Im usually in the 97-03 f150 and explorer/mountaineer forums but I have a buddy with a problem and we could use some help.

His truck is a 2008 supercrew with the 5.4 and 29k miles. He started it one day and it was running like complete *****. Could hardly make it up the small hill to his house.

Here are the codes that we pulled. P0018-two times P0022-two times P2198-two times P0305 and P0158.

He took it to a local shop in our small town and they want to put chain tensioners in it. I have a hard time believing that it could need tensioners at this low of mileage.

Any help is greatly appreciated and let me know if you need anymore info.

 

VCT sensor. 100% final answer.
I had the same codes a while back, replaced the driver side VCT sensor, and I'm driving the truck again.

 

Sorry, I don't know a lot about these 3valve motors. I'm much more knowledgeable about the old 2 valve mod motors.

Would the VCT be the same as the cam phaser?

Thanks for the reply!!

 

VCT is a solinoid. '04 and '05's can be changed through the valve cover pretty quickly. Later ones need the valve cover pulled. It seems unlikely to be the issue to me but they are pretty cheap $150ish from Ford.

The tensioners themselves don't really go bad. Usually it's the printed o-ring on the tensioner body that blows allowing oil pressure to leak out. The newer ones are supposed to have better seals.

 

The VCT is the Variable Cam Timing solenoid. Here is a good write up about it.
VCT Solenoid

It gives you a good idea on where the VCT is, and how to replace AFTER you have removed the valve cover. The valve covers had changed from 04-06 to make them much more difficult to change this solenoid. Obviously the design team at Ford are a bunch of sadists and love making people struggle.

I replaced the VCT on mine after getting the same exact codes that you have, and it worked perfect.