Timing Chain Oil Slinger Help

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Sep 4, 2019
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Aurora, Colorado
I have a 98 4.0 that I replaced the timing chain on about a month ago and put everything back together the same way I took it off. Before I replaced the timing chain, I had been diagnosing a very annoying engine rattle that I could only hear when the engine was being lugged (quite often with the 3.07 gears), and only figured out it was the crankshaft oil slinger a few days after everything had been put back together. Now I'm ready to tear it apart again, but my question is, how important is it to keep this oil slinger on? This rattling has gotten on my nerves and I have searched everywhere, and have not found a clear answer. If it is important, how do I stop it from bouncing around?
 
How do you know it's the oil slinger? Shouldn't be able to rattle at all. Under load I'd look at what could vibrate like exhaust, engine or trans mounts, etc.
 
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I can't imagine the oil slinger possibly making a noticable amount of noise. I think you have another issue. How's your harmonic dampner look? Do you know what a woodruff key is?
 
The oil slinger has left a clean surface on the crankshaft of where it has been spinning, and the crankshaft key the small sprocket sits on is too little. The harmonic balancer is a tight fit, however I did buy a new one that is ready to install, as well as a new idler pulley that is ready to install while I'm in there. I can attach an image of the timing cover open that I took while I was in there last month. My engine mounts are not great, but not enough to slop around severely, at least not enough to cause a rattle. I do need a new muffler, but the location of the noise with the characteristics leads me to believe its the oil slinger. This includes being able to hear the slight whine of it spinning when accelerating into high RPMs, hearing it more often when the engine is angled up, not hearing it at idle, etc.
 
Here is the picture of where the oil slinger has left its mark (it has not scored it). Other than the muffler (which the noise would be coming from the back) I can't think of anything else that would make the noise
IMG_5624.webp
 
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I am almost certain the oil slinger gets smushed against the timing gear by the dampner so it shouldn't spin or rattle. Maybe The dampner wasn't installed far enough on?
 
That is a possibility, I couldn't tighten it with a torque wrench so just took an impact to it, and tightened as much as I could after I used an installer. But the dampener also lines up with the other pulleys, so its weird that its not on as far as it should be
 
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