So I found a 2004 f150 locally for very cheap. Owner says his father in law owned it and it died on the road. Had it towed to where it sits now. I brought my scan tool and took a look. Forst thing i noticed is its missing 4 of the ignition coils. (3 on driver side bank, 1 on pass side). Otherwise looks untouched. 224000 kms on it. Now heres the fun part:
Codes
P0011 cam pos timing over advanced or system performance bank 1
P0021 " " bank 2
P0119 engine coolant temp sensor 1 circuit intermittent
P0174 system lean bank 2
P0300 random /multiple cylinder misfire
P0301,302,303,304 cylinder 1-4 misfire
P0345 cam pos sensor A circuit bank 2
P0420 cat below threahold bank1
P2196 02 sensor biased or stuck rich bank 1 sensor 1

"Pending" codes
P0012 cam pos timing over retarded bank 1
P0022 " " bank2
P0316 misfire on startup
P0340 cam pos A circuit bank 1 or single sensor

The guy is selling it dirt cheap, how many of these problems do you think are caused by the missing coils or maybe bad plugs? Or something else? Shoukd i run away or go get my tools?
Thanks in advance!!! I look forward to your replies.

 

So my insanity got the best of me and i bought it... 400$. 2005 5.4 4x4, looks fairly decent, going to try to get some coil packs from pick n pull tomorrow and see if that helps.
Do the 2v and 3v 5.4s use the same coil packs? Looks like they have about 6+ 2004 and up f150s there so i shoukd be able to find something...
Im pumped to take this thing on, hope i can fix it!

 

the miss fire may well be COPS... but I would be more worried about the cam and related problems... look up cam phasers and do some checking. any noises ?

 

Yes that concerned me too... Couldnt start it yesterday, will be going to get coils after work and charge the battery then ill try firing it up. Ive read about the cam phasers, sounds like a bit of work but once theyre replaced (if needed) i should be good right?

 

So i got some coils from an e150... They dont quite look the same as the other ones... Thats probably not good
Had the battery on the charger for an hour or 2 while I was gone.
I put them in anyways and it started and ran like total **** for about 10 seconds then died and woukdnt start up. I put a bit of fresh gas in. I can hear the fuel pump come on, and it cranks over but it wont fire up.
I had the bbatteryout to charge it so my code reader shows no codes... But it hasnt really run so...
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance... Dammit i shoulda spent a little more and got a better one thought i was gonna be a hero or something

 

back to cam phaser inspection ?

 

I cant get the engine to start, so i dont know if they are noisy... It ran for about 10 seconds and it didnt sound very good, misfiring and lots of vibration, bounced around at 600 or so rpm then quit.
A friend of mine has suggested checking my fuel filter etc to make sure i am getting fuel to the front.
Checked the fpdm and it was dirty but not cracked or ruined from what I could tell.
I did just read a writeup on replacing the cam phasers, and im aware they are problematic. Especially in 04 im assuming...
Thanks for your reply, the truck is sitti g outside and we just got a **** load of rain so i had to call it quits for tonight... Got the weekend to mess with it some more!

 

Any idea why the cops i got from an e150 look different than the ones on the engine? They didnt seem to seat very nicely,, and the electrical connector seems to be at a weird angle. Im going to try to find some different ones.

 

My truck did the same type of thing. Started and ran for a short time and bucked like crazy. The guides/tensioners on the timing chain were pretty much gone and it had jumped timing. I would say you will need to pull the fan/shroud off and change all the timing related stuff as well as the oil pump and drop the oil pan so you can get all the plastic guide/tensioner pieces out of the pan/pickup tube. I just pulled the whole engine out of my truck and am doing a rebuild on it (mine has 232K miles on it).

 

Unplug your VCT solenoids and try starting it. Believe it or not, a bad VCT solenoid will give you a myriad of codes, such as in your list. Easy place to start...

 

I hope i dont have chunks of plastic in my oil pan... But yea when it did start it sounded terrible...
Will it be able to start with the vcts unplugged? It didnt throw any more codes since I had the battery disconnected.
(but it didnt really have a chance to run either)
Still pouring rain here, gonna have to hooe for nice weather this weekend so i can take a look at it!
Thanks for your replies, I think I have my work cut out for me if I decide to take this on.
Going back to the "chunks of plastic in my oil pan", is that a pretty common occurence? Or did yours just die a horrible death?

 

These engines do get plastic in the oil pan, the reason is if the tensioners don't get enough oil pressure right away the chain slaps them and brakes them apart, the pieces then end up in the oil pan. I would definitely go all the way and replace all the timing stuff and oil pump instead of just a few parts of you are going to do it.

 

Just finished looking up some pics of busted tensioners/guides... Does any company make "better" ones?
If im understanding correctly those parts are bathed in oil during operation? And if not get chewed to **** by the chain?
Its interesting to learn about these engines, thank you!

 

Just pulled all my coils and drowned the plugs in pb blaster. Will let that sit for a while and soak. About to return the 4 econoline coils, then thinking about pulling my fan shroud.
Napa wants like 700 bucks for a basic timing kit, but i found one on ebay for about 300 that comes with oil and water pump... Anyone do an ebay kit on theirs?

 

So i did a bunch more reading about the vct system, etc. Yesterday i pulled the fuel filter and it was rusty and full of brown gunk. Had a friend here today who put the key to on and the pump fired out about a 1/4 cup of fuel from the line, so I know my pump is good (for now). Got a new filter and getting msd coils tomorrow... Heres to hoping its all good!
Thinking about checking my vct solenoids today.