Also you might ask the dealer if it could possibly be just cam phasers. What you were describing sounds familiar to cam phasers messed up because they will intermittently work right and then not work I have a hard time believing the timing chains are stretched and it’s a an intermittent problem but knowing a dealer they will want to change timing chain while doing cam phasers

 

So an update... the Fault codes are P00012 and P00022. About Cam timing retardation.

Leaving the dealer, check engine light was on. I just started the truck and drove and the engine light is now off... hmmm

besides the symptoms above, the truck drives and sounds normal. The engine doesn’t make any weird sounds other than the injectors..

man.... I’m really torn here

 

I've been studying the issue and see that Meling makes a high output pump that seems to help them last after replacement. Anyone tried this? There's also a company making a piece to lock them again any thoughts on their use?

 

I definitely think the phaser delete is the way to go I do not have any experience with it personally but have researched it a bit I think that’s the way I would go it does take a programmer to retune it so the computer doesn’t go into limp mode but from my research I’ve seen that it really works good

 

it sounds to me like it’s just cam phasers but I’m no expert and haven’t heard the truck run or anything

 

Here is a clip from the top of the engine

 

Does it make noise worse on a cold startup

 

Man I can tell you from experience the oil pump is not easy to change unless you drop the pan, which is not easy on the 4x4. There is a great series of videos by Fordtechmakuloco on youtube that makes replacing the timing chains stupid easy. I did it in my garage in a weekend, which would have been shorter if I didnt spend a day on the dang oil pump lol

 

98_XC sorry for the hijack. Here's a quick and easy way to check the phasers out.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...N8ZFOD4xbU2nov

 

Do you have a funny little rattle for about 3 seconds on a stone cold start?

Tim