lentz

About a week ago my girlfriend drove my truck (04 f150 5.4l 3v) home from a half hour away. I backed it out of the garage to find a puddle of oil on the floor. Took a look and found a 1" x 1.5" hole right on top of where the cam phaser is. Picked up a used valve cover from a junk yard and will be pulling the cover off tomorrow to inspect/put a new cover on. Question here is has anyone heard of anything like this before? It looks like the chain snapped up from the inside and busted a hole in the cover. I talked to someone that said a piece from the phaser might have broken off and got flipped up there and busted it. Anybody have any ideas/solutions? thanks

jnc852

There's not much that can break off of a phaser to cause such a small hole... More likely a piece of your chain guide or tensioner guide. Get ready for some fun (and expense).

J

lentz

thanks for the reply. i got the valve cover off hopeing to find nothing but like i expected i found some plastic pieces floatin around. turned out the chain guide had broken and got caught between the phaser and the chain (what seems to have happened) and the chain busted the valve cover. pulling the front off sunday. anybody have any "watch for, make sure or check this/that"? thanks

papa tiger

Replace all the guides and clean out the plastic. Also check front of engine damage and chains for replacement. Get metal out of engine and drain oil and filter. Camshaft degree timing is exact. No mistakes are tollerated by the motor.

jnc852

Just did the same thing on my truck - I have a thread (cam phaser inspection results) with pictures etc... If you're interested.

Take lots of pictures so that you know how to reassemble everything. Also take pictures as you reassemble so that you can ensure you did it correctly later. Once the covers are back on its too late to verify anything.

Take it to a car wash and spend some time cleaning everything. The front of the engine can be quite a mess due to the location of the power steering and oil filter.

Pull the oil pan to clean it out and check for pieces stuck in your oil pickup strainer - mine was clogged. If you have a 4x4, have fun getting the pan off and even more fun getting it back on with a gasket.

Replace everything - chain guides, tensioners, tensioner guides, chains, crank chain sprocket, front cover gasket (3 pieces), front crank seal. Cam phaser replacement can always be done later through the valve covers, so that one's up to you.

The repair manual I had suggested removing all the cam followers before removing your chains. I started down this path, but didn't follow thru on removing all of them. I probably should have, but honestly I don't know how much of a requirement it truly is. The valve compressor will be another pain if you choose to do this. Just ensure you put the cam followers back in the same location they came from if you do remove them.

Use good engine assembly grease on the chains and sprocket.

Enjoy the lovely mounting of the power steering pump. That and the oil pan are going to be the biggest pains in your ***.
You don't need to pull the water pump.

You may have to drain and recharge your a/c to get the passenger side valve cover off. I didn't, but it did take some patience and some force to get the cover off without affecting the a/c lines.

Don't forget to put the crank trigger plate on before you put the front cover on.....

When you put the crank pulley bolt on, apply some rtv to the keyway so that you don't get a leak.

After putting the chains on and timing it correctly, check, double check and hand crank the engine a few times to make sure you don't have any interference issues with the valves.

Once back together and before firing, turn the engine over a lot with spark plugs removed to try to get oil pressure up and tension on the chains. I apparently didn't do enough of this and my chains skipped on the first fire throwing my timing waaaay out of whack necessitating pulling it all apart again. If you spray some cylinder lube in the spark plug holes, make sure your straw is long enough that you can get it out of the cylinder.........

Any questions, let me know.

J

papa tiger

jnc just gave invaluable advise. It is a real bear, but when your done, and it is right it's an awesome experience.

papa tiger

navigate to top of page, type in search box " change cam chain guids in 4.6l " Click on thereads. Some have pictures.

lentz

j, thanks for the pointers. that really helped. and yes, i did love the power steering pump location! so far i have everything removed and am waiting on the parts which will be here tues. any chance you have the torque specs for the valve covers and the front cover? thanks again

jnc852

here you go. please excuse the messy writing.

lentz

thanks you. two things im not completely understanding are the crank pulley bolt and the oil pan.....it seems that the crank pulley i tighten to 66, losen a full turn, tighten back up to 35 then losen a half turn. it seems wierd to me so if thats how im saposed to do it, why is it like that? also the oil pan. theres 2 values and then i tighten 60 more degrees? whats the reasoning behind that? so im not a mechanic, just a mere electrician but in my 10 years ive learned that if i dont understand something i need to ask for more clarification and then i need to ask why. sorry for all these questions but i just wanna get this right and learn why i need to do certain things. thanks again, i really appreciate this. youre a good egg j!