Surprises when doing tensioner and guide replacement.

[gw33gp]

With 254K miles, I decided to do the full tensioner and guide replacement. First surprise was both cam chain guides were in good condition and functioning normally. The second surprise was the tensioner for the crankshaft to jackshaft was completely broken off. The guide was still there but the chain was just flopping around due to the lack of a tensioner. I think it had been that way for a long time. I don't know why it didn't make any noise or jump a tooth on the sprocket. I got lucky there.

The really big surprise was Ford installed an engine that was meant for a 2WD Ranger. There is no balance shaft! I bought the parts for the balance shaft and hope I can return them.

The Ford parts supplier also sent the wrong sprocket that goes on the crank that drive the chain to the jackshaft. Mine was still in good condition, so I reused it.

 

[Otis413]

I noticed the engine in my '03 doesn't have a balance shaft, I don't know if it was ever changed but the date on the block is right for an '03 and I didn't see any obvious signs that it had been changed.

 

[Jim_Philly]

I'm getting ready to pull my '03 4.0 to do the timing cassettes etc. Already found out they skipped the EGR that year. Now I need to go see if there's a balance shaft on the FX4 I guess!

Did/are you guys going OEM, Cloyes, Melling, or...?

 

[G8orFord]

My '01 XLT 4x4 didn't have the balance shaft either.

 

[gw33gp]

It sounds like it is not all that rare to have a 4WD 4.0 SOHC engine in a 4WD Ranger. It seems Ford did not keep very good track of these engines. I wonder how many 2WD 4.0 SOHC engines ended up with the balance shaft.

Since new I have always had a kind of mild vibration at certain speeds. I never could find the source and just learned to live with it since it was only at fairly high speed. I do wonder if the lack of a balance shaft contributed to the damage of the tensioner for the crank/jackshaft chain.

I went totally OEM for the parts to do the cam timing rebuild. I did go with a Melling oil pump because they have a high volume pump. I use a micron bypass oil filter that takes about 15% of the oil. With lower mileage engine the stock oil pump has enough capacity for that. I feel a higher mileage engine needs more oil flow to keep the oil pressure where it should be, especially with a bypass oil filter that takes some of the oil.

It took a lot of research to find all the right OEM parts. If anyone needs a list of these parts, I would be happy to share. This job is a difficult job and requires some special tools. Fortunately, one of my brothers is a professional mechanic and has a shop where we did the work.

 

[Snoranger]

The balance shaft was only used in the early set 4x4 SOHC motors, I don’t remember what year they stopped using it altogether, but it was around 02.
The only reason they used it was to lower the NVH level in the Explorer in 4wd (you know Ford didn’t care about the Ranger.) They didn’t need it in the ‘02+ chassis Explorer...The issue was gone.

 

[gw33gp]

That is interesting. I used a YouTube video by FordTechMakuloco as a guide for the work I did. He did not say what year 4WD Ranger he worked on, but the hood lip had the raised portion in the middle to wrap around the higher grill. I don't remember what year that change occurred but it should have been after 03, maybe 04. The engine he worked on did have the balance shaft.

I have no reason to doubt what you are saying and don't know the facts about it, but am showing some evidence that Ford continued using the balance shaft a least a couple years later than 02.

BTW, what is NVH level? I have not heard that term before.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Noise Vibration and Harshness

 

[Snoranger]

BTW, what is NVH level? I have not heard that term before.

Noise Vibration and Harshness

What he said... It’s a term used by the marketing department to say “it’s quieter in our vehicle than it is in they’re vehicle...buy this”.


Explorer guys have been swapping in non-balance shaft motors for years and claiming they can’t tell any difference at all.

 

[gw33gp]

OK, thanks for the schooling.

 

[Jim_Philly]

It took a lot of research to find all the right OEM parts. If anyone needs a list of these parts, I would be happy to share. This job is a difficult job and requires some special tools. Fortunately, one of my brothers is a professional mechanic and has a shop where we did the work.

It would be much appreciated! For now, I was going to start with this list, which seems to be maintained since the last edit was February of 2020 -

Solved - SOHC V6 Timing Chain Related PNs

Listed below are Ford part numbers for SOHC V6 timing chain related components. I try to keep this list current. Two possible discount online Ford OEM suppliers are tousleyfordparts.com and tascaparts.com Jackshaft/primary timing chain kit 2U3Z6D256CA includes: Crankshaft bolt harmonic balancer...

www.explorerforum.com

 

[DILLARD000]

From everthing I've read, the sense is the Ford final assembly plant engineers\managers at some point after 2001,
decided the BalancerShaft was a "Rube Goldberg Machine" (google it) AKA OverlyDesigned\Expensive\Unecessary,
& used whatever V6~4.0~SOHC block from Cologne that they had in stock & was handy , with or without BS, in both 2wd and 4wd models.
So anyone thinking of replacing related Timing components should drop the lower oil pan & take a look before ordering parts;
the BalancerShaft, if equipped, can be seen up thru the girdle, along with the oil pump.

With 240k miles on this 2001 V6~4.0L~SOHC, when the time comes to do this work,
my thought was I'd possibly just snip\delete the BalancerChain & abandon the BS in place,
as it likely drags the engine down by a few horses.

 

[gw33gp]

It would be much appreciated! For now, I was going to start with this list, which seems to be maintained since the last edit was February of 2020 -

Solved - SOHC V6 Timing Chain Related PNs

Listed below are Ford part numbers for SOHC V6 timing chain related components. I try to keep this list current. Two possible discount online Ford OEM suppliers are tousleyfordparts.com and tascaparts.com Jackshaft/primary timing chain kit 2U3Z6D256CA includes: Crankshaft bolt harmonic balancer...

www.explorerforum.com

I will organize my list and post it. It might take a day or two, I just got back from a long trip and have many things to catch up on.

From what I found, there are some things on an Explorer that are different than Ranger. Most are the same but make sure what you order fits the Ranger.

 

[19Walt93]

The early 4.0 ohv's were limited to 4500 rpm's, a Ford FSE told me that was to cover up a poor job of balancing them. The whole timing chain setup on the SOHC engine is a rube goldberg design, balance shaft or not. If the Germans had been willing to cast a mirror image head for the right side and drive both cams off the front it would have made life in the service department a lot easier. Instead they used one head casting and drove the right cam from the back, maybe the engineer's cousin sold timing chain.

 

[Jim_Philly]

The early 4.0 ohv's were limited to 4500 rpm's, a Ford FSE told me that was to cover up a poor job of balancing them. The whole timing chain setup on the SOHC engine is a rube goldberg design, balance shaft or not. If the Germans had been willing to cast a mirror image head for the right side and drive both cams off the front it would have made life in the service department a lot easier. Instead they used one head casting and drove the right cam from the back, maybe the engineer's cousin sold timing chain.

I thought the whole thing was that they didn't want to redesign the block whatsoever and so the jackshaft in the former camshaft -- uh -- slot (?) had to drive both. If both cam chains were up front you'd have up to 4 chains stacked one one end (left cam, right cam, crankshaft, balance shaft). But maybe that would've been a lesser evil than the essentially inaccessible rear chain.