hey folks - so '07 F150 5.4 3v with 175k misfiring - have owned it only a couple of years, have only put like 2k'ish on it in that time, almost all in town short trips. low rpm around 45-50 is where it really shows up. got an ODB2 scanner, cyl 7 had codes. swapped coils with cyl 6, no change. replaced #7 spark plug and the miss moved to cyl 3. swapped coils with cyl 2 and it stopped throwing codes but idle is rough. pulled driver side valve cover just to see what everything looked like, kinda varnished looking but no sludge, all the keepers appeared normal and were in place. cam looked fine. did new plugs on 5, 6, and 8 while i was in there (sp-546-x), along with the VCT just cuz - got to looking at the phaser and immediately thought it doesnt look right, seems "sprung" to me. you guys know waaaaaay more than i do about it so took some pics. any advice/input is appreciated.

 

Phaser looks ok in those photos (L lines up with the middle "finger"on the side that has 3 fingers), the R should be 180 degrees from that....

 

so other than the sexy color your saying that one looks normal?
i was going to tear into the other side but then figured that would be pointless if i just have to take it back apart to do phasers/timing - thanks!!

 

the varnish is pretty normal too after planty of years and miles. Better than full of sludge in my book.