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Hi guys. Got me a 07 5.4 3v with 195k I'm working on. Came to me with a bad rattle. I knew off the bat it was a timing chain slapping. Sure enough the right side guide was busted. Replaced both phasers chains guides tensioners and oil pump. Pulled pan and cleaned screen. Sounded good for about 10 minutes. Then it sounded like it was about to fly apart. Turned out it only had about 10 psi oil pressure. Bad pump? Pulled back apart and replaced pump again with a mellings pump. Now its hot idle about 40-45 psi but its still noisy as hell. Chains are tight and all looks good but it sounds horrible. Has a little lifter noise. Or whatever you call them. I know they're not really lifters. but this is more like a clunk that is in time with rpm. Also have a p0345 and p0349. Swapped cam sensors and problem didn't change so its not the sensor. These problems didn't come up until I did all this work to it. Is it possible I got a bad cam phaser?
I also found when I tore it back apart to change the pump again that when I turned the motor over by hand to line up the chains. The right side tensioner was leaking oil from the base like a blown o ring. Would that cause lack of oil to that head? The o ring looked good so I just put it back on and hoped for the best. Probally shouldn't have done that now looking back.
Pulled the cams to look into replacing the Lash adjusters and followers and found the right cam is completely wiped out. Trying to talk to the guy into another engine at this point. When the cam phaser goes out does it starve the cam journals for oil?
Yuck, that needs a head swap at the very least. If not a new engine, definitely a tear-down and clean out all the oil galleries. Sorry you had to find that.
I must be more awake today, wasn't picking up that you're a mechanic.
gonna swap the new parts/pump from the old engine to the new one? It probably needs them. Much easier on an engine stand, right?
I think the combo of blown tensioner seal and 5w-20 oil can bleed enough pressure from a cylinder head to hurt the cam journals. Mine were a little worn when I did the timing job to it, but not so much that I was willing to swap a head. 20,000 miles, 5w-30 oil, and a couple of real good oil analyses later I'd say it's holding.
Make sure the guy never runs 5w-20 in his engine ever again. I figure that right there was the last ingredient in a perfect storm, between the tensioner seals blowing, VCT solenoids that weren't quite right, and janky oil pumps.
I am basically just a mechanic on my own stuff but I do a lot of work for Neighbors that like to tear up stuff. I'm not sure what oil he was using but I'll definitely pass that on. This is the first 5.4 I have messed with and I'm not real impressed with it. I know the VCT is for fuel economy but I don't believe you would save enough fuel to Warrant the cost of replacing the crap. I did the same job on my 4.7 Dodge Magnum and it was a much better design. it doesn't have the VCT setup on it but for instance the chain adjusters have ratchets on them to prevent it from getting Slack when you shut it off.
Ford got too cheap by half on those tensioners, that's why everyone gets the units off the 97-2003 F150/ any year e-series van 2v engines; they're metal, seal against the head, and have ratchets in them. for what it's worth, the 5.0 and 6.2 use a metal ratcheting tensioner, too.
they didn't get the VCT solenoids right on the first try, either. that screwed up the oil flow to the phasers. Start adding all that together and it was bad news, you've seen it first-hand.
When it works right, the VCT system does quite a good job for fuel economy, emissions, and increasing torque. I'm pretty impressed with the engine itself, just not some of the choices FoMoCo made in putting it together. a useful 300hp from pistons that tiny is nothing to sneeze at.
also, I hear tell that the North American market, the only market that spec'd 5w-20, is the only market where the 5.4 3v had these kinds of trouble. These engines aren't picky on oil viscosity, lots of hot countries and fleets are running 40 or 50 weight oils without issue... well, maybe they lose some mileage. 0w or 5w-30 would be my choice.
Thank you for all the info on this. I have written a lot of it down in my little cheat book. I have notes on all kinds of crap and refer to it all the time. I have driven this thing a few times before the problems started and I will admit for a big bulky SUV it did have a lot of get up and go.
11-01-2017, 08:07 PM
07 5.4 3v noisy engine
