This weekend with the help of a buddy, we decided to tackle replacing the cam phasors on my expedition. For a while now we have had a ticking sound coming from the motor...and it had been getting progressively worse over the last year. I also had some rough running at idle and when cruising down the road with just a little throttle. I had originally always though that the issue was coil packs and I have replaced 3 in the past. Turns out the rough running was something else...see below.


Soo...I just want to say that although replacing the cam phasers is not an "EASY" job, it is certainly doable if you take your time, be patient, and do not cut any corners. A couple pieces of advice to those who might do this...First, read the procedure that is posted on this forum for how to do it...its a great writeup, and thank you to all on here that have done this before me!... Next, that the extra time to tie everything up out of your way to make room, and if possible let the motor cool down first.

Below are some pics of the drivers side after it was all apart. I was really surprised how clean the inside of my motor was. My buddy said that compared to his mine looked brand new. I have always religiously used Mobil 1 Full synthetic with premium filters, but have run extended drain intervals based on the Mobil recommendations at times.

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As for the startup, initially the motor sounded great, but still had a tick. It sounded better, but I was worried that since I bought the cheaper dorman phasers (On Amazon BTW for $90 each right now) that they weren't working quite right. Took it for a test drive, put the peddle to the floor and the truck started missing a little...further up the road it actually threw a code. P305 cylinder 5 misfire. So we bring it back and start troubleshooting. Swap a couple coil packs still not resolve, but instead start getting a random misfire code. Decide to pull the spark plugs and check them even though the had been changed at the dealer about 15k miles go. Pull the first one and I started wondering if the dealer had actually changed them. The platinum had been burned completely off the electrode! Only thing that makes me thing they did was that they were barely finger tight, and one was completely loose. Only one we didn't mess with was the passenger side rear because its such a pain. I ended up with 3 really bad plugs and 4 that looked pretty much new.

Through the course of all this it was now 9pm...went to start-up again and when I did we got a hard misfire. Threw code P206. Cylinder 6 open injector circuit. Now here is the next piece of advice. ALWAYS KNOW WHAT CYLINDER IS WHAT BEFORE TROUBLESHOOTING A CODE LIKE THIS. We tore everything apart on what we thought was #6. All looked good, still had the code. Swapped everything off of what we though was cylinder 6 including the injectors. We skinned an o-ring and had a gas leak...parts stores now closed so we were done for the night and I was stranded at my buddy's house. (WIFE NOT HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY AT ALL AT THIS POINT IN TIME...she thought that I broke her truck and it was screwed.)

Next morning we go back out and pull the injector with a bad oring and take it to own to get a new one. I also decided to rent a Noid Light kit from them to test the wiring. We get back, plug in the noid light and the injector should be firing since th noid light was flickering like it should. Put in a new injector still the same issue. I was about to cut into the wiring harness and splice in a new wire when we came back to this forum. It dawned on both of us...Could we be working on the wrong cylinder? Sure enough ford-trucks.com pointed out after a quick search that the order was 1-2-3-4 front to back passenger side and 5-6-7-8 front to back drivers side. Checked the drivers side and sure enough we had forgotten to plug in an injector when we did the spark plugs. Plugged it in and buttoned everything else up we still had apart.

Purrs like a kitten now!

FYI...Write-up procedure here: --> https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...placement.html

Many Thanks to Steve Bassen!

 

Very Nice!!!! Would it be possible for you to link the thread that gave you the procedures, just incase I ever need to get into this I know where to look

 

put the link in the original thread for easy access!

 

Sweet! Thanks.

 

Rep! ..

 

SO I figured out that for sure the dealer had replaced all the spark plugs. The ones that came out were Sp-515 plugs which only became available in 2010ish. SP-507 = PZT14F on the plug and SP-515 = PZH14F on the plug. The ones that came out were PZH.

So...ANy one know why the tips on these plugs could have burned off in such a short time frame (about 15k miles) where other plugs were in pristine condition? I will say that the ones that were in bad shape seemed looser than the others, and for sure was part of my ticking issue. Do these things have a tendency to back out over time? Its an awefully large amount of work to check these things every 15k or even every 50k!

Still not happy with my dealer as I know they messed other things up on the big service I had done at 100k miles. After a call they said they would warranty the front axle seal that is leaking again. Not sure if I want them to touch the truck again though.

 

With synthetic no sludge or varnish can build up since the elements that cause those are not present in synthetic oil.

 

Just a quick followup. After all this work, I got to do it again after about 5k miles on the clock. The Dorman Cam phasers are complete junk. I will say that since I bought them from Amazon, I was able to return them for a full refund. Amazon sometimes is a great standup company. I ordered new FORD MOTORCRAFT cam phasers from tousley ford and put those in. The truck has still had a miss ever since the original dealer work mentioned above.

I was just about ready to trade it in since it had developed the same tick as I had with the cam phasers again...ARRGH. I tore it down and found another loose spark plug on cylinder 3. Tightened it up and the tick was gone, however the miss was still there. It finally threw a code...P304. Changed the corresponding spark plug and cop the morning before we were going to test drive minivans. Has been running great ever since.

Still bought the minivan for my wife, but now I get the expedition so 2 problems solved!

 

Yes multiply problems are a real pain when they happen, but it's good you stuck with it and solved the issues.