New member

[HamiTx]

Hi everyone newbie here. Sorry to just dive in but
I’m hoping beyond hope that someone can help me with what looks like a catastrophic problem.
I am now the proud owner of a 1997 explorer sport 2 door. Bought it with a rattle that comes and goes. I’m not savvy and was told it was the cat but on further internet investigation it sounds more like it could be the timing chain. Is this always fatal by the time you hear the rattle? Any help would be fantastic so Thankyou in advance.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Replace the timing chain before it goes on its own, and ruins the engine. How many miles are on it?

 

[Mike65]

Welcome to the forum. Which 4.0 engine do you have the SOHC or the OHV?

 

[BrooklynBay]

I was wondering about the same thing. The OHV could be done while the engine is still in the vehicle while the SOHC requires removing the engine.

 

[HamiTx]

Welcome to this forum! Replace the timing chain before it goes on its own, and ruins the engine. How many miles are on it?

141905

 

[HamiTx]

Thankyou It has 141905 miles. Other than the noise it's immaculate for it's year and has lots of maintenance work done by the previous owner.

Welcome to the forum. Which 4.0 engine do you have the SOHC or the OHV?

SOHC

 

[C420sailor]

Mine started rattling around 120k, and was still rattling (more loudly) when I pre-emptively replaced the engine at 202k.

Some will last a really long time. Others won’t.

 

[Mike65]

We have a 99 Sport with the 4.0 SOHC w/around 120K miles, sometimes rattles on startup only. We also had a 99 Sport we bought new, after about 100K miles it started to rattle on startup. I tried to replace the chain tensioners & it did not help. What we used to do was crank it for a few seconds to get oil up top & it would not rattle on startup.

 

[C420sailor]

If you’re only getting startup rattle, I highly recommend going to mechanical tensioners before you shatter a cassette.

If you’re getting rattle at idle and above…the damage has probably already been done.