2003 4.6is Timing Chain Guides and No Oil Flow
 

Well the other day I was casually stopped at a light where out of the blue I heard what I'm guessing the timing chain slapping around from a quiet noise to a really loud one and after a few seconds of that the car told me that there was low oil pressure and to turn off the engine. I had just started moving and took only about 10 seconds to turn off into a parking lot and kill the engine.
My question is why could the engine see low oil flow only a few seconds after the engine started to make noise? Also could I be looking at a spun bearing or anything like that?
This is the first car I have with a timing chain and please excuse the rooky question.

Since the sound slowly faded in and was not an instant BAM BAM BAM I'm guessing that I didn't jump the timing and the engine internals should be ok?

Another thing I came across while searching before posting my questions was the power steering whine that is supposed to give indication that the guides are close to failing. I can't find anywhere what kind of sound that is and how the guides failing could cause any kind of sound in the power steering.

I am hoping that next week it will warm up as it is -25 deg. C here right now so I will be able to drop the lower oil pan and check for pieces of plastic.

One other thing, if there are pieces of plastic in the oil is it possible they have blocked some of the oil passages in the engine or does the oil go from the suction right to the oil pump and right from the oil pump to the oil filter so if anything the plastic would get trapped in the oil filter?

Thanks again

Timing guide pieces will collect at the screen on the oil sump causing low flow to the pump. This causes low oil pressure and broken motors. You may have dodged a bullet. Properly inspect the motor.

Thanks for the replay.

What steps should I take to properly inspect the motor?

Like J.Belknap said, you got lucky with this one, so did I, mine went out on my 4.6is this past November. I started it up to head for work, heard the noise and immediately shut it off, I knew instantly what it was and confirmed it by finding a video on Youtube and a guy uploaded of his 4.6is and it sounded exactly like mine. I haven't driven or tried to start it since then, really no inspection needed they have to replaced, oil pan and oil pump need to cleaned of the plastic pieces. I'm sure when it's taken apart you should be able to tell if you ruined the motor, it's a very labor intensive job. Very costly at the dealer, costly at an independent mechanic. Do a search for timing chain guides, and you'll get an idea of how tough a job it is. It's very important you get the oil pan and pump cleaned and flushed, one our members last month almost lost his 2003 4.6is engine due to the shop not cleaning the pan and pump.

Yes I have looked at how much work it is to replace the guides. The part the I am scared of is I am not familiar with how the crank is lubricated in these cars and I won't be able to see if there was any damage to the bearings. The other thing that I am scared of is I am not sure how to inspect if the timing possibly did jump and to check if the valves made contact with the cylinder. These things I won't really be able to check by just doing the replacement of the timing chain and all the guides.

Thanks

You are correct, then you would have to pull the heads. If you shut it down right away you should be okay, I would just do the guides, clean everything out and fire it up, you'll know soon enough if it's damaged goods...lol!

You don't have to pull the heads. Use a scope.

A leak down test will tell you if any of the valves got bent. You don't need to pull the head.

Or if you're a gambler you can perform a compression test to see what the compression is in each cylinder. A really low compression mean you might had tag a valve. Remove all the spark plugs so that the engine can spin freely.

Fix the guides and timing before you spin the motor for a compression test. Only do a leakdown test on cylinders that don't pass a compression test.

Thanks that is probably the way that I'm going to go.