4.0L SOHC Pulling the SOHC for inspection

[red78ta]

Got back from Anchorage and went fishing, my buddy and I got two cohos and 17 dungee crab. And it was a nice day out on the water. Got back to the ranger today, and I’ve got her almost all stripped down. I did a leak down test once the roller followers were off and three jugs were great and 3 jugs were bad and leaking thru the intake. (Not all on the same side). The timing kits inside were still on but had obviously started to fail. Pulled good chunks of plastic out. I’ll take the heads off tomorrow and decide how to proceed with the valves. I learned a few things from the first time around too, like stretching a garbage bag around the engine when I flip it over fluids runoff into it and not onto the floor.

 

[red78ta]

Decided to go back out tonite bc I wanted to redo the Leakdown and recheck bc it didn’t seem like the amount of air coming from the intake ports would account for how bad the cylinder was leaking. And yea upon further investigation I could hear air hissing from the crankcase as well… so looks like rings are on the menu now, and if I’m doing rings might as well put new pistons in as well.

Anyone have a recommendation for a good piston/ring set?

 

[red78ta]

So I thought more about it and I’m just gonna go with new rings. The pistons look good, they weren’t contacted by any valves, and then I won’t have to rebalance anything. So I ordered up some parts and now get to clean, label, and wait.

 

[red78ta]

Started cleaning up the heads and lapping the leaking intake valves today. When I did the leak down test, 2-4-6 came back at 0%, which I would have thought was user error if 1-3-5 hasn’t come back bad, like 60-80%. So hearing air from the crankcase and intake on 1-3-5 I decided rings for all pistons and I’d try to lap the intake valves to an acceptable spot. I gotta be honest, I didn’t think I could get the valves there, I could see light around parts when shining a light in there. But I figured I’d try. I did the old tube on a screwdriver trick to start them out, and finished them by hand. Can’t see light anymore and doing a water test now. 1-3 leaked some after about 15min, 5 is holding strong and I’m gonna check it again in an hour. I’ll hit 1-3 again at least by hand and re test.

 

[red78ta]

They all leaked some, I think. The towels I put under the fuel injector port all were damp. I mean they looked pretty damp, but the water levels didn’t look to have gone down. I think I’ll dry them out really well and re test them again before I do any more lapping.

In other vehicle news, the explorer that I picked up for free incase I needed the engine; I got the pigtail for the ignition today and fixed that, so I don’t have to alligator clip the wires together anymore lol. Once the door handles get in I can slap those on and that car will be good to go. I mean it’s only got 50k on it but it’s a 2004 so it probably never had a timing kit done on it so that probably is due but I’m not doing that anytime soon. Lol.