My 2000 GT teardown results...

heffe2001

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Started tearing my motor down due to hearing what I assumed was chain noise coming from the front end. Had several people say they thought it sounded like valve train noise to them.. Once I got the motor torn down and the timing cover off, found the straight side chain guide on the passenger side laying loose on the chain, and bits of the guide in several places under the cover. Hadn't been making noise long before I parked the car (probably a day or 2 at most), but the guide shows evidence of at least a 16th of an inch of the plastic being worn off the sides, and I can't account for all the pieces missing, so the pan is going to be dropped to clean out whatever is down there. Glad I bought the full chain kit from MMR, I think my passenger side chain has a bit of slack in it... Also noticed that the chain has worn a tiny bit of the metal on the cover, hopefully that was caught by the oil filter before going through the motor...


What I've recovered so far of the guide:




Other pictures are in the album:

http://imgur.com/a/cMacm#0

Once I get this fixed, I plan on pulling the interior, replacing the carpet and the center console (I want an 01+ center console), and MAYBE swap out the front seats for 05+ seats if I can find some that match my grey interior. Then comes paint. I was hoping to get it all done before Mustang Week this year, but it's not looking good so far, lol...

What's the best way to clean that timing cover, I'm wanting to paint it before I put it back on... Same for the valve covers.

OH, that last image shows where I'm working on the car, in my finished basement, lol. Brought it in through the sliding doors that are behind it (used to be a garage door, just pulled the panes out and pushed the car in, put on skates and turned it sideways).
 

lwarrior1016

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Man, good thing you found it before too much damage happened. As far as the metal from the cover, that will probably be in your oil pick-up tube. My timing cover was ate up by a slack chain and most of the aluminum shavings were in the pick up screen. If you have a good inch pounds torque wrench, I would pull a cam out and check the head journals where the cam is to make sure there aren't big gouges in them. Now as far as cleaning the cover, I pressure washed mine and then sand blasted it before primer and paint. Same with the cam covers.
 
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heffe2001

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That's crazy that it still ran with that much damage. Good luck to your rebuild

My old Sporttrac had a chain guide disintegrate (front side guide), and stiill ran, made a horrible racket, but still ran, lol. We replaced the guides on it and it was fine (didn't do the chains or anything else, just replaced the guides). I'm doing the guides, chains, and everything else that came with the kit on this car though. It's a windsor block so I won't be changing the cam gears as they are part of the cams. I didn't put many miles on the car at all with it in the condition it's in now (maybe at most 40ish, trip from home to work and back). It's been parked since last November.

Best part of doing the repair in my basement, it's nice and air conditioned, and right outside my home office door. Got a PC on a desk beside the car now, so I can do my alldata lookups if I need to, lol.
 

D3VST8R96GT

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For cleaning the timing cover I used a drill and wire brushes.... honestly worth paying someone to sand blast it lol
 
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heffe2001

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I've tried several things to clean the timing cover, so far the best was my little steam machine with a wire brush tip. Gets the grime off, just can't get it into small spaces. Going to just bite the bullet and pick up a small Soda blaster kit and do it myself that way...

We got the chains and guides all replaced today, and when we pulled the curved chain guides off, the plastic was worn almost completely off both, and worn through the metal on both sides, grinding the tops of the tensioners at an angle. Both tensioners were ruined (have new ones with the kit anyway). Adding more pictures to the gallery so I can link them here. I'm guessing the timing guides were bad longer than I thought, although you couldn't hear it ticking or making any noise until I parked it.. Going to run this engine till it dies, but pick up another low mileage 2v to rebuild to stick in the car, with all the metal that's been worn off (and plastic from the guides), I'm thinking the motor is on it's last legs..

Still need to drop the pan, but need to figure out a way to lift the motor without a hoist...

Guides:


Tensioners:


Added more pictures to the Gallery in the first post..
 

D3VST8R96GT

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Omg lol I have torn down some abused motors.... I have found metal in the tensioner from bearings and they weren't that bad. 170-250k motors have not looked that bad wow
 
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heffe2001

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My mechanic buddy has seen a few f150's with guides like this, but this is the first mustang. Only noticable noise started the day I parked it. I run with the top down quite a bit, so I figure I'd have hard it if it'd been doing it long. Car has about 179k on it now. Hopefully it'll run for a while longer now that the guides are replaced, at least till I can afford to build a 4.6 like I want it.. I know the car was abused pretty bad before I got it, but ran pretty well when I go it. I've not put a huge amount of miles on it in the 2 yrs I've had it. The funny thing is, the guy I got it from said that it had been done a year or 2 before I got it...
 
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heffe2001

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Bought the 'by the book' correct camshaft timing tools from OTC (6020 and 6009 combo, 6020's slide into the shafts, 6009 holds those in place where they should be), and the 6024 crank TDC tool. The TDC tool works fine, but the other tools are NOT for a X-code Windsor block 99-00 mustang. Apparently I needed the 6477 tool (2 of them, sold seperately), since I've got the cams with the gears pre-attached. Spent about 90 bucks for nothing, lol.. Hopefully if someone else does the same job, they'll find the tool numbers they need (just the 6024 & 2x 6477's).
 

96blak54

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Ive too have my share of tear downs with the modulars and I have never seen one like this! My first guess is tentioner ratchet extension lock failure allowing the chains to flop loosely. Your picture clearly shows they are in place. My second guess is a but load of miles, but I dont think so....the 3rd guess....the timing components have been messed with before and who put it back together apparently didnt know how. "Just shove these back in, because im a moron" ...that type of guy. Their are tail tail signs to examine that shows if any of the covers have been off. Modulars are more difficult than older style engines because the seals are reusable, but the details show. Such as, bolts in the wrong location, gasket colors, rtv sealant colors or how it was used, cleanliness..etc.

Man get the beast going! Youre headed in the right direction! Good luck
 
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heffe2001

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I'm on hold till I get paid, want to clean the timing cover and valve covers, planning on painting them.. Just wish Harbor Freight took paypal on in-store pickup, lol.

The guy I got the car from bought it from an insurance auction in Georgia, had been hit in the front. According to him, he had a reputable garage in Monroe fix it, but I'm 99% sure he did the work in his driveway, and didn't 100% know what he was doing. I've had to replace the k-member, front brake calipers, steering rack, all the COPS, alternator, convertible top, had seats mostly recovered. Put a lot into this car, hopefully when I get everything fixed it'll last me a while...
 
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heffe2001

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Bought a soda blaster from Northern Tool (portable one, had to order it), hopefully will e in this week. I'll get the covers cleaned up and painted, and hopefully re-installed this weekend..
 
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heffe2001

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What is the consensus that I replace the oil pump? There's been a ton of metal lost from the guides, and I'm sure a good bit of it was powder, which would make it past the screen to the pump...
 

96blak54

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Your description just said "replace everything"...lol

Yes, replacing the pump is a good idea. A complete tare down, examine, freshened rebuild is in order.
 
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heffe2001

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A complete teardown isn't in my time or budget constraints at the moment sadly, but I did order a Ford racing high flow oil pump, comes with a new pickup tube too, so I won't have to mess with cleaning out the old tube, just replace it. Bad thing is, gotta remove all the timing stuff to replace it, lol.

Your description just said "replace everything"...lol

Yes, replacing the pump is a good idea. A complete tare down, examine, freshened rebuild is in order.
 
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heffe2001

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Finally got back to this yesterday and got the pickup and pump swapped out. The new pickup had an open screen, where the new one was about 50% shrouded (by design). Underneath the shrouding were many chunks of plastic and metal, so the pickup was at least 50% clogged. We ended up having to completely drop the K-Member, and we're going to try to get it all connected back up this afternoon. Hopefully I'll have the engine re-assembled later this week.

Also took the opportunity to swap out my old GT wheels for a nicer set of '99 Cobras, and we're going to replace my Eibach Sportlines with a set of Vogtland convertible springs, and hopefully do some body work to get her ready for paint.
 

g36 monkey

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o man, I hadn't seen this thread, sorry about your woes but you definitely sound like you're doing it right!
 
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heffe2001

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Progress:

O48kgkwh.jpg


Just to show how bad the pickup was:

5e0rdZqh.jpg


What came out of there:


C1FpvEXl.jpg
 

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