F150Torqued

Agree it has to aggrivate it. I think (although 'engineer' is nowhere to be found in my resume) the cam lobes fighting two valve springs on one stroke and only ONE on the other stroke creates a sugnificant irregularity in the torque required to rotate camshafts - and thats where the _dancing around_ begins. Lot of guys comment about fighting the cam wanting to move on them when they haven't removed the recommended followers. It excerts a surprising amount of resistance. I haven't tried to work out exactly where each cylinder is in its four stroke cycle - and different Crank angles, but I can easily envision the TWO rollers comming off the cam lobe crown creates a lot more forward rotational torque than the ONE comming off the heal of its cam lobe and compressing the single valve spring.


When idle oil pressure sags below a certain point ----- insufficient to overcome these forces and hold the phaser firmly against the advance end...... slap / slap / slap the phaser vanes against the ends of chambers and flop chain slack against whatever is in its way. (Generally plastic guides till they are beat into little pieces and on their journy down in the pan to plug up oil pickup screen and further restrict the oil pumps ability to maintain good flow/pressure).

soupnutz

You bring up an interesting point in favor of the phasers, especially if using the non-ratcheting tensioners. When setting the timing on a 2v, I never pull the cam and the lobes. Set the crank at 10*BTDC to prevent any contact, snug the new bolt onto the cam, then have somebody move/hold it in position with a breaker bar while I put the chain on. I've had it happen where they pull the breaker bar off before I've pulled the pin to release the ratchet arm, the spring force of the tensioner isn't enough to hold it and the chain skips a tooth or two. That's with just one intake and exhaust spring per cylinder acting on the cam, would be even worse with the 3v. Depending on the direction of movement, the spring and movement of phaser would dampen a lot of that force and potentially isolate it from acting on the sprocket/chain..


If using the lockouts and the regular tensioners and a reduction in oil pressure takes place, whether from the tensior gaskets going bad again, or even the use of an oil filter without an anti-drainback valve on startup. Seems like your chances of jumping a tooth would be increased, even if only slightly.

soupnutz

So the job is done. Ordered the tune, lockouts, and phaser bolts from WMS performance, and the oil pump and timing set from amazon. Used some old ratcheting tensioners that I had sitting around from a mustang. If anybody wants some brand new tensioners let me know.

​​​​​Anyway, before loading the tune, it started right up and sounded great. Had to wait a bit on the tune, when I ordered it, I could only go by the code on the computer and not the strategy, it turned out being different so I had to get another one. Great customer service from WMS by the way, had a new tune to me within two hours. On my no tune test drive you could tell it was down on power, but ran nice and smooth. I also forgot to put the clamp on the heater hose that goes into the intake and blew coolant everywhere. After loading the tune, the power was back and feels stronger than before. I don't think the engine has been this quiet in the 100k I've owned this truck.

I'm putting it through a trial by fire. Just finished it this morning and we're taking it on a five hour drive, cross your fingers for me. I'll report back on my highway mpg.

F150Torqued

Good to hear success on a job well done. Thanks for reporting.