I have to agree with the idea to drop the pan and clean it out. I ended up having to drop mine for the same thing and ended up putting a Melling 360 HV and new pickup screen in and it made a world of difference. Now carrying about 72 when hot on the highway and about 35 at hot idle. You won't be sorry

 

1000% agree with the others! Dropping your pan is where I'd start my search! If your guides were broken - they're in the pan and you can almost guarantee they have clogged the pickup tube in some manner. The size of the screen isn't that large so it won't take much to limit oil flow. You can find pictures of clogged tubes. I know I posted mine on the forum somewhere.

Dropping the pan isn't that bad. Follow Ford Tech Maculoco's video on how to do it. Most of the trouble people have is getting those cross member and/or axle bolts out especially if you live in areas that get salted roads, coastal areas, etc. WD-40 the hell out of them before you start. I got lucky with mine as the bolts came right out no problem. Dropping my pan was really no trouble at all. And YES, my pick up tube was clogged with left over guides. So bad in fact - I just bought a new tube (I got lucky and found a brand new one for $20, so it wasn't worth the hassle to try and clean it).
Dropping the pan also allows you to get a good look at everything else.

Sorry my friend - we all know how much re-work sucks, but don't destroy all your hard work and toss your money out the window! Drop the pan.

Good luck and let us know!

 

I have several inputs . Yes on cleaning the oil pu and pan out is mandatory .That chain grinds those guides into fibers and jams that oil pu slam full ,it is difficult to get them all out of the screen . The other is replacing the chain tensioners with the old style steel tensioners that ratchet when oil pressure is low so it holds tension instead of starting over every time the engine is shut down plus no gasket to fail and cause low oil pressure.
Engines that are in cold climates and don't run enough each time condense water in crank because vent system unable to remove vapor on short trips , You must change the oil out more frequently and do a walmart motor medic engine flush each time .If she cools down to zero each night and try's to get to 195f in 3 miles you can guarantee its going to condense water in crank when you shut it off in 3 miles . .
I live in fl and I do an engine flush every other time in less than three months . Some guys do it every time and let it sit overnight before draining it .
You are using dirty oil to hydraulically move cam timing . Get it clean and keep it clean . How long do you think a hydraulic system on a tractor would last if they used the dirty engine oil for hydraulics from crankcase . That hydraulic action causes the fluid to heat up a lot also . Hydraulic fluid stays red and is heavily filtered/cooled and gets very hot when working . Your oil is full of combustion carbon /dirt/water . Then becomes sludge.

 

Thanks for all the replies, I had already settled into idea that I had to drop the oil pan when I hit send yesterday
Spent day golfing today but prior to that got all the bolts undone on cross member and stabilizer bar, only axle left. No small feat on this truck as it's been in Michigan salt for 17 years, Should have pan down on Saturday, I'll take some pics . Plan to run a motor flush prior, saw someone mentioned motor medic, I had used another brand previously. Was going to pick up some Liqui Moly but maybe will try the motor medic. I got the vehicle with 60k on it and who ever had it prior was not a fan of oil changes, of course didn't know this until I pulled valve covers at 120k+.. I run Mobil 1 exclusively in my vehicles with 5K-7.5K intervals usually. This vehicle I have been changing every 6 months for last 3 years (only about 2-3K miles) but should probably plan to run a flush every time. Wish me luck, I really hope I find the pick up screen clogged will give me some hope that I am zeroing in on the root cause of low pressure and the hot idle issue.

One questions that I doubt I will get uniform answer on, motor oil weight to use after flush and pan clean out, thoughts?
I'll plan to come back with my oil pressure comparison later this weekend. I am measuring with a mechanical gauge at pressure switch port location, think in future I will invest in a elec/mech gauge.I had looked at the glowshift, but no more investing in this until this issue is solved

 

FordTechMakuloco recommends 10w30. He's stated that the engine was originally designed for 10w30 but because of fuel mileage requirements Ford changed the recommendation to 5w20 to eek out more gas mileage.

 

because this 5.4 design is so oil pressure dependent- I posted a while back about an alternative location you may want to consider that will tap the engine closer to the phasers:

https://www.f150forum.com/f107/oil-p...o-have-487543/

Also the last poster mentioned 10w30 was recommended. This I believe was a typo as all info related to this subject was 5w30 ( not 10w30)

 

I've been using Motorcraft synthetic 5W30 and MC filter since my timing overhaul. No problems. I even found a 5W30 oil filler cap and replaced the original 5w20 just in case I had a shop change the oil. I don't let it go more than 5000 miles between changes. Even then it sucks to change it as the oil looks almost as clean as new. Maybe that's one of the differences between dino and synthetic oil.

I also flushed my engine as much as I could when I had everything apart. I made a plate that I could bolt to the oil pump inlet and connected it to a hose and drill-pump. I used the cheapest oil I could find and mixed some trans fluid in. It was all going to run into a big plastic tote under the engine anyway, so I didn't care if it was cheap oil. I was using it as a cleaner. It was amazing what came out. Crap gets way down inside that would ordinarily be difficult to reach. I also changed the filter multiple times right after the rebuild. A $4 filter was cheap insurance when trying to get any leftover crap out.

I should not have re-used my engine. Yes, it was THAT bad, but I had no choice. And I admit.. after you fix all the Ford FUBAR inside - these engines are like the Energizer battery! She runs like a champ to this day. So far anyway...

 

Not great news : Ran motor medic then drained oil and dropped oil pan on Saturday. There was a fair amount of plastic debris in sump, a couple small pieces in the pick up tube screen area. Not blocking much of the area though. Cleaned everything out of scree and sump. Put it all back together and refilled with 5w-30 Mobil 1 and new filter. Had high expectations that oil pressure would be better, it was basically the same 70 psi at start up dropped as oil temp came up and was down to 10psi by 170deg F oil temp. Once oil got to 190F I could run rpm to 850-1000RPM and make VCT go haywire. Unplug the VCT all is well.
I'm kind of at a loss on next steps. Appreciate any thoughts others have.

One out of box question... Lockout kits (Livernois or other reputable version), Is this a reasonable option? It basically takes the adjustable VCT out of equation right? I have only read a little bit about it seems like a mixed bag or opinions, Livernois is a well know Detroit company and might give them a call for details on pros and cons

Open to other ideas but honestly patience is wearing thin on this vehicle. Thanks for feedback all

 

My understanding on pros and cons of VCT delete is that your fuel economy is a little worse, your torque down low may suffer slightly, but those are largely negligible. The big con is you have to get a tune. The pro is just that you don't have VCT issues anymore. And troubleshooting becomes a bit easier.

I've got got a sneaking suspicion that your oil pump is going bad. That or uou have slidge build up happenign for some reason. Run your engine cleaner, and maybe you can get some pressure back. Where are you taking your oil pressure reading?

 

Taking the oil readings at the oil switch port using a harbor freight pressure gauge. It seems unlikely the oil pump (MH360) is issue but who knows at this point. I have less than 10k miles since I put it in with the other timing components and have run Mobil 1 with intervals at about 2-3k miles. There was no sludge on the oil pick up tube screen which was not cleaned ever prior to this weekend, I believe sludge could be issues on an original components or passages but not on the new stuff. At this point I am just looking for best plan to get some time/mileage out of it until a fatal issues occurs (if it does occur) If lockouts solved the hot idle issue I wouldn't hesitate to put them in.

I would guess other suggestions might be to take front cover off and look at tensioners.... could a tensioner explain hot idle oil pressure issue? m leaning toward it being a worn engine and choice is scrap or throw some hail mary component to see what happens . I'm not going to have much time this fall to work on it so will have time to think through options.