My 98 SOHC 4.0 just had the timing chain slap/wear through the housing on the way home from work yesterday. I've got 130 K miles. Blue book private party is $7000 to $8000. I am pretty sure Ford did the TSB on mine some time back, and I will track down the paperwork to see exactly what they did. I'm sure its further back than the normal
12000 miles of repair warranty ago.I was reading all the reports here to figure out what is the best option. The engine lost some oil (through the 1 inch HOLE!)but was running (roughly) when I was able to shut it down after a 1 mile run to get across a 6 lane freeway and down the ramp to a gas station).
My dilemma is - once it fails to that degree, is my engine toast? How can I check this out before I throw more money at it? Or am I in the land of "donate your car to charity" now? (I was planning to put it out on the street this weekend with a for sale sign on it - ironic!). Or is it worth trying the repair (I'm guess this is $1500 to $2000 for all the work on both timing chains, cassettes, and whatever else needs to be replaced plus a lot of labor). If I put the $1500 to $2000 into repairs, and find there is engine damage, then I'm really hosed.
Any thoughts on how to proceed. For now I'm going to have to towed to the driveway until I can consult a few shops and see what my options are.