Strange sound, timing chain?

[Mercury]

Hello!

1999 Jeep 4.0 manual. It started making a weird sound a few days ago. Today I pulled the serpentine and started it so I record this sound. It seems like it's coming from the front, lower down, maybe around the harmonic balancer. My buddy thinks it's the timing chain, wanted to confirm it before I started ordering parts. Could I get some more input?

JeepSound.wav

drive.google.com

 

[Kevin B.]

I am not a mechanic. And I don't know the 4.0. And that's a crappy .wav 😃. But that could be a broken chain guide. How long since you changed it? How accessible is the timing cover on that motor?

 

[Mercury]

I am not a mechanic. And I don't know the 4.0. And that's a crappy .wav 😃. But that could be a broken chain guide. How long since you changed it? How accessible is the timing cover on that motor?

Not able to get much better, unfortunately. Don't even know how there's so much wind noise, there was hardly any wind when I recorded, about as perfect conditions as you can get.

It's not godawful. Remove the alt, AC compressor, radiator, fan, crank pulley, harmonic balancer, timing cover. Nothing I've done before, but from the videos it's not as bad as some engines.