WTF? That's one of the dumbest things I've heard!

Chains DO stretch, period. IF THEY DIDN'T, THEY WOULDN'T NEED TENSIONERS!

If they didn't stretch, they would be the same size the day they went on as the they are the last day the motor turns over, and that's utter bulls^^t! There wouldn't be any need for tensioners if they didn't stretch. I guess the engineers had nothing better to do than throw tensioners in there, you know, because chains don't stretch or anything!! WTF?!?

Well, stretch might not be the right word, but we all understand what it means, and it describes the symptoms well, so stretch it is!

While they don't stretch as in the metal stretching out like a rubber band, they do, however, get LONGER over time from wear. We call that stretch! The hinge pins and sleeves wear and the chain increases in length due to this wear. A chain's overall length will increase over time and we use TENSIONERS to take up this length so the chain isn't just slapping around in there.

The ONLY reason we don't change these chains because of this is because the stretch is taken up over time and the amount of stretch will not increase beyond reasonable limits over the life of the engine.

The chains we use in our OHC engines are really long, and this has it's up's and down's versus a short chain in an older push-rod engine. The longer the chain is, the more links there are, the more the chain can stretch, or "grow" over time. However, each of these chains are only operating a cam for four cylinders, so the load they have to endure is half that of a regular push-rod V8.

Anybody who's ever owned a push-rod motor and has had it open over 100k miles knows that chains stretch. Well, assuming they have half a brain anyway. This has LESS THAN NOTHING to do with how often you change the oil. The sleeves in the chain don't have oil pumped into them, suspending them, like the crankshaft or rods do, which almost eliminates wear. The crankshaft literally "floats" on oil because of this. The chain(s) just have an oil bath. They are slathered in oil as they operate. Because of this, they will wear much faster than the rods and main bearings. You could change you oil every 10 minutes, take the engine apart and clean it spotlessly clean every time you run it, the chains will STILL WEAR and they will STILL STRETCH and if you think they wont, you a f**king idiot.

If you still think they don't stretch, do me a favor, call on of my clients, Ryle Manufacturing, 940-767-4354, ask them. They manufacturer chains and sprockets for everything from car engines to drive chains in off-shore drilling rigs and cranes. Go ahead, call them. Tell them chains don't stretch, just hold the phone back so your ear-drum doesn't blow from them LAUGHING THEIR ASSES OFF AT YOU!!

PCV valves can crap out and get loud, they do that sometimes. But the noise from the chain slapping around in there is 100 times louder than that. It's not this little "tick tick tick tick", it's "SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK".

 

triton is right. all chains stretch over time. i had a 94 dakota v6 130k that chain slapped like crazy. i did more investigating and found out those things were slapping at 20k. dodge didnt even bother to use a tensioner. people were blowing out valves when they snapped etc.. what a mess.they didnt start using tensioners until 2000 model year. so a little slapping at 100k isnt that big a deal.at least ford had commen sense using tensioners.

 

Alright, lemme rephrase that - yes, they do stretch. Not enough to worry about until something else in the engine breaks. Besides, that's what oil pressure operated tensioners are for - to take up slack in the chain.

ETA - Okay, the simple stuff out of the way...try using a piece of vacuum hoses or a long screwdriver as a stethoscope (or if you've got a mechanic's stethoscope, all the better) to try to pinpoint your noise for certain. Don't take something apart if you can avoid it - we're still initially trying to locate what exactly is making the noise.

 

I just returned from the Ford dealer.

they are confident that my noise is only a failed timing chain tensioner arm. they suggested that while I am in there to replace both tensioners and all 4 chain guides. and clean out the oil pan with a mild solvent.

Fords cost for the parts without tax - $187.00.

I can buy the Cloyes equivilents for $135.00 ish.

Anyone have any experience or preference for one brand part over the other? any horror stories that I should know about?

thanks to all who replied.

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It's gonna be a pain inside the truck, I replaced mine on an engine stand and it was a pain, I couldn't imagine doing it inside the truck unless you have all the tools, and prior knowledge of doing that. But I would pay the extra m50 bucks and buy from Ford, and yes you need to replace both sides while you are in there, and also you don't want to wait to long to fix it if you are still driving it, thats what I did and thats why I was replacing mine while it was on an engine stand, it was also on a new block with new heads. I smacked every intake valve on the drivers side and one of them bent so bad it scared the block beyond getting bored out. So you wanna go ahead and take care of that problem, because if you keep letting it smack your timing will jump

 

Well, 02sport4x4...it was a pain. I have undergone worse (GM 5.7 diesel head replacment), I would rate this one a 6.

It turns out that my harmonic balancer was not fully seated against the crankshaft angle trigger. the trigger eventually wobbled loose and started to create a terrible noise up front. Actually rubbing on the front of the timing cover.

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My 97 5.4L has 123,000 miles on it and has a noise upon start up for the past 2 or 3 years. The noise has definitely been getting louder recently.

I took off the belt and started the truck to see if the noise would go away. Unfortunatley, the noise is still there. It sounds like a chain rubbing against a tin can for about 5 or 10 seconds and then the noise disappears. It does it every time it's started, but it's worse when it's cold outside.

Does this sound like the timing belt symptoms that others have?

Thanks,
Ron

 

the 4.6 and 5.4 uses timing chains not belts. if it was the chains they would be slapping all the time. youd be able to hear them at a stop light. what weight oil are u using?? how cold is it outside??

 

I'm using 5w30 and I change it every 3000 miles since I purchased it new in 1997.

If it's not the timing chain, I wonder if I may have slipped a bearing? It sounds like a bolt in a tin can for the first 5 or 10 seconds and then its gone.