Excellent point. I've been having to troubleshoot this with days in between each try, but not sure why that did not occur to me when I wrote this!

I have one of my old COPs, I can try swapping one of those into #7 now (before buying another new one).

I pretty much changed the plugs and COPs right after I bought the truck, so I don't know if it was misfiring then with previous owner, but it didn't have any misfire codes.

 

I think that did it! Swapped in one of the old COPs into #7, does not seem to have an misfire now. Drove it around for 20 minutes, no misfire or misfire codes. We'll see what happens tomorrow when I drive it to work.

So much for my "NEW" COPs.....

 

That's good to hear! Sometimes even brand new parts are lemons. Can you warranty out the faulty cop?

 

I doubt it, bought them too long ago via an Ebay vendor. Honestly, I'm not to concerned about that, just happy I've got this truck running again.

 

I get codes frequently, I've never had a shortage of codes.

I cleaned the throttle body/MAF, no difference. I unplugged the cam sensors and the VCT solenoids, and the truck runs somewhat better now, but I have to either shift into Neutral or run the AC to keep it from having a bad idle. I still have the diesel ticking. I was under the impression that if it was the phasers themselves, unplugging these items would fix this problem and I would not have ticking/rough idle if everything was unplugged.

I could take the alternator in and have it tested, as I do occasionally get a couple other electrical problems like my cruise control not always working..

 

Typically a bad alternator is very obvious on these vehicles. When my alternator failed I knew right away that it was not charging. Your local autoparts store should have the equipment to do a full charging system diagnosis on the vehicle free of charge. This would at least help save you some time and labor.

We have had many customers tell us they had similar issues that did not improve much or at all after unplugging the solenoids and cam sensors, other than the electrical issues you have mentioned. Once they install our cam phaser noise repair kit and resolve any other similar issues like broken timing chain guides the truck ran great. Just had a customer yesterday call back and thank us stating his truck has not ran this well since the day he brought it home from the used car lot. That was after he had spent over $1,500 and countless hours trying to resolve the rough idle, DTC codes for timing, and dieseling / ticking. He drove it for months having to put the truck in neutral and rev it at every stop after it warmed up just to keep it running smoothly. If it starts up and runs decent cold then gets worse once it reaches operating temp, I would strongly suggest to lockout the phasers and install the tune afterwards to ensure the vehicle understands the VCT system has been eliminated. These trucks are all going to continuously go through phasers over and over again no matter how much time and money we throw at them trying to figure out that they have a flawed design from factory. This is why our wholesale accounts are buying 20+ kits each time they call because they know it is the only permanent solution to the dreaded cam phaser issues all 3 valve mod engines will experience at some point in their lifetime.

Also I suggest to leave the camshaft position sensors plugged in if you want to make sure the vehicle runs properly and avoid any check engine lights they may cause while unplugged. There were recalls on these vehicles also for the cruise control issues which many people ending up disabling to avoid any issues as well. So if it never has worked since you bought it someone may have disabled it.

 

I live in northern VA and have the complete cam phaser repair kit coming in later this month (Ford OEM parts). I am interested in getting quotes from people to replace both sides. Otherwise, I will eventually do it myself when I have some free time but I won't be looking forward to it...

Here's what I bought:
DM me and let me know your price.

 

We are in Michigan, so unfortunately that is not probably going to work out or I would send you a quote. Definitely a great choice using the OEM components!

If you plan on keeping the vehicle and want to make sure this is the last / only time this is going to be repaired, I would strongly suggest to lock out the new phasers before they are installed. Spoke to a guy 2 hours ago that replaced everything at the dealership basically same components as you have listed and it made it about 7 months before the issues started coming back again. And this was on an engine that only had 90,000 miles on it.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I'll look into what that involves. Yeah, after doing the spark plug change among other things idk if I want to tackle this job lol but at the same time I want to make sure it's done right the FIRST time.

 

I didn't realize you guys are so close to my place.. im near belleville