't find a good way to get the main bolt out. I have nothing in proximity to wedge against, and nothing on the face of the pulley to grab. I tried installing two of the bolts on my crank puller kit, they're grade 5, but I put enough force on one of them to bend it back about an inch. Now I'm looking for a decent size "belt wrench" but Sears, Harbor Freight, Advance Autoparts and the local hardware store don't seem to carry them. Looks like it may end up being mail-ordered... great! Meanwhile I'm going to try snagging a big prybar and using the two bolts in the crank pulley, levered against the ground. I'm really trying not to use the transmission for backpressure; I've read people who said they put their car in 2nd gear and it provided sufficient grip on the entire crank to pull out the main bolt. It sounds like a good way to screw up something buried deep in the tranny to me. I've also heard that the thrust bearings are very sensitive in case you decide to take a hammer to the crank pulley (dunno why anyone would do that).

If you guys have any comment on using the tranny for pressure to break the bolt free, I'd love to hear it. Likewise, if you have any comments on how I can go about flushing out metal flakes from the engine that resulted from a destroyed timing chain tensioner arm (assuming that's what I find), I'm all ears. Thanks!

 

First..I feel your pain..where you are I was last month
Goldie the X cop car lost oil pressure..pressure on and off..I performed all the usual..oil change pressure sensor..flushed the oil cooler( you need to do this ) pulled the valve covers and it looked just like yours.. particals had gotten in the oil pump check valve guides were worn out and broken..chains had so much slack I dont see how it didnt bend a valve..you must replace the oil pump and chains and adjusters..they come in a kit..I used a Melling pump.. blow out the oil passage to the pump screen and filter..contrary to popular belief the oil pump pick up tube bolts CAN be removed useing an 8 mm wrench..without removing or loosening the pan...I used hemostats to grab the screws..now after the chains and adjusters are installed rotate the crank to TDC on each cylinder and check for loose cam followers..Oh ..backtracking..set the motor on time before you tear it down !! Clean up was done with a couple cans of Brake clean and an air blower..flush the oil pan with Diesel while its all open..5w20 oil..I hope this helps you..it is a big job and no fun at all but I saved my motor..the stalling is probably from the timeing..though I would replace the crank and cam sensers whilr you have the front cover off..follow the manuel to set the timing

 

You can loosen the balancer bolt by useing a socket and breaker bar wedged in the frame have someone bump the starter..use a good quality balancer puller set against the backed off bolt NOT in the bolt hole..you do not need to remove the water pump..but it cant hurt to replace it..remove the fan to give room to work on the damper

 

Flush out the oil pan and blow out the pickup tube..run the motor for about 100 miles and change the oil again..5w20..run 1000 miles..change it again..should be fine..

 

I used a socket and breaker bar for the damper bolt..wedge it against something in the proper direction .bump the starter..now tighten the bolt with the washer removed and rotate the motor to set it in time (marks on housing )the balancer will clear the bolt..usse a socked slightly smaller than the bolt ..set your puller against that

 

Thanks a bunch for the replies! I'm a little bit further along now, so I'll update this with comments and pictures once I have a chance to take them.

 

To address granpabobby's posts, and to update my progress on this (mostly for the benefit of others who may experience this problem), i'll do it in two parts:

First of all, that blasted crank pulley (and I mean that literally, I hit that sucker with ounces and ounces of PB blaster and hydraulic oil to get it to loosen up as much as possible) finally came out. The solution? Well.. as much as I didn't want to, I put an impact gun on it. I've got a Campbell Hausfeld, the regular ole Walmart special - the same thing you see at every tire shop - the medium sized gun,not the big mother with 400 ft-lbs. I hooked it up to my trusty 2 HP Harbor Freight compressor with the 8 gallon tank.. the compressor spent more time running than idle, and I pounded on it with the gun for a good 20 minutes. I'm not sure I moved it at all. What finally did it, was an OTC strap wrench, with leverage from a galvanized pipe, holding pressure on the crank pulley while I hit it with a 1/2" drive Craftsman inserted into the end of another galvanized pipe, like so:




That sucker worked like a champ. In case anyone would like to find one of these, they can be ordered through Sears' website, or Amazon, like so:


With that thing off (and I did put the wheel puller shaft inside the bolt hole, though the advice I was given in this thread to use the bolt instead makes much more sense), I could move on to the timing cover. Bolts came out with relative ease, the passenger side valve cover was already unbolted and the driver's side cover I left in place but backed off the 7 or 8 valve cover bolts that I could get to on that side. This would be the source of my tapping problem, I'm fairly sure:




As you can see, culprit #1, the chain guide (orange plastic piece on the top, for those unfamiliar) broke right off of the two bolts holding it in place. In fact I pulled it right out with my hand. Obviously with nothing keeping the chain from slacking, the chain would tend to tap-tap-tap against it, I'm thinking. In fact, this was the first sight I saw after I opened the timing cover:



Looky here, looky here! A piece of the guide broken off and laying down between the oil pump and the oil pan. Not good!

More to come in my next post.

 

And so it begins...





The astute among you would've probably noticed culprit #2 in my last post - the worn tensioner arm on the passenger side. But for a closer view of that:




Notice how the chain rides on top of the plastic tensioner arm over toward the right, but at the end (left) of the tensioner arm it seems to "sink inside" of it? That's because the chain has eaten away the plastic, and then began to eat into the metal.

Same thing on the driver's side, which would be culprit #3:





Same story over there. I have to wonder how this all gets started. We know how it ends - clogged pickup tube, an oil pump that doesn't want to work, etc. But I've got to believe that with only 90k miles, it must have been abused by the previous owners. Maybe long oil change intervals resulting in bad oil, the wrong grade of oil (10W30 rather than the recommended 5W20 synthetic)? Or maybe the oil pumps just aren't up to par. Such a shame, because I can't help but feel that the presence of all that metal in the oil is going to severely limit the life of this motor.

At least I can save the encoder wheel: