Aftermarket SOHC Timing chain guides?

[Saddle Tramp]

I have a 2011 SOHC 4.0 and was wondering if anyone has ever thought of having a machine shop or 3D print shop make some chain guildes out of brass to replace the plastic ones. I know they were redesigned and are beefier than the ones before the recall but still wonder.

What are your thoughts?

 

[RonD]

It was the tensioner springs that were the issue, all fixed now

I would only use Motorcraft tensioner though not 3rd party
3rd party chains and guides are fine to use

1997-2003 4.0l SOHC
Some of the springs lost tension(not a 100% failure rate), so on start up the long chains banged on their guides until oil pressure took over
After awhile of these startups the guide would break loose at one end, and then you would hear the rattle at startup and mid-RPMs

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Sorry. I was a little tired when I posted.
I meant guides.
Edited it to fix the wording.

 

[RonD]

Guides were never an issue with the 4.0l SOHC, they broke because tensioners went bad

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Wow. I'm really off on this.
Thanks for the correction

 

[Uncle Gump]

Just to add...

These issues early on caused much hatred for the 4.0L SOHC. Still today... people like yourself still question the overall reliability of them.

They are weird... but I sure do like the way they drive. I've heard the rattle on a couple... on a cold start up. I've also seen what happens if you don't fix it in time. Pretty much total destruction.

Just keep your oil changed...and carry on as normal. Pay attention to cold start sounds. If you hear it change (will sound like a one second drum roll on your valve cover)… get in there and service it.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Thanks. ?

 

[19Walt93]

Brass guides would shed particles into the oil, I'd stick with the Ford parts. We saw a fair number of noisy early SOHC's but I don't think I ever saw an 04 or newer with a problem. I bought 2 new 4.0 SOHC Rangers but I still don't like the engine. It's a typical overcomplicated, over engineered, Rube Goldberg/German product. I wish they had revised the 4.0 OHV to squeeze a little more power out instead. They had finally replaced all the leaky cork gaskets and fixed the OHV's oil leaks so I guess they felt they needed to build us a new set of problems.