back again guys and so is the truck from the shop, ficm changed out and truck just purs now but my mech. says i have real problems. he says a lifter on the cam side went bab and let one or more of the little needle bearings fall out and got into an oil journal and went to the low oil pump needless to say it caused problems . is this a comen problem with this motor. i dont see any talk on here about it and just wanted to know if anybody has had this problem and is there a fix. thanks so much for all the help and advice m8cat

 

Your truck is "purring", but yet you are told that you have needle bearing parts in the LPOP???

 

IDK if the truck would even run if a needle bearing went threw the LPOP

This is one thing you really dont want to have happen

 

m8cat i think what Bismic and blade35 are getting at is if what he said was true then it most likely wouldn't run might want to get second opinion . JMHO

 

read the following posts,,,,,, injector takes out piston, tick in the motor, and the infamous chirp. I'm on mobile, so I can't link them.

 

I meant read those "threads". Not posts. Use the search option. Are you hearing any noises?

 

If your mechanic is telling you this and your truck is running like a clock but he didn't have the heads or front cover off to varify this...Run away.

 

In all fairness, I had ONE such truck that also "ran like a top" in for a minor oil leak from bedplate issue. It was during disassembly that I discovered a worn cam lobe, by looking into the HPOP area with the pump removed. Sure enough, after removing the oil pump gears, I found them scored somewhat. I guess it just wasn't damaged enough to cause a lack of LP oil and/or no-start concern. When I repaired this particular truck, I told the owner to go buy a lottery ticket, because he got lucky this time. Ford gave him a complete engine assembly (which also repaired a head gasket issue that I happened to notice to be present as well, that the owner also wasn't complaining about), since he was still within warranty.

The point of this story is, one could have this failure and not know about it.

 

Good info Mike, but how did the OP's mechanic know that the needle bearings made it through the LPOP without a tear down?

I am still skeptical - even if it is a 1-in-a-million possibility. Maybe the original post does not accurately describe the sequence of events ........

maybe the real question is simply - what is the failure rate of lifters and their needle bearings (in a measurement unit that means something, eg ...... 1 out of 100k units that have less than 100k miles, 3 out of 100k units that have between 100k and 200k miles, etc)?

 

I will say that I went and bought two oil pan magnets after all the talk about needle bearing issues (not this recent talk, but some time back) ...............

FilterMAG TM180 - FilterMAG Oil Pan Magnets - Overview - SummitRacing.com

 

I wonder if the op's mechanic has been on here lately,,,lol