So my daughter's 1999 F-150 was going down the road just fine when it all of a sudden made a horrible noise and continued to clank while she pulled over and shut it down. When I got to her I checked everything to make sure there was oil, etc. I ended up towing it to her house and after two weeks of trying to find the appropriate trailer got it to my house where I could work on it. Having tried everything without taking the engine out, I was still thinking broken rod. I finally took the engine out and found that the crank pin journal for #8 was cracked .I also discovered that the crankshaft is not a solid piece. The crank pin journal is pressed into holes. Following the oil pump loss last year on this same truck I had the machine shop replace the crank with one I bought from O'Reilly. It turns out that the warranty is only good until the crank is installed. I checked the cylinder to see if anything was in it that might have caused the force required to break the crank, but it was clean. Two things. 1) Does the engine have to be completely flushed, or did the screen and filter catch all the tiny metal pieces? I didn't see a whole lot and there were a few small pieces on the oil pick up screen. 2) Without the "special tools" to hold the cams in place, can I still align the timing with marks? Would you guys just do the job yourself? The guy I used before charged me $1500 and I don't want to spend that again.

 

FORD crank or chineese ???

 

More than likely chineese! I tried to buy oil the other day and had to wait on the ship from China. When I tried to complain about the wait I had to get it translated to Chinese. When I had it translated to Chinese I had to have it approved by the Obummer administration to make sure it was PC compliant. I give up!

 

I knew you could get cranks from FORD. I did not know you could buy aftermarket at Oreily or Auto Zone... just asking... interesting... i also agree on the bummer comment !

 

The new crankshaft will be from Ford. I had said I was only going to buy parts from them before this episode and I broke my own word on it by buying the last one from O'Reilly. It was a hard lesson. I still don't have any idea why it broke. There was nothing going on, no high RPMs, and no noises (according to my daughter). She would tell me even if she had been racing. She knows that if there was some cause it may happen again if the cause isn't corrected. I can't imagine a pre det doing that. Even if it did, wouldn't a code have been thrown in the computer?

 

Put one of these in there.
I bet she cant break it.
Ford Racing M-6303-M54 - Ford Racing Steel 5.4L Lightning Crankshafts - Overview - SummitRacing.com

 

im guessing poor quality / poor casting

 

Pretty clean looking break....how many miles on the El cheepo crank shaft? really they won't stand behind the crank?? wow

to be safe, its probably best to flush the oil ...give no reason for the next to have issues. IMO

 

Not many miles. It was put in last year. I didn't write down the mileage when I did it. I will this time. And no, they wont stand behind it in any way. I wouldn't want a replacement from them either. I would end up with the same thing. It's just like Autozone. They have a great warranty on parts etc. But if you have to replace that part every 12 months the warranty isn't worth it. I would rather put a part in and forget I ever had a problem.

 

The sting of low quality lasts MUCH longer than the bitterness of a higher price....
Just sayin

Love that saying, its true a lot of the time. The best thing that those "box" store auto parts store have going is that they are open till 9 pm. I try to shop at Napa, Carquest, Federated, whatever locals. I know you can't always, but try. The ironic thing is 9 times out of 10 they beat autozones prices all over the place and they don't have qaulity demons.....

 

You be better off scoring a used Navigator or other forged 8-bolt crank (GT500, early run 97-98 Triton, etc.).

I was definitely shocked to read this post as Modulars just don't break blocks or cranks unless pushing HUGE horsepower, but then I read about an O'Reilly's crank and it all suddenly made sense.

 

Update. The broken crank is a Ford. It has the Ford logo on it. Didn't notice until yesterday. Since I bought my daughter a new F-150 I haven't put any time into fixing this one yet (I'm only home on weekends and there is a long list of priorities). So today (new crank in hand) I am ready to begin again. The question I have is; should I remove the heads or just plow on and install the crank? I am torn. I want to make sure noting is wrong with the valves, but I don't really want to tear this down any further. The broken crank turned from front to back, so there should be no damage to the valves. I didn't see gobs of metal flake in the oil pan, pick-up, or anywhere else, so I am not really worried about that either. The problem is that the rods are in the way of putting the crank in and I have only two hands. I just don't see how to move the rods and set the crank at the same time. I would appreciate it is anyone who has done this job can give me some clues on how to proceed.

 

thats the problem, the crank i sthe first thing to go into the block and bolt down.. then the rods go in with the pistons. i doubt you can push all the pistons up to the top and get the crank in position. thre will be a couple valves open to keep that piston from going full up. I would guess the heads are coming off.

 

Well. I took the heads off before checking back here. I just went for it. Need to get the valves refaced and need the cylinders honed. There was some water in a few cylinders that got in when I washed down the block. Nice bit or rust now. So what the heck? Might as well do it up right and take the block and heads to a machine shop and get them worked. Oh well, it's just money.

 

I'm working on a 2000 f150 4.6 triton. I was chaning the oil pump, timing chain and gears, and what not. Went to rotate to bring the engine up on #1 and none of the pistons are moving up and down to get TDC. Help.