Sounds like a plan and that it's time, but I'm not sure the point of replacing the phasers and locking them out. Might as well just lock out the old ones since they won't be active anyway?

 

Fair point, but mostly personal comfort.
most of the videos I’d seen never talked about using the old phasers with the lockouts.
you may be right it was an unnecessary extra expense, but I just felt like if we’re in there, we already have them so might as well throw them in there.

 

I know your post on your Cam Phaser issue was from a long time ago. I'm trying to decide what to do. My tick just started at 65k miles / 5.0L XLT. It goes away after I drive it a few miles, but lately with the cold mornings it's pretty pronounced. Dealer is telling $5700 to repair which seems crazy to me. Trying to decide if I just let it go and keep changing my oil and move on with life. How did your situation turn out? thanks.

 

https://www.f150forum.com/f4/final-r...7/#post7514189

 

Reporting back on my timing job.
Picked the truck up form the shop yesterday.
Upon startup I could immediately tell there was a change. no more ticking noise, no more sounding like a diesel. It was so quiet I had to double check that it was even running.

While driving on the way home it had great pick-up-and-go. Idling RMS's we still sitting at 500-600, but the needle wasn't fluctuating as it had in the past. Same at Red lights and stop signs, the RPM needle stayed steady, whereas is the past it would jump and dip always making me think the truck was going to die.

Mechanic reported back that indeed there was chain slap against the timing cover, even though the guides had not been broken. He noted that the chains were quite stretched and had a good amount of play in them. He noted that the original plastic tensioners, although still "working" were on the way out and that the replacements (cast iron ratcheting style) were definitely needed.

He swapped out the spark plugs as well along with doing the full timing job, as it was time for new ones of those.
And we added the Cam phaser locks and the preprogrammed code for those.

All in all, it seems to be driving really well. Mechanic took it for multiple test drives on city streets as well as a couple highway trips to make sure it was all running before he gave it back, So I am confident that I will be getting many more years out of the truck, and very happy about it.

 

May I ask what it cost you? I'm being quoted $5700 for this job. Thanks.

 

Cost me 4365.00 from the mechanic
Additionally I purchased the cast iron tensioners, $150, the oil pump $250 (Melling M360 HV) and the cam phaser locks and tuner myself ($650) on my own because I wanted to make those actually got in there instead of just what the supplier shipped to my guy.

All in a bit less than you are quoted but my mechanic is a friend so he knocked some of his hourly rate off for me.

 

Thanks. Yeah, very expensive. I have a 5.0. I had heard it was much more prevalent on 3.5 or 2.7. Guess it is what it is.

So you would / recommend not just replacing the phasers, but also the other parts you listed? I'm trying to decide how much I trust my dealer. They don't seem to have their act together.... Thanks

 

Well There was some debate on whether the phasers should be replaced if I was locking them out, but my left phaser was full of crud, and my mechanic said, it's probably best to just swap them out. He sent me pics to verify his findings and I agreed with his choice. I have also studied this problem and gone back and forth on it for so long that I felt that the whole job might as well be done, seeing as we are in there and we have the parts.
As for the parts, That was a persona; choice. I have seen many arguments for both sides about the validity of the cast-iron tensioners vs. the plastic ones. But ultimately, Cast iron ones made more sense to me. as well as the lockouts for the the phasers.

My biggest thing was I have been budgeting for this for years. As well as going back and forth in my head for years as well. I think I've read every post and watched just about every video I could find on the subject and seeing all sides. This was the choice that made sense for me and my situation.
I also had the money set aside, so it just made sense to do it all and be done with it. Keep in mind, I am 1 day into driving it again so I can't verify with accuracy yet that its 100 %, but I am happy with how the engine sounds and feels as I have been driving. And I 100% trust my mechanic because A. I did my research on the subject so he knows I know what we are talking about, and B. I made sue to give him the extra parts because I know they weren't available from his supplier. (mine all came from Rockauto, Except the Program Tuner, SCTx4, which was purchased locally with a preloaded code.)

My advice, as someone who has a trusted mechanic friend, If you don't 100% trust your shop, don't take it there. Especially for a job where you can't prove they did what you wanted them to do. (ei. you can't/wont be opening the engine yourself to say "See you didn't do this for me, but charged me anyway.) Find a guy you can trust.

 

Thanks for all of that.

My dealer has had my truck all week thus far. They couldn't hear the sound on Monday. And I told them it was there.
They didn't hear it on Tuesday, and so I came by and we all heard it together. It was there and then got better (went away after about 10 seconds), but I told them that on cold days lately, the sound is there for a long time - several minutes - at least until I drive the truck and then put it in park. I then asked them to do a compression and leak test, and they told me that everything came back normal. Don't get my wrong, I don't want to spend $5700 if I don't have to, but I know for a fact that the sound I'm now hearing wasn't there a month ago. I think I might need to find another mechanic. The one guy that I trust isn't an engine block guy. He's more of a generalist maintenance and anything without taking the actual engine apart so he always recommends the dealer since they're the engine experts seeing them all the time. I'll keep my fingers crossed that your issue is resolved!