gforceman

no.. no noise .first 5 months ran like butter now.. just a rough idle

06_F150

Got started tearing mine back down finally ill let you know what I find.

06_F150

Got valve covers off. Passengers side Dorman phaser is not locking. Chain is also way slack on this side. Drivers side is locked and chain is tight. I don't know if guide or tensioner is the failure yet.

gforceman

I have done this repair 2x and both times the drivers side chain was always looser than the pass side chain .. and my parts were less than a year old .. my phaser failed when the. Vct solenoid was stuck wide open due to screen collapsed inside solenoid causing the left bank to full retard .. and still have a rough idle. Good luck ..

06_F150

Oring on passengers side was sucked into the tensioner. This was allowing this side to leak completely down in short order. The Oring on the drivers side was in but looked to be not far enough to cause a leak. Waiting on a few more parts before I go back together.

06_F150

Have you tried resetting the ECM ? I wonder if your trim values are out because if the stuck full retard. I guess if that is the case it should correct itself eventually, maybe faster with a reset.

scab05

I wouldn't think that the VCT solenoids could break the phasers, even if stuck in the fully retarded position. The truck would idle poorly and should definitely throw some codes. Maybe it was going bad anyway.

There are so many issues with the 05 5.4L 3v that make it idle poorly, and as 06 mentioned, every time I reprogrammed the PCM, it would run well for a while, and then the idle would start to get rougher over time. The cam stays pretty much at full advance at an idle to improve idle and low end torque, and this is the default and locked position of the phaser, so technically, low oil pressure to the cam should not make it IDLE poorly because of the phaser operation.

Also, the idle might not be as bad as you think, as there is a service TSB on the 05 motor mounts. I put my truck and my friends brand new sierra side by side. When I put my hand on each engine, if anything my motor idles more smoothly, but when sitting in the cab, I can't feel any vibration in the chevy and mine shakes like a paint shaker.

I bought an edge evolution programmer, and this has helped a lot both to see what's going on, and to reset the ECM from time to time as it learns my bad habits. Of course, I have fully gone over the motor with a full tune up replacing all the plugs and ignition packs, cleaning MAF sensor, TB and resealing the worn airbox gasket (this is important believe it or not)

06_F150

Got everything back together. No noise at startup ever and no phaser noise at hot idle!

The chain was hitting the crank pick up wheel and front cover when the phaser did not lock!

The ford chain was much tighter than the cloyes. Also the new resigned vct solenoids have reed valve like structures on the in ports and the waste outlet on the bottom is smaller. The ford tensioners have the same slit but the gasket looks like it is poured on it is not just an o ring.

Thanks guys for sharing your experiences it helped me a lot.

Especial86

iTrader: (1)

Nice! Glad to see you win this one...

When you say "reed valve" are you saying the new solenoids have something "fin" shaped on the inlets?

So the latest revised tensioner gaskets are bonded right to the surface of the tensioner.

How about the OEM phaser? Did it have steel dowels holding the reluctor ring on instead of roll pins?

It wouldn't surprise me if ford just slipped a different revised part into circulation without mentioning it...

lhill58

I don't have the VCT solenoid part numbers in front of me but the last time I swapped them out I did them one at a time and within a 3 month period ford put out a cheaper updated "b" version. Curious now if they updated it again.

The new tensioners are way better like they are injection molded with silicone.