09 Ford F150 roller follower seized and chewed up camshaft lobe
 

I have been getting misfires in the 2nd bank of my 09 f150 5.4l 3 valve. Then after I recently changed the oil I started to get a very rough idle and sometime even stalled. I would give it gas and then the issue would clear up. I unplugged the VVT solenoid and the issue went away so I figured that was causing the misfires. Well I took off the valve cover to replace the solenoid and found more than I bargained for in the cam shaft. One of the cylinder 6 rocker rollers popped loose and was sitting in the head, also the number 7 roller follower must have seized up and chewed a deep groove in one lobe of the cam shaft.

I’m not sure what all I should replace in this scenario. Should I get all new lifters, roller followers, and camshaft? I’m also concerned about the the amount of metal shards in my engine. Any ideas how I should approach this issue? I’ll attach some photos that I took of what is going on.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...5aaa9263a.jpeg
Roller follower on cylinder 6 popped out
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...f092cb9b2.jpeg
Chewed up camshaft lobe
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...cbd20543b.jpeg
Seized roller follower and metal shards

Wow, you may dislike what I have to say. I wouldn’t trust this engine without replacing all the roller followers, cam and cam bearings on that head. And even that said I wouldn’t recommend spending a bit of money until you pull the oil pan off to inspect how much debris is in there. If the oil pickup has metal shards stuck in the screen the your full engine is likely toast.

Looks just like mine (only mines a 5.4). I replaced all roller followers in addition to cam and timing parts. Runs better than new.

I did several quick oil change intervals to make sure everything was out. It's been about 25k now and no problems.

I have a VCT issue on my 5.0 and passenger valve cover is coming off when parts arrive, I'm slightly worried to find something along these lines. If I were you, I'd start with pulling off the oil filter and cutting it open, then looking for chunks or a lot of flakes, some small flakes aren't a big deal. If this checks out, then move on to the head components.

I don't know how many roller follower/rocker arm failure vids I've watched, it might be hundreds by now. The common consensus is any cam lobe wear in the middle of the cam lobe means a replacement is required. If the wear is only on the outer edges ie. the lobe has been worn down by the side edges of the roller follower but the middle of the cam lobe is still fine you can reuse. From your pic it looks like the middle of the cam lobe has some grooves and missing material as the bearing actually seized, so it's trashed, but that's just from the pics, up to you to determine.

If I didn't find chunks of metal in the oil filter, I'd probably buy the wedge tool to lock the chain tensioner closed to get enough slack to remove the chain off the phaser, change the roller followers and lifters to the affected cylinders, the camshaft and ride on. As noted above, a few short mileage oil changes afterwards is a good idea.

I checked the oil filter from the last oil change, which was about 2 weeks ago, and there was some fine metal but no chunks! I took off the passenger side valve cover as well to make sure the rollers, cam, phaser, and chain tension were good and everything on that side checks out. I'm going to most likely change the cam, affected rollers, affected lifters, and the VVT Solenoid on the diver's side and see what happens. Thanks for y'alls help!

fyi just in case, I believe the bolt on your phaser to cam is a one time use as it has an oil passage within. So you'll need a new phaser bolt if you reuse phaser.

After researching replacing the cam shaft I was wondering if anyone else who has done this job followed this procedure?
https://performanceparts.ford.com/do...TM-6550-3V.PDF

If do not want to buy the valve spring compression tool and was wondering if I could get by with just the wedge tool.

the only reasoning I see why you would take those rocker arms out before taking the cam caps off would be to relieve pressure. I think it would be fine just to take the caps off but I do not want to do other jobs on top of this one. When putting the camshaft back on I would imagine having all the rocker arms in place may put pressure on cam caps and torque specs wouldn’t be as accurate, but would it be close enough for everything to be fine?

just wondering what y’all thought on the matter

I don't see why you'd have to touch the valve springs unless you're replacing any. If you install performance cams then you have to change the valve springs.

From the videos I've seen:

-Turn the engine until timing marks are clearly visible on the chain. I'd try to find the point where the most lobes have the points up.
-take a marker and mark the front of the phaser where it meets the timing marks on the chain.
-mark a line on the back side where the phaser meets the cam (this is to help you orient the new one in as there's a notch in the end of the cam that has to line up with a key in the phaser hole)
-break torque only on the phaser bolt
-now jam in your wedge tool
-remove phaser bolt and slide phaser off cam, chain still on phaser.
-break torque on cam caps starting from middle outwards, then work your way around removing cam caps, set them aside in order, the cam will lift slightly.

roller followers should all just lift off, same with lifters. Submerge new ones in oil for a while first. I'd look up how to prime the lifters. Reinstall cam. Honestly, take an hour and watch a few videos on youtube. There's lots especially of mustang guys installing performance cams. I think for the first start afterwards I'd do some cranking with the gas pedal to the floor to get some oil flowing before firing it up. I even do this after oil changes.

All the other rollers are headed this same direction, why wouldn’t you change them while you are in there. Might end up in the same place a few thousand miles down the road.