There only one way to know, peel back the plasticity timing chain cover and see if it’s still in place. You’ll probably have to take a few bolts out but not many, just enough to “peel” the plastic cover back to get a look. If all else fails, there’s always the tried and true way to know for certain- do a compression test on easy cylinder with a basic compression tester you can rent for free from any Auto Zone and other big name parts stores. You take the spark plug out and screw in the adapter that fits your 4.0 Spark Plug Threads and then turn the motor over with no ignition active and see what type of reading you get from each cylinder, you’ll know i any valves are bent by one or more cylinders having a large variation in compression PSI as opposed to the others. This is also almost always a sure fire way to see if you have a blown head gasket or perhaps a cracked/warped head(or a blown head gasket of course), but that’s not the issue. Check the chain, then do a compression test if neeeed it won’t take 15 minutes, you know what you’re doing obviously, so check it out and let us know, we’ll help you out. If valves are bent, I’d suggest buying a good used motor with a warranty for $600-$700 or so and swap them out as it’s much easier and cheaper than buying heads, gaskets, timing chain & related components. I’m saying this from experience in a Ford Dealership and independent shops. I’m not affiliated in any way but try East Coast Auto Source, 540-586-5713. They sell quality engines with a warranty for less than you’d pay for new top end parts to fix your existing 4.0 if it had a serious issue. Just do the process of elimination and see what’s wrong conclusively before spending a penny on it, don’t ask how I know lol! I hope this helps, that’s straight up and honest advice from experience both personally and at work when I was a technician full time. You’ll get it, just try those 2 simple steps, they’re free and will tell you what you need to know 99% of the time. Just record the compression readings from each cylinder, go ahead and do all 6 just to compare the numbers, if there’s a major variance in one or two cylinders you have an issue, but that doesn’t mean anything is bent just go through the process of elimination and you’ll get it. Thanks, see the message below.
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