5.4 Triton, need help badly
Asked by Trouble1365 May 03, 2016 at 04:29 PM about the 2004 Ford F-150 FX4 Ext. Cab 4WD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I have a 04 fx4 5.4, I got it with the tick but
very subtle, after a while it starting getting
worse and worse until the motor started
shaking pretty bad and stalled twice all while
driving one night, as soon as that happened I
parked it and haven't driven it since, my
question is could it be the cam phasers Ice
removed my valve covers and examined the
phasers and I can tell they are not good
anymore, I know what good ones are
supposed to look like and mine don't look
the way they should
17 Answers
And your question is.........?
Trouble1365 answered 8 years ago
I'm prepared to get a rebuild kit for it all but I wanna make sure that is the problem before I go throwing money down on something that isnit the soultion
I would take a close look at the top end of the engine (camshaft and followers) and watch for metal flecks. If the top end was starved of oil the engine will require a rebuild. If you install new phasers and get the cam timing off you risk bending some valves. Also I have no way of knowing whether the new cam phasers will fix your engine .
Trouble1365 answered 8 years ago
The camshafts and followers look good and doesn't look like it was starved of oil
How many miles on the 2004? Use a pencil and paper first. Are you capable of pulling the engine yourself? If high mileage, may want to consider cam chains and tensioners. Compare what you believe you are going to spend on retail parts and the value of your time doing the work compared compared to a crate rebuild or reman. and simply dropping it in.
The "tick" is probably phaser related. Labor intensive, especially on the passenger side. The shaking could be an indication one of the chain guides has broken. I believe they are made of plastic. If the engine is still torn apart, remove the front cover and inspect the guides.
Before throwing ur money away on phasers, check oil pressure when engine has reached operating temperature.which is 190 degrees, you'll notice pressure dropping as engine is warming up. Phasers work with oil pressure , if pressure drops below 30 psi, they can't di their functio. Which is to adjust the timing and that's why it starts shaking,. If u notice, it inly does it after its hit or running temperature
Trouble1365 answered 8 years ago
It has around 125000 miles on it, the shake begins right at start up, if it sits it starts to sound like its about to stall out until I give it a little gas, the rebuilding I'm looking to get comes with new phasers, timing chain, tensionors, guides etc., water pump and oil pump, the kit is at least 1/3 the price of a new or remaned motor so I believe it would be worth a try
Does the engine smooth out when some rpms are applied? If so it may have low oil pressure. Running a 15w40 oil might mask the low oil pressure issue, but I take no responsibility for running oil of other than what the manufacturer recommends.
If u have low oil pressure, the phaser kit will not help
Trouble1365 answered 7 years ago
I've been doing more research and it could also be low oil pressure, I've seen where others have said it could be the oil sending unit, does this sound like it could be the cause and if not what else could be causing my low oil pressure and how could I check it
Trouble1365 answered 7 years ago
Also I'd like to try to get codes again but I'd have to reconnect the battery which I know could reset the codes, what would I have to do to get the codes to show up again
Oil sending unit detects oil pressure even if it's low. U have enough pressure for lubricatiin but not enough to make phasers work. Borrow an oil pressure tester fron ur local autoparts store and monitor pressure from when u start it and until engine is at normal operating temperature. If u have low oil pressure, ur engine is shot but there's a couple things u can do to run fir another while but u need to verify pressure first
You will need to connect the oil pressure tester to the port by the oil filter unit
The codes are not erased when the battery is disconnected, they are placed in memory. The codes can only be erased by a reader capable of erasing them.
Nope it's the roller rockers they put in on 2004 tritons the rocker cracks you start to get a tick then the tick gets louder then pretty soon it's so bad you can't drive it and at this point your pretty much done motor is shot. Sorry but that's how it works their we're major major issues with that engine from spark plugs to manifold issues as early as 20k miles