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At the tail end of last year I bought a 2007 4x4 Supercrew F-150 to serve as my daily driver. It was a super clean truck powered by a 3v 5.4L but had 128k miles on the clock. I was well aware of the cam phaser issues that Ford's 3v engine can have. At the time, I owned a 2007 Mountaineer with the 3v 4.6L which had 100k trouble free miles on it so I was not too terribly worried about it.
This truck had the typical start up rattle. This rattle and other issues with the VCT solenoids can lead to broken vanes in the phaser assembly, stuck phasers, loss of power, erratic idle, etc. Last week, I hopped into the truck after work and it was missing and had zero power. When I went to go pick up Jake at tennis, I pulled the codes while I was waiting. It had set several that all were related to the phasers. Left tennis to grab a bite, still running poorly, then as we were approaching a traffic light, it cleared up. Ran fine the rest of the evening until I went to pick up Jake again from a study group and it started acting funny as I was sitting in the parking lot waiting. Parked it, ordered parts and drove a crappy 5.3L Chevy company truck for the next few days.
The hit or miss fix for this problem is to replace pretty much the entire timing system (chains, sliders, adjusters, phasers and VCT solenoids with the latest revisions from Ford. Some guys report that this fixed their truck, while others say their problems persist. The only 100% effective solution (to me) is to install phaser lockouts. Phaser lockouts are just a chunk of aluminum designed to fit in one of the spaces inside the phaser thereby locking it in the "at rest", aka "full advanced" position. (These phasers only retard cam timing, they do not advance.) There are several companies that manufacture the lockouts. I chose the ones from an ebay vendor, Forbidden Diesel Performance because they offered the lockouts, new Ford cam phaser bolts (torque to yield) and the timing chain wedge tool for $105.
So, Saturday I pulled the truck part way into the garage and began taking it all apart.
Where I started!
Coils out, harness unplugged, and power steering reservoir moved out of the way. Actually getting the valve covers off is the biggest chore of this whole project.
Cover off. Surprise! Someone has been here before. That is a Dorman brand phaser. They are known to fail. The good news however is that the previous guy replaced the chains and guides so they should be good to go.
I marked a link on the chain by the "R" with a sharpie and loosened the bolt. This bolt was tightened ridiculously tight. I had to clamp the cam journal with vice grips to prevent rotation in order to break it loose with my big 1/2" breaker bar.
Chain wedge was installed tightly and the phaser was removed.
I opened up the phaser and discovered 1 vane was already broken.
The reason is quite evident when you look closely. For whatever reason, 1 vane in the phaser makes contact with the sprocket body before the other 4.
I removed the broken vane and installed the lockout in the phaser. It was a snug fit. Tight enough that I needed to tap it in with a small hammer.
You can see that some of the voids are beat up from the vanes slapping back a forth.
Phaser reinstalled.
The passenger side proved to be a much bigger challenge. It took me 1.5 hours just to get the valve cover off. The ecm, ecm bracket, transmission dipstick, wiring harness, heater hoses and AC components are ALL in the way and have to be removed or worked around.
This phaser is the one that was causing the issue. Apparently it was stuck in the full retard position. When I loosened the bolt and wiggled it off, it snapped back and scared the crap outta me. This made reinstallation a pain because the cam was not in the proper position and had to be rotated with vice grips to match the phaser's pin location.
Surprisingly, there were no broken vanes in this side. I was expecting to see multiple. I went ahead and removed the vane from the position that makes contact first and installed the lockout in the same position as I did on the driver's side. Again it was a snug fit and required a light tap to slide it in.
This is a VCT solenoid. No it is not supposed to be in 2 pieces. This is a result of me not paying attention to what I was doing when reinstalling the valve cover. I put my hand on the vc to push myself up and it was resting on the solenoid and it broke off. This little boo boo doubled the cost of this project. I tried to super glue it but all that did was stick my finger to the solenoid. I really did not want to leave it out (although they are effectively inop with the lockouts) because I did not know what the effect it throwing another code would have on drivability. So I went to Advance Auto and forked over $130 for a new one. Ouch.
New one. A Dorman no less.
Vc reinstalled. That. Was. Not. Easy.
All done.
Started right up with no rattle whatsoever. Took it for a test drive and it seemed to actually be a little spunkier.
Initially, it did not set any codes and ran normally. Later it set P0011 and P0021 which is Camshaft Bank 1 Over-advanced and Camshaft Bank 2 Over-advanced. This was expected since I did not purchase a tune. Once the CEL came on though, engine power was reduced and it was gutless. This was not expected.
I did some more reading, cleared the codes and went to Lowe's. Same thing. As soon as the CEL came on engine power was reduced. Did some more thinking while working on a home improvement project. Later, I needed to pick up one of my kids from a tennis lesson, so I left the CEL on. Truck started up and ran great and continues to do so. So my thought is that with an existing code set, the ECM never activates the VCT system and the engine operates fine albeit without the 'benefit' of camshaft retard at cruise or higher rpm. My driving is 98% in-town stop and go, so the benefit of variable cam timing for me is debatable.
Anyway, it runs like a top now and other than having a P0011 and P0021 code set and a CEL on, doesn't do anything weird. Win.
As always with mechanical things, your mileage may vary and your results may differ, but for me, the lockouts certainly are working very well.
As a followup - I eventually unplugged the VCT solenoids to just disable the VCT system. This cleared the P0011 and P0021 codes but set the others for the VCT solenoids. This way the PCM sees that the solenoids are inop and never even tries to enable them rather than it trying to use them and then not get the desired response and throw a P0011 and P0021. So I nipped it in the bud so to speak.
After quite a bit of research and datalogging, the reduced power issue I was having was 100% related to the P2006 (IMRC stuck closed) code that was lurking in my PCM and was NOT related to running lockouts with no tune. The fact that it happened around the time the CEL came on was just a random coincidence and was more a factor of high outside air temps and high intake air temps that day.
Just returned from a 2700 mile family vacation to Florida. Truck ran like a top with the lockouts and no tune. Fuel mileage was not much different than it was before the lockouts. 14-15 was pretty much the norm. Leveled 4x4 screw with a brush guard, 4 people, a bed full of our vacation stuff and I didn't take it easy. Could be better I guess, but hey, gas is cheap.
JP3 thanks for the write up! Nice contribution, really appreciate the photos. I have the irksome random P0340 CEL and am considering giving up a couple mpg and going with lockouts. Sheesh, the engineering complexity we humans will go through to save a couple gallons of gas. I realize that there is an optimization curve with higher rpm torque mixed in, but heck, I'm more concerned about low end performance out of the gate. Running the lockouts without a tune, and the VCTs unplugged, do you have a CEL on in that scenario? That might tweak my pesky OCD, but if it really doesn't cause grief I might get used to it. Thanks!
I watched how to do this this weekend on two guys garage on mavtv. They used a kit from livernois. Basically same kit as yours but it came with a tuner. Livernois Motorsports
I still do not go the way of the lockout especially the ones that charge $700 and if your pcm fails you pay it again .
This does not address the weak oil supply to the cams , rollers , the failing tensioners, and bad plastic guides . Poor factory oil pump, chain stretch and all that.
I had number 8 roller on intake valve get thrown to the side . So a full timing job with roller and lash adjusters were called for .
The plastic tensioners start all this by blowing out seals reducing oil pressure and then the chain whips and breaks the plastic guides jamming the oil pump pickup with plastic pieces making oiling pressure even worse .
One of the best fix's is to use the old metal ratcheting tensioners with no seals to blow out that tend to hold tension at start and idle with low oil pressure .
I just would like others to see that taking this short cut is not all that great and the $700 would be better spent on timing parts .
I had hoped some aftermarket group would make better guides that won't break .MMR makes some but not the side that breaks .
Unfortunately this is high maint engine with expensive parts and a high replacement cost . The jasper reman runs $7500 -9500 . So don't let it get too bad before you fix it .
Thanks for your feedback and it could help some on limited budget get by for awhile .
If you had read my thread you would know that I installed the lockouts only. I have not modified the PCM at all. I spent $105 for lockouts, bolts and the timing chain wedge.
Lockouts are not for everyone and I know that. Just relating my experience with them so others can make an informed choice.
People who have phaser knock after replacing all of the parts usually due to low oil pressure at idle. I had taken mine to a shop for an estimate on a RH exhaust manifold cuz I didn't want to do it. They told me it was the phasers and quoted me like $1600 to replace everything timing related. I replaced the exhaust manifold and a few thousand miles later developed a chain slap.
The shop had checked and said I had 40 psi of oil pressure at idle. They will not do the job if there is less than 20 lbs at idle IIRC.
I did the whole job myself for about $1200. This included the upgraded Melling oil pump, all Ford OE timing components and all new lash adjusters. Also switched to 5w-30. Running so quiet and smooth now. I don't buy that all these issues stem from lack of maintenance. My engine was super clean inside for 150k. I think time and miles alone will cause the phaser problems.
I've been on the Corral for Years and just signed on here (had forgotten that I was already a member???).
I bougt an 04 F-150 Super Crew with 175K on it a couple of months ago and was concerned about these "phasers" (still am a little) but at 59 YO, I don't think that I'll be trying to do this type of work on her but I sure am glad to know what I'd be getting into should I decide to save a few bucks in the future. Who knows, I may "have to do it".
Time for an update I suppose. 25k miles on the lockouts with no tune and I have had no problems.
A couple of month ago I pulled intake off to fix the IMRC problem and I pulled the front cover off to fix the oil leak caused by the previous owner's mechanic. Everything looked great in there. Tensioners were holding pressure, sliders and chains looked fantastic.
I chose to just wire the intake runner valves wide open. The CEL code is now gone so ecm does not know any different. Not surprisingly, it runs waaaaaaaay better over 3000 rpm now. lol.
If I had HP Tuners, the one thing I would mess with is the open Loop/Closed Loop threshold. If you drive fast or in a lot of wind (typ here) on the highway it stays open loop a lot of the time. Uses more fuel and you can see it in the O2 readings. Slow down to 65 and it goes closed loop and the O2 readings start moving around like you would expect.
Overall though, I really really like this truck. More so now that it makes decent power at high rpm and does not leak oil on my driveway!
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