Just finished up timing chain guides/tensioner swap.

[Vortech347]

Last week I got part numbers and info from ctrlraven and Zack. Thanks gents. Start to finish took me about 8-9 hours working alone. I took the radiator fan out, removed all the coolant stuff, and coolant cross over tube. There is a .PDF from Ford Racing that has the torque specs and shows were each bolt goes. It was very nice to have for quick referencing.

Observation... My car has 116k and has been idling a little rough in the mornings and I noticed some underhood noise. From reading all the threads about guides being toast I figured it would be a good idea to swap mine. Well....My factory guides looked brand freakin new. Zero wear on them. However the plastic timing chain tensioners had very very little resistance in them without oil pressure. So I'm guessing my morning noise was chain slop until they pumped up a little bit. The car warms up smoother, idles smoother, and even feels like it has a bit more low end. (Could be in my head?)

[ctrlraven]

The plastic tensioners don't have the safety ratchet that continuously keeps tension on the chains and take the slack out until pressure builds up. Also they have a seal/gasket, slightest leak on it will let some oil slip through.

Mine were backwards weird, the one that had the blown seal had good resistance (driver side) while the other side (passenger) had little resistance but the seal was intact. Passenger side would make a lot of noise at idle once the oil heated up and pressure went down.

The metal tensioners have the safety ratchet which will hold tension on the guides once the car is turned off.

I've noticed smoother start-ups and idling so it's not just in your head.