I am going to look at an 09 F150 4x4 with 5.4 engine. It has 186,000 miles on it. Looks good in the pics. How many miles are these engines good for? Do the 09's have the cam phaser and timing chain issues the older models had? Any thing else I should look for> Thanks.

 

I have a really good friend that finally retired his 97' with the same engine. When he got rid of it, it had well over 300K on it.
It was still running, but it was pretty tired.

 

I don't have any first hand 5.4 experience, but I think 200k miles is kind of a magic number for most of today's engines and vehicles. Sure you can keep any vehicle/engine running forever, and there are some really good stories of 300-400k miles.

I also think it depends on what you expect out of it. I just sold a 4.2v6 with 215k miles, still ran good, but a few times a year I needed to make a 1000 mile trip by myself. I felt the risk was just too high. But a friend bought the truck to have as a 3rd vehicle for light local hauling.

Also a lot depends on how much TLC the first 185k miles got.

 

You hear nightmare stories about the 5.4 but yet I recall reading an article that stated by number of warranty claims it is the most reliable Ford engine ever made and also recall a guy on this forum I believe who had a shuttle service with 5.4s in his vans and was wondering about the odometers after a 999,999 miles rolled , no shortage of them on the road still or in salvage yards so parts are aplenty if nothing else.

 

The 5.4's were a superior engine till 2004, that's when Ford updated the engine to 3 Valve design with cam phasers. HP/TQ increased dramatically while reliability decreased for a few years.

I'll get flamed for this and it's all good: Given the issues that Ford has had with cam phasers in more than just the 5.4L engines, I wouldn't buy a used truck with over 100K miles without personally knowing the owner and his maintenance routine. The only exception to my rule would be if the engine were replaced by a reputable exchange or rebuilder.