gopherman

Same thing, the knock, isn't nearly as audible when revving the engine up. With a scantool, I looked at knock counts and they were much higher on bank one.


That being said...there are two other possibilities too...one might be an exhaust leak (which honestly would make my day if that's what it is), the other is the torque converter and/or flexplate. My bet on the VCT solenoid is based on some tests I ran that show it moving around when it's not supposed to be and research on this site, FordTechMakuloco (look up 5.4 phaser knock...his videos on YouTube are excellent), and research on the parts themselves. Good call on not messing around with your warranty though. And...on a side note, if you get the problem taken care, the other problems with the Coyote are very few and far between...so once you get it fixed you should have good luck with it for the remainder of its life.

milksteak636

Yeah for sure, I just bought the truck with 80k miles on it and got a screaming deal so while I'm definitely not excited about this issue I'm staying positive and looking at it like I'm getting a new engine so I basically getting a new truck for the price of a used one. I'd like to not have to buy a truck for another decade so I definitely won't complain about replacing a 80k engine with a new one for the $100 deductible price. I emailed the guy I bought the truck from, the sales manager, the tech who I have an appointment with, and service department manager with that youtube video and a few other emails so when they come into work tomorrow after the long weekend they all have 3 emails from me waiting for them. I keep hearing "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" as far as getting the block replaced under warranty on these threads so I'm squeaking away. My experience with this dealership has been stellar so far so I'm hoping when they come in tomorrow they get right on this.

Have you had someone lightly press the gas pedal and go up to 1200-1500 RPMs while you're listening? I did and I could definitely hear the knock speed up with the revs and when your head is right there it sounds damn nasty. It'd be an engineering miracle if people are really getting 200k+ miles out of engines with this knock. I don't know, definitely not something I'm willing to deal with. I'll email them and call them every day until they fix it if I have to. Your knock sounds a little less nasty than mine though, are you under warranty still?

gopherman

I have not, I've been the only one to diagnose it other than working with a foreman once at a local dealership. Mine sounds terrible in first gear when letting it idle down. Sounds very much like a mini PowerStroke. I may have to get my wife to do that while I get underneath and listen...although might be a bad idea to let my wife do it Mine only has 23,000 miles and 2 years under its belt, so still under warranty. That being said...if it sounds this way now (bad or not), I'm not sure I want to wait until 80K to hear what it sounds like then. I've escalated this issue through Ford (sent a notice of final repair attempt), have yet to hear back from them and it's been nearly 2 weeks at this point. Either way, when I do hear from them, I fully intend on pushing them harder with this issue and providing them with some of the data I've found. You'll have to let us all know what happens with your dealership. It should be a fairly straightforward diagnostic if they're not being difficult.

milksteak636

So I drove into town today (about 45 minute drive from my house in the mountains) to get some supplies and I wanted to check the knock once I got to the store... Whisper quiet. I drive it home and let it sit for about 45 minutes and went out and tested it and you could hear it but just barely, like you'd have to know exactly what you were listening for to hear it. Tomorrow is my appointment with the Service Center and they're about an hour away so I doubt it'll make the noise for them when I get it there since it seems like after it's been run for about 30-45 mins the knock goes away. It was also about 50 degrees here today and it's been in the 70-80's the past couple weeks so maybe the cold weather caused it to be quieter?? Seems odd that a difference of 20 degrees could make a difference though since engine operating temps shouldn't be affected by that little a change in outside temp. Your oil theory makes sense to me though, like maybe once it's been run real good (I dropped the hammer and passed a few people on the way into town, that truck has some serious power knock or no knock) oil get worked into the cylinder enough to cause whatever is loose to stop knocking. Weird.

gopherman

Well one of the reasons why the phasers have issues is because there's debris in the tiny passage ways that lead to them. I'd wait until it cools down and then listen to it again after it's warmed up, before it's driven...then again after it's driven. If it's gone, it's almost for sure that you've got some sort of debris clogging the oil passage ways and that when you floored it, it was able to clear the debris with the higher oil pressure. The dealership can actually force the phasers to clean themselves and on a rare occasion it will clear the issue. To be safe, have the dealership look at it and have them disable the solenoids by disconnecting them while the vehicle is off and then let the vehicle to warm up. If the noise never shows up, it's due to the lock pin in the phaser which gets worn out. The lock pin unlocks once the cams are actuated after the vehicle has reached normal operating temp. The locking pin is either the symptom or the problem in both cases. The solenoids themselves (oil control valves) can also be the problem. If you're ready to bring it to the dealership to get service, bring it in. Otherwise, get some high octane gas, perhaps an oil change and see if the problem comes back. I think in general you should hope that it's VCT. The other potential causes are a major bummer (cylinder deformation, bearings, bad heads, etc) and can usually be confirmed by disabling each cylinder one by one to reduce load and see if the noise changes. Based on what you've said so far and what I've seen from other cases, it's most likely VCT related. I've also read that once people get VCT fixed, the results in power delivery in fuel economy are noticeable as well.

milksteak636

Hey just an update, dropped the truck off yesterday, they didn't get to it until today. Talked to the advisor that's handling it and they said they definitely heard it and that they need more time to diagnose it. I'm glad I'm not getting the "that's normal" or "we don't hear anything" schtick from them. They put me in rental free of charge too so hopefully I get a worthy diagnosis soon. I mentioned the oblong cylinder thing and the VCT issue, they weren't impressed with my recommendations but we'll see what happens. Also about it being VCT related and imrpving MPG and power, I'm already getting 21.5 on the highway and when I drop the hammer there's so much power I can't believe that I'm not getting every ounce of power that's supposed to be there, if there's more stock power than that and more MPG's to be had than WOW I am even more impressed by this 5.0 engine. I'll update when I get a diagnosis.

milksteak636

Update: Warranty Adjuster is coming out on Weds to approve a new long block replacement, apparently my engine did have the cursed oblong cylinder.

paczowski123

milksteak636

Dang, yeah I read in a bunch of the posts in this thread that the wait times were ridiculous. Do you know why? Is it because its an older generation 5.0 and they're not manufacturing them as much or what? I'm looking at like I spent 2.5 months looking for a black 5.0 SCAB with the tow package for under 20k so if I have to wait a few more months to have my 80k mile engine replaced with a new one for $100 and that engine lasts me for the next decade, which I'm expecting it to, then it's not a bad deal overall. Definitely sucks, I'd much rather have a healthy 5.0 that didn't knock but I still have my Ranger to drive in the mean time and they gave me a Nissan that gets like 40 mpg so I'll save a little money on gas. Trying to look at the bright side haha. They haven't told me if they're doing a long block or a short block, I read a lot of the earlier posts that said they were replacing short blocks but the later ones seem to be mostly long block jobs. I'd much rather have the long block as I'd like to eliminate the techs from doing as much wrenching on my inner workings as possible, do you know if these a strictly long block jobs now or what?

gopherman

Thanks for the update! I've been up north fishing so just saw this now, but I'm not going to lie, I'm very surprised it ended up being that. It's somewhat disconcerting :-/

My understanding is that that they would do short blocks if they could confirm bearing material or other metal debris didn't course it's way through the engine. If it's found that there was, a long block is ordered instead. I'm really glad to hear you were able to get them to work with you though. Once you get it back, you'll have a long-lived reliable motor if you take care of it. The oblong cylinder issue was supposed to be corrected long ago.