I can't say I wasn't told to do this.
When I bought this engine I had a few people tell me to do the guides / arms / tensioners while it was out. It had a sticker on the valve cover that indicated Ford replaced the parts at some point under warranty and it only had 114K on it. Judging by the copious amounts of RTV on the crank pulley and timing cover/head gasket area , I'm inclined to believe someone has done the timing components before. It also had ratcheting metal body tensioners, which I believe wouldn't be original for this engine ... should be plastic. This engine is now at 125000 miles.
I also didn't want to void the warranty on my salvageyard engine by opening it up or wasting money putting $300 of timing components into an engine with a spun bearing or something.
Once it was in, there was obvious chain rattle on startup. It kept getting worse and worse. Finally got to the point that I was worried about it jumping time on a cold start. The chains usually don't fail but it ended up being cheaper to get the whole cloyes kit with chains.
Just like the original engine to this car, the tensioner arms were worn through. The passenger side was just to the point that the chain was starting to ride on the tensioner piston. The driver's side wasn't far behind.
Of course being a Ford, it's absolutely awful to work on. I was able to get the driver's side valve cover on and off without removing the brake booster. Wipers have to come out first. I have all of the 2v timing tools from the head gasket job on my truck over the winter.
Probably could have got away without changing the chains (and saving a lot of time on valve covers) and just doing the guides/tensioners/arms but was very worried about the cam jumping. Felt much better with the holders securing the cams.
Now with 99% less timing chain rattle! Also looks like the engine started to varnish a bit on the passenger side. Life got in the way a lot this past year and I ended up going 11000 miles on this oil change
I do want to pick up another panther. As frustrating as they are to work on. This will definitely get done on any 2v modular I buy going forward ... seems that the guides / arms wear out.
When I bought this engine I had a few people tell me to do the guides / arms / tensioners while it was out. It had a sticker on the valve cover that indicated Ford replaced the parts at some point under warranty and it only had 114K on it. Judging by the copious amounts of RTV on the crank pulley and timing cover/head gasket area , I'm inclined to believe someone has done the timing components before. It also had ratcheting metal body tensioners, which I believe wouldn't be original for this engine ... should be plastic. This engine is now at 125000 miles.
I also didn't want to void the warranty on my salvageyard engine by opening it up or wasting money putting $300 of timing components into an engine with a spun bearing or something.
Once it was in, there was obvious chain rattle on startup. It kept getting worse and worse. Finally got to the point that I was worried about it jumping time on a cold start. The chains usually don't fail but it ended up being cheaper to get the whole cloyes kit with chains.
Just like the original engine to this car, the tensioner arms were worn through. The passenger side was just to the point that the chain was starting to ride on the tensioner piston. The driver's side wasn't far behind.
Of course being a Ford, it's absolutely awful to work on. I was able to get the driver's side valve cover on and off without removing the brake booster. Wipers have to come out first. I have all of the 2v timing tools from the head gasket job on my truck over the winter.
Probably could have got away without changing the chains (and saving a lot of time on valve covers) and just doing the guides/tensioners/arms but was very worried about the cam jumping. Felt much better with the holders securing the cams.
Now with 99% less timing chain rattle! Also looks like the engine started to varnish a bit on the passenger side. Life got in the way a lot this past year and I ended up going 11000 miles on this oil change
I do want to pick up another panther. As frustrating as they are to work on. This will definitely get done on any 2v modular I buy going forward ... seems that the guides / arms wear out.