Hi, I've joined on behalf of my old man, who owns a 96 scorpio cosworth 2.9 V6. I've spent a few days on it trying to work out what the problem is...

It rattles from cold, and used to go when the engine warmed up. Now it does it all the time (the car has been sat for nearly a year now), however the engine still pulls like it should. We originally thought the hydraulic timing chain tensioner was at fault, but it seems not. Then I checked that the tappets were working as they should, which they are. I turned it over with the left block (as you look towards the windscreen) rocker cover off to make sure oil was being pumped to the top, which it is. The noise seems to come more from this block than the other though. I'm starting to wonder if it's the small end bearings maybe? But it's only done around 85k!

My dad seems intent on scrapping the car or selling it, as it has no MOT, and he won't hear of me buying a sierra or capri shell to put it into. Whatever happens with it, I really wanna know what this rattle is, as if its something simple I may persuade him to keep it. Such a shame as the car is about as undesirable as they come, but that engine is simply amazing!

Any help appreciated!

 

If you say it's not the tensioners (how did you check them?) then it's probably the tensioner blades have started to break up.

I did the blades on my old S reg Scorp Cossie for a grand sum of £200 and about 6 hours on the drive way. parts needed to do it are here - not - i didn't replace the chains or the sprockets as they looked ok. http://www.fordscorpio.co.uk/timingchain29.htm

Fortunately my Y reg Scorp Cossie is silent

 

We haven't checked the tensioners as such, however the noise seems to come from inside the engine, under the left rocker cover. Just before he bought the car, the whole engine had been out and had new chains, sprockets, tensioner, and tensioner blades on that side of the engine, and that was a matter of 10k miles ago. From what the fella told us the tensioner blades had broken up inside as you say.

 

Which is where the tensioner is located............

If you say all the chain gear was replaced then it could be something as simple as the tensioner not being reset OR the gasket not being put back on properly (if it's a dodgy gasket you'll have some oil weepage around the left hand side at the front of the head where the tensioner is).

 

How do you reset the tensioner? There doesn't seem to be any oil leakage. Willing to try anything, even though we aren't putting the car back on the road, surely someone will want a running cossie V6

 

If I remember correctly, you insert an allen key in it and turn it to the left to lock it off for removal/replacement of the timing chain/guides. Suffice to say, when refitting it you need to turn the allen key to the right to release it. If you don't do this, the tensioner cant control the guide to take up the chain slack.

 

as said deffo sounds like the blade

steve