Marcus Thomas

I'm doing a timing chain set replacement job on my 08 f150. Everything was going good until the passenger side phaser rolled ccw about an 8th of a turn when I went to remove the tensioner. The crankshaft is still in positio as is the driver side phaser/timing. The double chain marks on the passenger phaser are still aligned with the phaser mark, but the chain jumped the crankshaft sprocket. Is it possible to bring the passenger side back into timing without pulling the entire timng assembly off and starting from scratch? I removed the passenger side plugs to attempt to roll the phaser back into position by hand.....didn't work. If I pull the lifters and release the tension on the valves will hand rolling the cam/phaser back into position work? This is an emergency cause my wife also works and putting us down to one vehicle is a big problem. Thanks for any help.

Jojodapyro

Sounds like the whole front comes apart again.

Marcus Thomas

S@@T. I followed reviewed a video from cloyes and the 4 videos from fordtechmakuloco to make sure I didn't miss anything. Did what they did and it jumped out of timing. I tried to hand roll the camphaser/cam the 8th of the turn back into timing, but it didn't work. Is there a way to bring the passenger side back into timing. What if I remove the lifters then roll the cam back into position with the chain marks in the right location with the crank sproket?

Skwerl

Is it possible you were one turn out from #1 TDC? I still have my wedge tool from my Bullitt Mustang (RIP). Some people just used a piece of garden hose folded over but that seemed a bit sketchy for me.

Marcus Thomas

I had to rotate the crankshaft 1 and a half turns to get the double marks on the chains to line up with the marks on the phasers. As well as the single mark to line up with the crank sproket in the 6 o'clock position. The key way was in the 11 o"clock position as well. I even checked it with the crankshaft poaition tool and everything was lined up. I paused, watched the removal of the first tensioner onbthe videos by both cloyes and fordtechmuloco. Paused the video and did the exact same thing. The cam rotated about an 8th of a turn ccw when the chain jumped off the crank sproket. At that point it was either get my AR-10 and shoot the s@@t sandwhich the 5.4 3v is, or walk away and grab a cold beer. I chose the beer option. My wife would've kicked my *** if I destroyed the engine and had to replace it. If I didn't live where they are eventually going to force motor vehicle emissions soon I would just build a solid slightly modified 351 and trash the ecm and the 5.4 3v expensive paper weight. Why the hell did ford create such a problematic engine series in the first place? Whoever designed and pushed the idea into production needs their teeth kicked in and their so-called engineer certification revoked. From what I've been researching it looks like my idea would work if I removed the passenger side lashers and hand rolled the cam back into position. However, a lingering paranoia says it's too risky cause I can't find any examples of this being done.

Skwerl

Do you have the front cover off or are you doing this from up top and just the valve covers off?


Edit: Never mind, I just reread the first post. You will get a surprising amount of resistance from the valve springs. You may need to roll everything one way or the other to relieve the valve spring pressure.

dukedkt442

I'm confused.. why are you removing the tensioner if the new chain and phaser are already on? I assume new or otherwise it wouldn't be a problem. If the chain and phaser still have to come off, then it's no problem at all. If the cams were neutralized it shouldn't have moved anyway. But it takes all of 15 minutes to remove the other chain and tensioner to reposition the one you need to (I forget which is on top of the other, and assume this is the issue).

Your lash adjusters and followers should be out for replacement anyway, which means the cams come out. It's silly to go this far into the job to only to part of it.

I supposed you could just put a socket and bar on the phaser bolt (13mm or 15 mm?) to turn it back CW if you needed to, but it sounds like you're only doing half the job.

But yes, taking the followers out and turning the cam will work fine, but seems to be far more work than is necessary to do what you need to do. if you rewatch the videos you only need to remove maybe 6 followers to neutralize the cams IIRC.

Marcus Thomas

The front and valve covers are off. The drivers side is still in timing also. I apoligize for the long rant. After spending all day since 4am this morning making good time until this happened, it pisses me off. I am thankful for the help though.

Skwerl

Can't remember the circumstances but I do recall one time being in a similar situation. I popped out a cam follower or two to relieve the pressure on the cam so I could get the chain lined up. After the phaser was secured I was able to pop the followers back in. A nice size prydriver is all you need.

I had the fancy spring removal tool but it absolutely sucked and was impossible to use. Was 10x faster using the old fashioned method with the old fat screwdriver.

Marcus Thomas

I'm replacing the entire assembly. I'm replacing the s@@ty plastic tensioners with the cast iron ratchet tensioners from modular performance. I remember working on the old ford motors with my dad and grandpa as a wee young trouble maker. It was soo easy back then. I was a mustang addict in highscrewl and enjoyed wrenching on my modified 5.0 mustang when I had to. It really seems that the big auto goons are making it harder for the DIY wrenchers to work on their vehicles.