Hey. everyone I need some major help here. I'm starting to get extremely frustrated and disappointed with this truck. I have a 2004 f150 with the 5.4. I loved it while it was working but for some reason it hasn't been working correctly in the past year. It will tell me that the timing is over retarded on either side and do the shaky thing that happens when your phasers get stuck. Other times I'm driving and have to floor it to get anywhere and it just feels stuck, like no torque whatsoever. I replaced all of the timing components and phasers with genuine ford parts. New Melling oil pump, upgraded chain tensioners and everything. That didn't fix my problems so after some research I found that sometimes bad O2 sensors or clogged cats will cause problems so I changed all 4 sensors and replaced the cats and still not running right. I've done smoke tests and can't find any vacuum leaks and I'm just so confused and at a loss of where to go. Any help or ideas would be extremely appreciated!

 

No codes?

 

It gives me camshaft over retarded codes on both sides. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow.

 

Did you change the VCT solenoids with the other timing components? At least on a '04 the valve covers don't have to come off if you didn't.

 

Yeah I’ve changed the VCT solenoids lots of times. I have gotten bad ones in the past so I think i’m on my third set and I think these ones work the way they’re supposed to. Still doesn’t fix it though.

 

The answer is probably in one of this guy's videos. The first two minutes seem to fit your symptoms.

 

when you opened the front cover off engine to change plastic guides - were they in good shape or just cracked but not broken off? Because if they break apart and end up dropping down in oil pan they can get sucked into the oil pickup screen and lowers oil pressure giving you those codes and will run like crap. Only fix is to drop pan and clean out that debris in screen.