BadFish523

They are just a band aid and do not fix anything. You will still have low oil pressure and lack of oil to other important parts of the engine. Not recommend around these parts.

nathan3306

Okay guys. after completing the timing job, rollers, lifters, spark plugs, etc... I'm getting a soft tick on the drivers side. As yall may recall, it was a loud knock/tick previously so I took the cover back off and check everything, tightened the plugs back up and it settled down a ton; almost non-existent. Well, that soft tick is still there and it's driving me nuts since the passenger is dead silent other than the injectors--it sounds like a freaking job well done!

Any ideas as to what I can check again? The noise is coming from the middle of the valve cover, drivers side. Do you guys think it is plugs? I didn't replace the coil packs...

nathan3306

Went out to check on the noise again and the noise is very faint. Some drives you can really hear it, others like right now, not so much. I'll try to get a video when she really acts up.

Jrt13

This is a great help. I was wondering if it's possible to replace the 3valve heads with 2valve and get rid of the variable valve phasers. I had a 2000 Lincoln Navigator with the 5.4 and never had any issues.

nathan3306

shanekw1

I started this job a few weeks ago after my oil pressure gauge suddenly went to nothing and my truck began rattling terribly. I had noticed the oil pressure dropped out a couple times and then went out completely. I limped the truck home (bad, I know) and proceeded to take the oil pan off where I found many large chunks of plastic and a frightening amount of metal flakes as well as an oil pump pick up tube completely blocked with small hunks of plastic. Upon removal of the valve covers and timing cover, I saw no metal up in the heads or valve train area. 1 guide was completely gone and one other had a small piece out of it. There were noticeable and large amounts of metal shaved off of the timing cover.

Finally wrapped it up after too many mornings to count working in my driveway a few hours at a time before going to work on afternoon shift. I got it all back together last Sunday to find that I must have had the timing wrong or it jumped a tooth without me noticing. I made sure to rotate the engine by hand a few times to make sure nothing was contacting and it wasn't so I got it all together and when i started it, it sounded like a dream, smooth and quiet, better than ever. That is until I got in to rev it up a bit and it sounded like it was really labouring to rev and eventually found that even floored, it wouldn't go past 3000 rpm. Ugh.

The second time opening it up went way quicker, especially since I didn't have to drop the oil pan. Got it done in two days before work. The first time I did the job I took it apart without setting the engine to TDC. Oops! Doing it over multiple days, it was one of those "I'll do it later" things I tried to get the number one spark plug out, but it was so tight I was afraid of breaking it. So after much internet research, I found a post the showed the cam lobe position at TDC. I put the chain back on before moving anything and set the engine up that way. I spent a long time flushing and cleaning everything, even pouring a gallon of cheap oil over and down through the heads as well as down the front of the engine behind the timing cover. Also found what appears to be the remnants of a cam or crank sensor that the previous owner left in there for me, a small plastic cylinder, a bunch of fine copper wire, and a small piece of metal resembling a bearing roller..Anyway, after all that didn't seem to work and I had the engine open again, I puckered up and broke that number 1 plug loose. Didn't break it, whew. So after setting TDC, I meticulously reset the timing and put everything back together.

Success! The engine started and sounded good. For a few minutes then it began to idle terribly and sputter and choke when I tried to rev it. Now I'm like 'Oh, dear God, now what' lol I head read somewhere about vaccuum leaks causing something like this so I set about looking and listening for one, seeing as I had just had a bunch of lines disconnected. As I was looking, I heard a hiss from inside my air filter housing and for whatever reason, stuck my hand in it. Instantly, the engine ran great, what? Run into my garage and get the air filter and put it in, truck now runs perfectly for 3 days so far. Who knew that this engine wouldn't run without the air filter? Not me that's for sure.

I switched to mobil 1 5w30 extended performance synthetic and mobil 1 extended performance filter for after the initial oil change or 2 in the next couple weeks. Sadly (or not) I cheaped out and only did the tensioners, guides and crank sprocket as the chains that came in the kit i ordered from amazon were wrong. This truck supposedly (according to the previous owner and a yellow sticky note in the owner's manual) has a crate engine with only 20000 km on it so I figured the phasers and such are ok.

F150Torqued

There's the answer what went wrong. Once you removed an old chain - valve spring tension moved a cam - forward or backward. Putting the old chain back on 'would' have kept cams / crank in their respective positions while you set it up for TDC - but it was already OFF between banks to some minor degree which probably followed you through the process.

But final success is all we can ask for. We're glad for that.

Hope those Phaser's were good OEM ones. Stay alert for that.

shanekw1

I did get the timing marks lined up when I put the chain chain on. I'm guessing I was a turn out, or the chain skipped without me noticing as I rotated the engine.

But it is nice to have it working. Now I can finally get out to get some firewood for the winter, better late than never.

MN150

F150Torqued

There is a bunch of guys here delighted to help you - don't matter what year model you got. If you're dealing with a 5.4 - just keep them advised of the hear model for very minor differences, but I don't think they will involve timing issues (Subject to anyone correcting me).

My first question ---- explain what you mean "crank set at 12 O'clock position". It's 'tedious' to communicate via internet. You mean Crankshaft "KEY" or crankshaft sprocket timing "DOT"?. The "DOT" should be at (or very close) to 6:00 O'clock. Many start out at 7:00 o'clock - then at a later point move it slightly back to 6:00 O'clock (but I don't think it makes a hill of beans - just maybe easier to remove roller/followers).