Ramblings of life long Ford man

[RCC]

Thing I liked best about cologne 2.8 was gear drive timing. Pushrod 4.0 is quite durable but replacing timing chain is no easy job. Why didn't Ford make it gear drive too?
They should have since you can't replace chain without putting motor....

 

[franklin2]

They do not make vehicles to last forever. If they make it 10 years or 200,000, they consider that way beyond the design life. You should never have to pull the engine to change the chains. You are supposed to buy a new truck.

 

[RCC]

You are so correct RonD.
Use it long as possible, toss it and get another. People that want to keep old trucks running forever are delusional throwbacks from a bygone era.
God help me 'cause one of them!

 

[RCC]

Screw throw away mentality.
Going to keep 96 Ranger on the road till I'm too old to twist a wrench. Saw FOMOCO pushrod 4.0 crate motor on web I'd love to get. Just $5K...

 

[Bill]

The Cologne V4 and V6 engines came with a camshaft gear with a neoprene/plastic fiber, something like that, pressed on it that would disintegrate at around 50k-60k miles. They were a metric cut. In North America the replacement was SAE, which required more work to replace the gear on the crankshaft. In Europe you could get away with just replacing the camshaft gear. I guess the advantage was that the engine didn't have to be pulled. The disadvantage is it usually failed without warning which left people stranded. I flipped a few cars in the late 80s that I bought cheap because they wouldn't run. A Saab Sonnet with a V4, several 2.6L Capris, and a Bobcat and another Capri with a 2.8L.

There's some history here. The Cologne V6 was designed after a V4 that was cast at the same Ford plant. It had interchangeable parts with the 1.8L-2.6L Cologne V6 engines. I replaced a cracked timing cover on a 2.6 with one I got off of a V4. It got cracked because I set up the 2.6 on a bench and started it without fastening it. My idiot friend walk up to it and opened the throttle and the torque spun it off the bench and on to the floor. The timing cover, one valve cover were the only things that were damaged along with a chip out of the garage floor. So, the lesson here is don't do what I did if you are surrounded by idiots in the garage.

Ford Taunus V4 engine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

They do not make vehicles to last forever. If they make it 10 years or 200,000, they consider that way beyond the design life. You should never have to pull the engine to change the chains. You are supposed to buy a new truck.

IMO it was a bandaid on a out of date engine.

They don't require the engine to be pulled to replace timing chains now... but nobody cares because generally the last forever.

So then they came out with wet belt driven oil pumps instead...

 

[Rick W]

I firmly believe the reason Ford stoped using the international 7.3 diesel was because it was totally bulletproof and you can’t sell new trucks if the old ones keep running….

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I firmly believe the reason Ford stoped using the international 7.3 diesel was because it was totally bulletproof bad you can’t sell new trucks of the old ones keep running….

Well they sure took care of that issue with the 6.0... but now nobody wants them.

 

[Shran]

I guess I don't mind the 2.8, the fuel pump is a huge pain to replace though... and the cooling system is kind of stupid. Availability of certain parts are a killer on that engine, specifically things like the Duraspark distributor or smog things if you need to pass emissions... it gets frustrating trying to track things down that have been NLA for years or decades.

I can pick out things I severely dislike about any RBV drivetrain setup. Most of them are not dealbreakers.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The base 2.8 is pretty tough.

I still have the duraspark dizzy from mine just in case...

 

[Shran]

The base 2.8 is pretty tough.

I still have the duraspark dizzy from mine just in case...

In case you need to Control-Z your V8 swap???

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

In case you need to Control-Z your V8 swap???

It's already duraspark, I was thinking future fleet expansion...

 

[fastpakr]

Thing I liked best about cologne 2.8 was gear drive timing. Pushrod 4.0 is quite durable but replacing timing chain is no easy job. Why didn't Ford make it gear drive too?
They should have since you can't replace chain without putting motor....

I must be forgetting something about the pushrod 4.0... Why can't you replace the timing chain with the motor in place?

Yes, I realize the SOHC engine is a whole different story.

 

[Shran]

I must be forgetting something about the pushrod 4.0... Why can't you replace the timing chain with the motor in place?

Yes, I realize the SOHC engine is a whole different story.

You definitely can replace it with the engine in place, just a pain like any other engine. I guess I don't see a timing chain as being inferior to timing gears either but there are probably arguments to be made either way.

 

[fastpakr]

You definitely can replace it with the engine in place, just a pain like any other engine. I guess I don't see a timing chain as being inferior to timing gears either but there are probably arguments to be made either way.

Same. Honestly I don't mind timing belts either, as long as the replacement interval is reasonably long. Spending a few hours tearing into the front of an engine every 90-100k seems pretty minor. Just did it over the weekend on my new (to me) daily driver.