Ranger 4.0 timing guides!

[TheRuley]

Hello BOTIG! Been lurking around for a bit, but here is my first post!

I needed a new daily and i ended up landing on a ford ranger. I live on a farm which is a 12km trip down a gravel road to get to, so i needed something that was going to be rugged, practical, kind of a beater, but something that still runs good and that i can get parts cheaply for.

I bought this 2001 ranger for cheap knowing fully well about the timing guides on these engines...issues are not an issue if the price is reflective of it.

There are two kinds of ford 4.0L SOHC V6 engines-those that have had the timing guides done, and those that need the timing guides done. Doing the guides is 100% an engine out job. No getting around it.

You will need a space where you can thrash on your truck for a couple days at the minimum-i took a full weekend, plus a full week of wrenching every evening after work. There is a lot of hullabaloo to deal with to get the engine out but with some patience and grit, even an amateur like me can do it.

This dude on youtube made a very helpful video on doing the guides on this engine.


Most of the engine gaskets were leaking, so it was greasy messy work, so i diddnt take too many pictures. I changed just about every gasket and seal that i could while i had the engine out.

There is supposed to be a timing guide there!

Got half of it.

The other half was kept by the retaining bolt, which is behind the flex plate, hence the need to remove the engine from the truck.
The rest of it was in the oil pan. I ended up putting it back together like a puzzle to make sure i had every last bit out of the engine.

New cloyes guide installed

The front guides were still OK but I changed them too, along with a new water pump and fluids changed.

Truck has been flawless since i did this about a year and a half ago. Took it on a 3,000 km trip to visit my hometown and it never skipped a beat. It is my daily to get me to work. Fuel mileage isnt great but its still cheaper than a new car payment!

 

[ripcord]

Awesome job! Fortunately (unfortunately?) the transmission went out on my old 02 Explorer before I was forced to do the guides.

 

[MNgopher]

Awesome job! Fortunately (unfortunately?) the transmission went out on my old 02 Explorer before I was forced to do the guides.

Ditto - our 97 Explorer had the transmission go bad at 180,000 miles and between the transmission and timing chains, we moved on... in 2012. At last check, it was still on the road in Arizona, so someone took the time to take care of both issues!

 

[Falcon_LS]

Nice job! I'm eventually going to get around to doing this with my Explorer; it currently has just under 116,000 km (72,500 mi) on it accumulated over the course of the past 24 years.

 

[CarLuver]

you are lucky to have such a huge shop. so much i could do if i had one that big. no lift?

 

[Bailes1992]

The size of the US blows my mind at times. 12km dirt road to get to your farm? 12km here in the UK and I'm in another town/village with a totally different accent.

I love the Ranger. Unfortunately all we got over here was a lousy 2.5 turbo diesel.

 

[Kruse]

As a former Ford tech, I SWORE I would never own a vehicle that had the 4.0 sohc engine. I now have two of them. You said you put Cloyes parts back in. Do you remember the country of origin on those parts?
You are right about the gas mileage being sub-par. I picked up a 2005 sohc AWD Explorer about a year ago with 75K miles. After new plugs, the power is okay, but fuel mileage isn't as good as a modern vehicle. I feel the key to keeping the chain tensioners happy is to keep the oil changed frequently.
Forgive me if I missed it, but how many miles did your engine have when you needed to replace the chain tensioners?
Good luck on your ride!

 

[dnewton3]

The 4.0L SOHC was a bastardization of the old Cologne 4.0L OHV. They took a great engine and made it sub-par IMO.
Yes; the OHV version was down on HP relative to the SOHC, but it was torquey and very reliable and easy to work on. The timing guides, the jackshafts, etc all made the SOHC a giant pain in the butt which was going to demand intense maintenance at some point.

 

[Number_35]

@TheRuley, good work, and welcome to BITOG!

I see a Saskatchewan plate - what part of the province are you from? I lived in Regina as a young guy (Grades 4 through 7), long enough ago that I remember the Riders' first Grey Cup.

That tunnel looks very familiar as well - eastern BC on the TransCanada?

As I understand it, the Ford SOHC 4.0 was based on the pushrod 4.0, with a jackshaft replacing the in-block camshaft of the pushrod engine.

Seperate timing chains run to each head, one off the front of the jackshaft, and one off the back. Any work on the rear chain or guides involves pulling the engine. Thanks, Ford!

Anyway, good job, and I covet your shop!

The size of the US blows my mind at times. 12km dirt road to get to your farm? 12km here in the UK and I'm in another town/village with a totally different accent.

I love the Ranger. Unfortunately all we got over here was a lousy 2.5 turbo diesel.

Not the US, but rather one of the colonies!

 

[Wrenchturner44]

@ The Rukley.......great job! I take it that you also replaced other consumables like the coolant and heater hoses while you had the engine out? I just completed a head gasket job and I too replaced all the items that could be of questioned long term reliability issues.

 

[D60]

The size of the US blows my mind at times. 12km dirt road to get to your farm? 12km here in the UK and I'm in another town/village with a totally different accent.

I love the Ranger. Unfortunately all we got over here was a lousy 2.5 turbo diesel.

I figured he was CA based upon the pics but mention of km. In the US he'd use miles

Number 35 confirmed my suspicion in post #9 (I didn't notice plates)

 

[D60]

{snip} The timing guides, the jackshafts, etc all made the SOHC a giant pain in the butt which was going to demand intense maintenance at some point.

Ford engineer smiles, thinks to himself "Job well done" and scans the room for the next thing that ain't broke so he can fix it......eyes settle on the 2V Triton. "Aha! What's better than 2 valves? 3 valves of course! Buckle up Team TFI, we're gonna pull an all-nighter!"

 

[TheRuley]

you are lucky to have such a huge shop. so much i could do if i had one that big. no lift?

Its my father in law's shop. He mainly uses it for servicing tractors and heavy trucks. A lift might be in the cards one day but not anytime soon.

The size of the US blows my mind at times. 12km dirt road to get to your farm? 12km here in the UK and I'm in another town/village with a totally different accent.

I love the Ranger. Unfortunately all we got over here was a lousy 2.5 turbo diesel.

I live in canada! Actually bigger than the united states, only with 1/10 the population. The prairies (alberta, saskatchewan, manitoba) are big and flat. Cities and towns can be 50-250km apart from each other.

As a former Ford tech, I SWORE I would never own a vehicle that had the 4.0 sohc engine. I now have two of them. You said you put Cloyes parts back in. Do you remember the country of origin on those parts?
You are right about the gas mileage being sub-par. I picked up a 2005 sohc AWD Explorer about a year ago with 75K miles. After new plugs, the power is okay, but fuel mileage isn't as good as a modern vehicle. I feel the key to keeping the chain tensioners happy is to keep the oil changed frequently.
Forgive me if I missed it, but how many miles did your engine have when you needed to replace the chain tensioners?
Good luck on your ride!

Truck had 190,000 km on it when i bought it and the rear guide was already broken. It now has 230,000 km on it. I never checked but i'm assuming the guides are probably made in china.
It gets whatever dexos 5w30 full synthetic is on sale with a wix filter every 4,000-5,000 km.

@TheRuley, good work, and welcome to BITOG!

I see a Saskatchewan plate - what part of the province are you from? I lived in Regina as a young guy (Grades 4 through 7), long enough ago that I remember the Riders' first Grey Cup.

That tunnel looks very familiar as well - eastern BC on the TransCanada?

As I understand it, the Ford SOHC 4.0 was based on the pushrod 4.0, with a jackshaft replacing the in-block camshaft of the pushrod engine.

Seperate timing chains run to each head, one off the front of the jackshaft, and one off the back. Any work on the rear chain or guides involves pulling the engine. Thanks, Ford!

Anyway, good job, and I covet your shop!


Not the US, but rather one of the colonies!

Weyburn! And yes. I grew up in kelowna and make the drive out there every 2-3 years.

Honestly a really dumb design. I would rather have got the 3.0l engine but this was the only ranger i could find that wasn't $8,000+ or $500 and completely clapped out. My old car died a slow death at the end of summer 2021, which was right at the peak of the used car market being completely insane...took what i could get.

@ The Rukley.......great job! I take it that you also replaced other consumables like the coolant and heater hoses while you had the engine out? I just completed a head gasket job and I too replaced all the items that could be of questioned long term reliability issues.

Yep. Hoses, belt gaskets, spark plugs...did as much as i could with the engine out because everything under the hood is packaged tight-tight. I have more work to do on the truck but (hopefully) the engine bay should be good to go for a long time

 

[Number_35]

Weyburn! And yes. I grew up in kelowna and make the drive out there every 2-3 years.

Honestly a really dumb design. I would rather have got the 3.0l engine but this was the only ranger i could find that wasn't $8,000+ or $500 and completely clapped out. My old car died a slow death at the end of summer 2021, which was right at the peak of the used car market being completely insane...took what i could get.

Take solace in what they say about the 3.0: "Power of the 2.3, economy of the 4.0".

 

[Tdbo]

Take solace in what they say about the 3.0: "Power of the 2.3, economy of the 4.0".

But dependable as an anvil.

 

[D60]

But dependable as an anvil.

Meh, so's the 2.3. And the power guys were making with SVO Mustangs when turbo'd. .....those engines are tough.

 

[ford46guy]

The 4.0OHV is very reliable ( I have one),but now that the SOHC is repaired property you should be good for 150K miles if you change the oil. They sell pretty high mileage ones here, they seem to pass from owner to owner.

 

[Dave9]

It's not just changing the oil, also new timing chain tensioners. The tensioners springs get weak, and this causes the chain slap at startup before oil pressure makes them hydraulic. The slap puts stress on the plastic timing chain cassettes which get brittle as they get older.

Some people have gotten into the practice of flooring the gas pedal to shut off the injectors while starting the engine, let it crank for a few seconds to build up oil pressure before letting off the pedal so it starts. I've never done that with my 4.0L SOHC but if it starts rattling, I will, and will change the tensioners.

Use Motorcraft replacement tensioners, not 3rd party. "Usually" (though this is historic data from past years before the plastic cassettes had as many years to get brittle), the 4.0L SOHC had several if not tens of thousands of miles left in it, between the initial startup rattle from weak tensioners, and destruction of the cassette enough to jump time... and then interference engine design so yeah, not built for the long term owner.

 

[TheRuley]

It's not just changing the oil, also new timing chain tensioners. The tensioners springs get weak, and this causes the chain slap at startup before oil pressure makes them hydraulic. The slap puts stress on the plastic timing chain cassettes which get brittle as they get older.

Some people have gotten into the practice of flooring the gas pedal to shut off the injectors while starting the engine, let it crank for a few seconds to build up oil pressure before letting off the pedal so it starts. I've never done that with my 4.0L SOHC but if it starts rattling, I will, and will change the tensioners.

Use Motorcraft replacement tensioners, not 3rd party. "Usually" (though this is historic data from past years before the plastic cassettes had as many years to get brittle), the 4.0L SOHC had several if not tens of thousands of miles left in it, between the initial startup rattle from weak tensioners, and destruction of the cassette enough to jump time... and then interference engine design so yeah, not built for the long term owner.

You are right. The failure of these guides was two things-1. The spring in the tensioners failing, causing the guide to prematurely wear
2. The early version of the guides were made of plastic that would get brittle over time and shatter-like mind did.

The guides were revised somewhere in the mid-2000's which gave them a metal spine, which made them a bit less break-y.

The tensioners are still considered to be a wear item and should get changed every so often-they are cheap enough and easy enough to do. I submerged my new ones in oil and plunged them down a few times to prime them before installing.

Either cloyes, melling, motorcraft...they all at least appear to be the same components. Wouldn't surprise me if they were all made by the same chinese factory, just re-badged by these companies. You get that a lot in the parts world nowadays.

 

[14Accent]

Great work, OP!

Once upon a time, I dated a woman who drove a 2001 Sport Trac with the SOHC. It had ~150k on it when we met, and had significant timing chain rattle around 2500 RPM while under load. I replaced the transmission at ~180k miles, chains still rattling. Last I heard, the thing caught fire due to leaking VC gaskets at around 250k miles, still running strong.