I was driving my truck one morning, and everything was as usual, drove about 3 miles to Save Mart, and parked for about 45 minutes. Early morning. Went to leave, started it, and when i started backing out it started making this God awful noise that sounded like a piece of plastic that someone stuck in a fan on super high, letting the fan blades hit the plastic. Drove a few more miles to a friends house, and parked for the night. The next morning I went to go somewhere, and as I was backing out of the driveway, my truck died. Tried to start it, nothing. Tried again, nothing. Again. Again. Nothing. Then on the 5th try, something started clinking LOUDLY. Opened my hood, and there’s a 3 to 4 inch hole in my engine that you see in the pictures, close to where you pour the oil in. On the ground underneath we’re the metal pieces the hole knocked out, which are in the other 2 pics. What the hell happened??? How bad is it?? What do I do?
1999 Ford Explorer XLT 2WD Automatic 4.0 L V6
by cali_valleygurl
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13 Comments
My guy, you can see INTO your engine
Hard to tell from the photo but It appears something in the valve train failed and punched up thru the valve cover. Why the valve train failed could be a simple lifter and roller for one cylinder or a cylinder head and timing components..
Good news! I can see the problem.
Bad news. Piston rods aren’t usually visible.
Reads like you spun a bearing. Parked it. Started it. Drove on a spun bearing ’til the bearing turned into confetti. You kept driving. Piston Rod metal just banging on Crankshaft metal. Heated themselves up good and hot. You parked it at a friends over night. The metal parts were so hot they welded themselves together. You started it the next morning, driving the piston rod right though your oil pan and chewed up your engine block. Engines just scrap metal now. Time for a whole new engine.
Only way to know is have it diagnosed and quoted. Then you can determine if it’s worth the money or not. I can’t tell you cost thru photos
>Went to leave, started it, and when i started backing out it started making this God awful noise that sounded like a piece of plastic that someone stuck in a fan on super high, letting the fan blades hit the plastic
So you immediately stopped, shut the engine off and investigated the problem, right?
>Drove a few more miles to a friends house, and parked for the night
Oh, great.
>What the hell happened??? How bad is it??
Something important broke in a non-catastrophic manner and you made it catastrophic.
I looked up your engine online.
According to the internet, it’s a Ford Cologne 4.0L V6. All of the info is what I scrounged up, no guarantee that it’s correct.
In the Ford Explorer, starting from 1997, it had a SOHC valvetrain. SOHC stands for Single overhead camshaft (one for each cylinder bank).
The camshafts are driven by a chain, from the crankshaft.
Some further investigation found this section on wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cologne_V6_engine#Timing_chain_problems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cologne_V6_engine#Timing_chain_problems)
“Timing chain problems”.
Apparently, that engine is well known for timing chain failures.
My guess (and it is a very rough guess) is that a part your timing chain system failed, the chain broke and punched a hole in that cover.
They don’t call them exploders for nothing. Not worth fixing. The car is 25 years old. Just look for a new used car. Either that, or a new car, but prices are going way up for new cars.
Well, I see what your problem is, you have a hole in your engine. Not supposed to have that there
Ahem
*cooked*
Anytime you have an express installed inspection port it’s bad my dude.
JB Weld will fix that right up and you’ll be back on the streets in no time!
It’s about as bad as engine damage gets I’m afraid
So put a bandaid over it 🤷🏾♂️
As stated on your other post
You must of ignored warning signs
Hard and expensive learning curve