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Thanks a million Tom for the wishes of good luck. Yes sir, I got all lash adjusters and followers (ouch!). In fact, I went nuts. EVERYTHING - OEM Phasers & lower chain guides, Solenoids, Cloyes Chains & Cam Gear, MMR metal tensioner arms, Cast Iron Ratchet metal tensioners, H/V Oil Pump, alternator, water pump, all idlers / pulleys, Motorcraft plugs - even eight new injectors (big ouch!1) and both front O2 sensors, plus all gaskets and seals a bunch of miscellaneous odds and ends, such as several COP & Injector connectors to replace old broken ones. A really fine gentleman I've met through the forums has loaned me his OEM specialized 5.4L cam job tools.
Only thing not getting redone is the lower end, rings and valve job. It has set me back pretty good - but I figured much of what I'm replacing wouldn't even come with a long block. And with good oil pressure, compression, and no significant oil burning, and Trans is good, I think it has plenty of life left in it.
I have resisted the fomenting of fear mongers about strange noises and ignored the diesel sound, ticks & clicks in mine for years. Monitored things carefully with my scanner and maintained her well and kept going. It still runs / pulls really strong at 212k mi. But for several thousand miles now, I can reliably and predictably cause a DTC P0022. If I baby it (which ain't my style), I can go multiple drive cycles without a code. But medium RPMs (1700 - 2400) under 75-80% engine load will set a P0022 code within several seconds.
That's the reason I'm going in. I just decided when I did, I wouldn't skimp on anything. I just hope I don't experience what I see often here - where guys go through all this and some damn stupid cam code shows back up in a few months or thousand miles. I plan to be very clean and meticulous and hopefully can avoid that.
Great to hear that you got all of those parts and plan on fixing her right. I really wish that I would have put the metal guide arms and tensioners in mine as well as a new oil pump, but hind site is 20/20 and I will if I have to ever do the job again. By any chance do you have the part numbers for all the metal arms and tensioners, I will save them for any future projects.
Also, even though I have no noises or loss of power, a couple weeks ago, the P0012 code popped up on mine because it turns out I was a couple quarts of oil low. I changed out my VCT solenoids and it came back. Since then, reset my PCM back to stock, and then loaded a new custom 87 tune and have not had the code come back. Hopefully it won't but just in case, I am prepared to buy all the metal guides and tensioners.
Good luck, let us know how it goes.
Tom
Hi to everyone, This is my first post but have read most of this thread. I just got done doing the surgery on my 2004 f150 5.4. This is what i did, new timing chains,guides,tensioners and phasers. All new lash adjusters and roller followers on both sides and one new camshaft on RH side, also new seals all around. Not one of the lash adjusters was working right anymore. After i got it all put back together and ready to start i cranked it for a good 8 to 10 seconds to build oil pressure. Then came the big moment, i had my buddy and both our wife's all standing there with their fingers crossed. I turned the key and it fired right up and ran perfect and QUITE. But after a bit we noticed a miss, so i took it out for a test drive and it thru a po355 code. Long story short i had put in new plugs and coils also and it ended up being a bad plug. I did have a low idle for a while but after cleaning the throttle body and mass air flow sensor and doing the battery relearn the idle is right where it should be. I runs and sounds like a new truck.
A big thank you to this thread and all the advise on here made it possible for me to do this on my own. Everything that i learned came thru this thread.
The next project will be my sons 05 5.4. His is noisy but not as bad as mine was, mine made a diesel sound quite. Thanks again to everyone on here.
I just finished the dreaded phaser/timing set last night on my 07 F150 5.4 Took me approximately 16hrs. I wouldn't consider this a horrible job just time consuming . The amount of crap you have to remove is just ridiculous. I would have to say the hardest part was the valve covers. The driver side for me was the hard one with the air tube in the way made it a real PITA. I was able to remove the passenger side just by un bolting the ac accumulator and pushing it over. I also found it a lot easier to put the valve covers back on with the bolts pulled out. They hang down and catch on EVERYTHING!
I used all oem Ford parts except gaskets. I never had any codes or start up rattles just the annoying tick between 900-1100 rpm at operating temp. After that it was quite. After removing the tensioners I found what S_Vares was talking about. blown tensioner seals.
Just finished replacing my chains, chain guides, and tensioners. I used the cloyes 9-0391SX kit with the metal tensioners. Also replaced the oil pump with a ford racing high volume high pressure unit.
It's super quiet now except for the fuel injectors lol.
01-30-2016, 07:37 PM
