ANOTHER dead 5.4 3v what am I doing wrong??
 

2010 FX4 5.4 3v. 183k on the clock, and potentially facing an engine replacement. 12psi off the oil pump. Took in for a timing chain noise at low rpm thinking the guides were busted, and now its looking like an engine is going to be replaced.

I had the 5.4 also replaced in my '04 at 176k and I dont understand what I'm doing wrong, religiously change my oil at 5k with pennzoil platinum 5w30 or mobil 1 synthetic 5w30. Always Motorcraft filters. are 5.4's really just that prone to breaking down at the 175k + mark or is it just crap luck on my part?

i think its the engine

Here is one mechanic's thoughts on the 5.4L 3V


Basically, not your fault but insufficient oil flow

Just remember low oil pressure doesn't mean you have a bad pump or a bad engine, the little rubber seals the timing chain tensioners can bleed off a lot of oil pressure if the seals start to leak, and a leaking o-ring on the oil pump pickup tube can easily cause low or no oil pressure. It isn't always bad bearings or worn out cam journals in the heads, sometimes it's just small rubber seals that haven't been changed in over 170K.

Could be because your using the wrong weight oil. That engine is supposed to run 5w20. Ford's engines are fairly critical about that.
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www.owner.ford.com you can look up any owners manual on a myriad of years of Ford vehicles. I only glanced at a few but not one place did I see a country specific difference in engine oil weight.

The Ford shop manuals I happen to own do not specify a country usage for oil weight. Come to think of it when I went to Ford engine repair school none of our instructors mentioned anything of the like.

What does the oil fill cap (if original) state to use? ;)

You asked what you were doing wrong. I gave a possible reason, you can accept it or not. I've only been doing this for a living for close to 40 years, 11 of those at a Ford dealer so I might not have a valid opinion.
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I've seen different oil weights listed in the past, I'm sure you remember back in early 2001 when Ford released a TSB (02-1-9) which stated that 5W20 was now recommended for all engines that previously required 5W30 with a few exceptions. The recommendation was made for increased fuel economy and as I understand it, it only applied to US vehicles so when looking up oil specs on Mitchell or Alldata seeing a listing stating to use 5W20 for US models and 5W30 for Canadian models was a common sight. Some people ignored the TSB and chose to stick with the oil their engines were designed for, myself included, but this created a myth that any Ford engine that calls for 5W20 was really meant to use 5W30 even though the switch was made 18 years ago at this point and predates the engines we have in our trucks.

That being said the current owner's manual printing for a 2010 5.4 F150 specifically states to use 5W20 in the US and 5W20 in Canada, the part numbers are different, but the recommended viscosity is the same.

Key word (Past) yep I remember vaguely. Engine design tolerances are a lot tighter than they use to be.

I remember building 302's using plastigauge to determine correct tolerances for bearing clearances. :blink: You will only make that mistake once on these newer engines.
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