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I have a 2004 F150 Triton 5.4 3v. I ordered and received a timing chain kit, today tore the engine down. The new chains have markings for camphaser and crank pulley. How do I set timing?
You tube makuloco ford tech has great videos. Depending on your skills I will start you off .
First this is a interference engine , meaning if you do it wrong the pistons can hit the valves and damage both . It is important that you really study this engine .
Do not take chains off yet ,get timing cover and valve covers off . Then set your engine to the timing point . The no 1 cyl is to be at TDC , the timing dot on the gear will be at 6 o'clock , the cam lobes on no1 which is passenger side front and cam lobes on no5 drivers side front must be facing the correct way per ford manual .
TDC can be determined by a small wooden dowel .
Crankshaft may be turned clockwise by hand using a 32mm socket over crankshaft and keyway .
When timing done you must turn engine by hand two rev's of crankshaft with no valve to piston contact . Yes you will lose your timing points it will take 122 rev's to get back to this point ,not practical to do .
Remember on instructions-- passenger side is right, drivers side is left . When new chains on phasor on passenger side will have R up and be straddled by two copper links . Drivers side will be I or L straddled by two copper links .
Both single copper links will be on the 6 o'clock dot on gear .
If you already took chains off then don't move the crank shaft
You will surely bend a valve . I would lift both cams carefully marking all parts so they can go back exactly like they were . And I mean exactly .
There is a procedure for removing cam bolts sequentially and same going back . a little at a time . Point is if the cams are lifted no valves will be down so crank can be turned and cams can be positioned correctly . And all timing points can be set up .
You tube makuloco ford tech has great videos. Depending on your skills I will start you off .
First this is a interference engine , meaning if you do it wrong the pistons can hit the valves and damage both . It is important that you really study this engine .
Do not take chains off yet ,get timing cover and valve covers off . Then set your engine to the timing point . The no 1 cyl is to be at TDC , the timing dot on the gear will be at 6 o'clock , the cam lobes on no1 which is passenger side front and cam lobes on no5 drivers side front must be facing the correct way per ford manual .
TDC can be determined by a small wooden dowel .
Crankshaft may be turned clockwise by hand using a 32mm socket over crankshaft and keyway .
When timing done you must turn engine by hand two rev's of crankshaft with no valve to piston contact . Yes you will lose your timing points it will take 122 rev's to get back to this point ,not practical to do .
Remember on instructions-- passenger side is right, drivers side is left . When new chains on phasor on passenger side will have R up and be straddled by two copper links . Drivers side will be I or L straddled by two copper links .
Both single copper links will be on the 6 o'clock dot on gear .
Hi, I was hoping that someone would have some insight to what is wrong with my truck. I have an 05 F150 5.4l 3v. I had a misfire awhile back with codes so I replaced the vct solenoids, spark plugs, coils, and cam phasers. It solved the problem. Then a few months down the road I had total power loss while driving and discovered I had a bad alternator and battery, so I replaced both the alternator and battery. It solved the problem. Then another month down the road and my truck started making rattling noises while driving. No codes at all. I figured it must be the timing chain. So I bought the timing kit and when I went to replace the components I noticed that there was a loose chain and a blown tensioner. So I replaced it all. 2 chains, crank sprocket, 2 guides, 2 tensioner arms, 2 tensioners, timing gasket kit and all. Somehow I must have gotten the timing wrong because upon completion it started and ran perfect untill I drove it the next day. It is so much worse than when I started. Still no codes. It idles ok, but when driving at low and high speeds it is wanting to die and making louder rattling sounds. It seems terrible to drive this way so I have parked it but need it running soon. Please help if you have any ideas. Tomorrow I am going to go back in there and I guess redo it all and hope I find where I went wrong. The only thing I noticed was that I got the tensioners mixed up and installed them on the wrong sides. They seem to be the exact same part though and I'm not sure how to re compress them to swap them to the right sides. Any ideas would help. Especially on how to properly time it. Thanks.
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upon completion it started and ran perfect untill I drove it the next day. It is so much worse than when I started. Still no codes.
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Sorry to hear it. It seems to happen more often than it should.
It is hard to imagine that timing could be the culprit if it ran perfectly (EVER). I have to ask a stupid question. Did you remove the oil pan and check / clean out any broken guides / pieces of thrust bearings or any junk like that? It is a common mistake even by seasoned mechanics.
I'm not sure if tensioners will align with bolt holes / oil passages and tensioner arms on the wrong side. Never tried it. But they are marked and the driver's side tensioner arm has a bump on it to identify its proper location. It would be terrible to have to tear one down just to check - but I guess if I was very unsure - I'd have to.
In the meantime, pull that pan and make sure the pickup screen is clear if you did not do so.
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EDIT: The reason for this is: Most timing jobs results in plastic guide pieces sinking to the bottom of the pan. They find their way to the lowest spot - which is EXACTLY where the pickup tube / screen is located. They get sucked up into the screen obstructing the oil pump suction and cause air bubbles in the oil passageways - which is very detrimental to oil pressure. This often doesn't occur until the engine / oil is warmed up and circulates for a little while - then the crappy running seems to show up. OR the pieces get wedged in there and keeps it from running right anytime. Sounds like THIS could be what happened in your case. (Hopefully. It's a fairly cheap fix if so, just labor intensive.)
Last edited by F150Torqued; 05-26-2017 at 03:17 PM.
Reason: Add afterthoughts
Thanks, no I did not check the oil pan. I didn't see a need to do so seeing as the guides weren't broken. But I will do so tomorrow when I try redoing the timing components. Do you happen to know how to compress the tensioners so that I can fix that mixup? And I have found so many different ways of timing it. What position of the crank shaft is best? I guess I really just need a thorough runthro of timing it again. Maybe then I will find my mistake. Thanks again.
Sorry to hear it. It seems to happen more often than it should.
It is hard to imagine that timing could be the culprit if it ran perfectly (EVER). I have to ask a stupid question. Did you remove the oil pan and check / clean out any broken guides / pieces of thrust bearings or any junk like that? It is a common mistake even by seasoned mechanics.
I'm not sure if tensioners will align with bolt holes / oil passages and tensioner arms on the wrong side. Never tried it. But they are marked and the driver's side tensioner arm has a bump on it to identify its proper location. It would be terrible to have to tear one down just to check - but I guess if I was very unsure - I'd have to.
In the meantime, pull that pan and make sure the pickup screen is clear if you did not do so.
--------------
EDIT: The reason for this is: Most timing jobs results in plastic guide pieces sinking to the bottom of the pan. They find their way to the lowest spot - which is EXACTLY where the pickup tube / screen is located. They get sucked up into the screen obstructing the oil pump suction and cause air bubbles in the oil passageways - which is very detrimental to oil pressure. This often doesn't occur until the engine / oil is warmed up and circulates for a little while - then the crappy running seems to show up. OR the pieces get wedged in there and keeps it from running right anytime. Sounds like THIS could be what happened in your case. (Hopefully. It's a fairly cheap fix if so, just labor intensive.)
That makes perfect sense and I will check it but I dont think that is the issue. I believe that I went wrong somewhere when aligning everything and doing the timing. It was so much better before I even messed with the timing components. Do you happen to have any good step by step instructions for timing a 05 f150 5.4l 3v? Any help would be very appreciated.
Check out what this guy did using Vice Grips, looks like a time saver as well as reduces the chance of human error while removing and reinstalling all those roller-followers.
05-13-2017, 09:00 PM
Timing Chain issues
