whitey382

So let me preface this by saying I'm not normally an idiot, but happen to have an idiotic moment tonight. On that note the wife wants her car back and I need to deliver a good running vehicle tomorrow (if possible) so here goes....
I'm doing the full timing chain job on my '08 Expedition with 117k miles. I purchased the cloyes timing chain set, dorman phasers and fel-pro gasket set from rock auto. I got new vct solenoids from Ford.
So I had the engine set to TDC when I looked and realized I had went a little past, so instead of just going back I figured I would go around the horn, only I didn't go around the horn twice, I only went around once (hence my idiot moment for the night). So I pulled the timing chains and guides and tensioners. I got all my surfaces cleaned up and was ready to start putting the new ones back on and realized that things didn't look the same as the picture. Well my cams were at BDC (so to speak). Fortunately I had put white marks on all the chains and sprockets when I took them off. So after one of the cams rolled on me and little extra work I had everything back the way it was and then proceeded to turn the engine one more time to TDC. Now the phasers were in the right position. Pulled everything back off and proceeded to put the new stuff on. I had my marks lined up exactly as the picture from the timing chain sticky showed. I was feeling pretty good and rolled the engine over a couple times and can't get the timing marks to line up again. Now come the questions....

1. It's late and I'm probably just paranoid but the marks shouldn't line back up after rotating the engine to TDC again right? The chain doesn't rotate at the exact same ratio as the crank and cams so theoretically I'd have to roll the engine over a whole bunch of times to get the marks to line back up (which I tried btw, I think I rolled it over probably 10 TDC's and couldn't get the marks on the chain lined back up). Here are the pics I have for how it looks now.









2. Now that I've been on here looking for more advice I've noticed a couple things about the Dorman phasers being bad. I did notice that the coil spring on the Dorman phaser is a little thinner than the factory Ford ones. Are the Dorman's really a bad phaser or have there just been a few cases of some bad ones out there?

3. I also used the Cloyes timing set. All the parts looked pretty legit, they seem like good quality or am I wrong?

4. I've also noticed the timing cover to oil pan gasket has a little pull in it. I was going to put just a tiny amount of rtv on it to help her seal up, you think she'll be ok...?





On a positive note I decided to self-etch prime and hi temp paint my valve covers flat black. After 3 hours of prep work cleaning and sanding them I think they came out pretty good.

Especial86

iTrader: (1)

The covers look great!

Get the Dorman phasers outta there and put in fresh oem's.. The dormans have a very bad track record.. This probably won't bode well for your wife, but if you leave those dormans in there you will be back driving her car in no time..

This should help you..

whitey382

thanks for the video and the reply. I got the wife running to the Ford dealer to pick up the OEM cam phasers. The chain and tensioners from Cloyes look solid so I'll stick with those. And thanks for the video. He sets up timing a little different than the original post did on the final 5.4 timing thread but as long as the marks all line up when you're done everything should work. Thanks again for the feedback.

Any thoughts on the oil pan gasket having that little tear in it.......?

Especial86

iTrader: (1)

A little rtv black will give you piece of mind with the gasket.. You need it for the key way anyway..

The timing job is basically idiot proof.. Just line up the chain marks and the keyway at the crank will basically dictate everything..
Remember the crank sprockets are smaller, so it will take a few more revolutions for the cam sprockets to match back up when you go to check..
He sets it to 6 o clock because that's where the keyed phasers and keyed crank will give you a good line up with the chain marks at the phaser, so the chain can safely stay timed while you finish assembly.. But it should make little difference.. In his case he was spinning the cams around quite a bit because he removed the lash adjusters and followers......

New VCT solenoids are also highly recommended..
I also personally recommend 5w-30 full syn to basically insure yourself with a very happy and long living motor...

whitey382

thanks for the advice. that's what I thought about the timing. like i said, i was exhausted last night and just needed some reassurance that I wasn't an idiot.
I have brand new Ford solenoids so I'm covered there. I run 5w20 NAPA full synthetic so I plan to keep this engine running tip top as long as possible.
And my wife picked up some Ford phasers for me so I'm covered there. although I noticed that the coil spring on the new Ford phasers look the same size as the Dorman phasers I'm sending back. The coil springs on my existing phasers were much larger and thicker, but maybe that was a bad thing in some way. I was thinking thicker spring = longer lasting phaser but clearly not considering the 7 year new phasers have smaller springs.