pcdoc2001

My ex bought a 2005 F150. With only 85,000 miles it began to make noises from the timing chain area. Mechanic one replaced the chains and tensioners. Noise got worse. Mechanic 2 replaced all these parts and screwed up the timing.
When I got to the truck $2,000 later it would not run. I pulled the heads and even though everyone tells me this is an interference engine I had no bent valves. New valve job, gaskets, tensioners, updated phazers, (mine had side play that would definitely have made noise). I put everything back together and noticed that the crank moved when I installed the harmonic balancer pulley, (by hand, no hammer). When I started the car I heard noises which seemed to emanate from the pan so I pulled the pan and the thrust washers in the back main bearing journal have fallen out and allowed the crank to move too much in the block. The crank is rubbing the side of the block in the front just behind the cam chains.
I do not know if there is a special tool to remove the crankshaft pin locating dowels between the journals and the side of the block. I have removed the side bolts in the rear journal, (I especially liked the one under the starter) but the journal will not drop down because it is being trapped by the centering dowels.
How do I safely remove these dowels? Is there a special tool to make pulling them easier? Besides checking the oil pump, (the screen was full of material from the previous timing components and the broken shims) is there anything else I should look for. I do not want to ruin the new timing chain components that I just installed and I fear that the original problem was the thrust washers allowing the crankshaft to travel forward and backwards in the block and take the chain out of alignment breaking the timing chain tensioning rails.

Racecar80

The dowell pins will pull out after removing the side bolts. You may have already figured that out by now (been a couple of weeks since your post). Did you ever find the cause? I have one with the same issue in my shop right now. I will not put it back together until I find out how the cause of this happening. Thx Racecar80

Boku

From wat I read. It's caused from crankshaft play. It shifts and makes the thrust bearing/washer fall apart and sometimes will fall off in the bottom of ur oil pan. The shavings get circulated internally and goes through the cam phasers as well which causes the failure. Best way is to rebuild the motor. Get a one piece thrust bearing instead of the welded two piece so they don't break. Hope this helps. Happens in 2004 - 2008 f150. Ford has a bulletin for it but no recall. They rather sell u a motor instead. Sucks though cuz I found out the hard way too.