Looks great. Ready for another 100k.
Under the valve cover, 2008 Crown Vic
- Thread starter Bird's_Garage
- Start date
i still see a lot of wear. You don't need flat tappets to see benefits of ZDDP.
I had an issued police interceptor 4.6L and it got a dealership oil change every 5000 miles. Not sure what oil, but probably cheap bulk 5W20.
The amount of hours you could accumulate in 5000 miles was shocking honestly. I could do 12 hours with the engine on and only do 50 miles a shift or less sometimes. My engine ate a quart of oil every 5000 miles. I would top it off with the department top off oil, which was Napa conventional 5W30.
In our case, the cars were well maintained. We paid the dealership for all repairs and they did a good job repairing the cars. They gave them full inspections every 5000 miles. New brakes every 10K or 15K miles and new tires probably at the same time.
The amount of hours you could accumulate in 5000 miles was shocking honestly. I could do 12 hours with the engine on and only do 50 miles a shift or less sometimes. My engine ate a quart of oil every 5000 miles. I would top it off with the department top off oil, which was Napa conventional 5W30.
In our case, the cars were well maintained. We paid the dealership for all repairs and they did a good job repairing the cars. They gave them full inspections every 5000 miles. New brakes every 10K or 15K miles and new tires probably at the same time.
Regular oil changes.
That's impressive that you can see that. I'd guess there is immeasurable wear and you are just seeing witness marks where the roller contacts the cam. After all, there are no shearing surfaces here.
What wear can you see?
My past life at AAP, demands a comment, we had several Police department as Commercial Accounts, sold lots of Batteries and the occasional Alternator, they run the cop cars almost 24/7 , small break at shift change, I actually dated a Police Dispatcher for about 5 years, friends with great bed side manners if you understand me. So Valvoline keeps it clean, without doubt, I have a good friend who used to work at VIOC their oil is really good, regular DINO, not special, although i suspect it's more like semi synthetic, I used it in my Buick Century and it loved it. my 2 cents,
SEXY! My 2010 P7B has 98k on it, I could only hope under the cover would look as good as yours!
Any idea if there was any work done to the timing chain system? Mine has a slight rattle at startup and its being caused by worn plastic timing chain guides, and or tensioners. Its a pretty involved fix, probably something I'd farm out.
Any slight rattle at startup?
When I first got it, it had a startup rattle after sitting for a few days that would last maybe half a second. My dad said it was worse with the Motorcraft oil filter that was on it when he bought it. He switched to the Mobil 1 and it was there but less. When I got it, I used the Fram toughguard or ultra, depending on what was in stock. It doesn't have a startup rattle for me with those filters, so I'm going to keep using them.
Not just worn, there's almost surely pieces of guide in your oil pan. Not necessarily as bad as it sounds, but not great. I think the majority of modulars are running around with failed guides and no one knows because they seem to "tolerate" it
Thanks for the detailed response, I'm now considering a filter change based on your experience.
I owned three jeeps that were built in the 90's with the 4 liter straight six (great engine! over 200k with each) I experienced low oil pressure for about 5 seconds after start up using Napa gold oil filters. The Mopar OE filter built up oil pressure instantly during start up. Plenty of posts on the jeep forums about the issue and solution.
Since that experience I've been dead set using OE filters on everything. Now I guess I'll go into the adventure of aftermarket oil filters.
Have you done timing repairs before on the 4.6 modular? If so, how bad was it really to do? My skills on engine repair are limited to just accessory changes like pumps, radiators, intake manifolds and a few pushrods in my jeeps. I've never dug into internals before..
Think I would have any issues doing it myself? Metal guides, new tensioners, any other wear item accessible while in there.
I plan on pushing this car as long as it will last, hopefully over 300k. I will have to do the guides at some point, it only has 95k on it now, 5000 hours.
When should I have them replaced, and do you think I can handle the job myself? The replacement is rated at about 8 hours per side? That's an insane amount of money to farm out..
Sure I've done a timing set on a 4.6 2V, but it was in a 4wd F150 which makes dropping the oil pan stupid easy. Before you undertake the job I'd want to pull the pan and look for pieces of guides. In lieu of that it might be possible to get the proper scope in there and poke around, but it might be difficult to see the very bottom of the pan or into the pump pickup (car pans may be shaped differently than truck pans, not sure)
You could definitely do the job yourself if you just plan. There's a few specialty tools that are nice to have (cam lockouts, front seal driver, blah blah), and compile a complete parts list including things like front main seal, etc. May want to do the water pump while you're there and so on. You may need a longer bolt for re-designed guides
Plenty of vids, I actually liked this one and it's in a car (Mustang IIRC)
^^^check the vid comments, too. And don't order guides from MMR -- but they're a great source for the Ford Racing replacement tensioners
Not fleets that maintain a tight PM schedule. Even though they are run hard and idle more than a privately owned vehicle, a well run fleet will have cleaner engines. Lived it for 40 years as of 2021.