I just bought a 2004 w/5.4. The previous owner had recently changed 2 plugs and 4 coils. He gave me the other 4 coils. It runs well except occasionally it wants to stale when moving slowly or coming to a stop. I can avoid the stale by putting it in neutral and feathering the gas. Then it resumes normal idle. I have booked in with the Ford dealer to replace the remaining 6 plugs and install the 4 coils. The engine light is also on so I will have the scan it also. Given what I have read about these 2 part plugs and carbonization, I thought it a good idea to start out with a fresh set of plugs and coils regardless of any problem. Any thoughts of my stalking? Any opinions on whether my philosophy of a fresh start is a good idea?

 

The best place to start is by reading the engine codes. It will lead you to the area of problem. Don't be another one and fall for the P0171 - P0174 O2 sensor reads lean and replace the sensor. It's not telling you the sensor is necessarily bad. It's telling you there's an issue. You can posts the codes here and others will help you to troubleshoot without changing needless parts.
In the meantime if you know how, you can clean the throttle body and maf sensor with the correct cleaners only. Plenty of videos on it if your mechanically inclined.

 

Also realize if the dealer breaks a spark plug they will charge you for the repair as well per broken plug.

 

thanks for the advice. This whole spark plug breaking issue concerns me but what choice do I have? Should they be changed regularly or am I better off waiting? How long should they be left before changing? I’ve changed plugs plenty of times when I was younger and it never occurred to me that they would break.

 

In all seriousness, research the plug replacement procedure, research the Lisle extraction tool for when (not if) plugs break and do it yourself. It's literally that easy. If one breaks, it's not a big deal. The extraction tool gets it right out. The only occassions I've seen things go terribly wrong were when guys didn't know what they were doing and stripped something out.

Sea foam the engine first (doesn't hurt and many guys seem to have a lot of success doing this first), but become familiar with the extraction tool BEFORE you start the project. It will help you a ton. If/when plugs break, it's honestly no that big of a deal. Gaining access to the plugs is the worst part of the job, and even that isn't that bad. It took me 2.5 hours to do mine and that was going into it with no knowledge of the extraction tool. Researching how to correctly use it took me a good 20-30 minutes. It was a breeze after that. I spent a lot of time in the beginning trying to not break any plugs. After I learned to use the extraction tool, and how it works, I pretty much just snapped off the rest to get it over with. I think I spent over an hour and a half on the first 3 plugs, 30 minutes researching the extraction tool, then about 30 minutes just snapping off and extracting the other 5 plugs. Something like that.

It's really not that difficult of a project. But can be very stressful.

 

wow that makes me fill better about the plugs! Thx.

onto the next probably more serious issue...the Ford dealer ran the code and found one cylinder phaser is likely shot. They said they would need to remove the valve cover to see how bad it is and if all is okay, the timing belt, tensioner etc would need to be replaced. Cost approx $2500 (CAD). He also said that I can keep running it as is, but will simply grow worse over time....is that true or am I risking damaging the engine permanently.

 

Ugh. Other than spark plugs, the timing components of the 5.4 3v are the worst of it, unfortunately. I highly recommend watching everything https://www.youtube.com/user/FordTechMakuloco has to offer about the 5.4 3v. It's a little scary, but it's not rocket science. The timing components can be a deal breaker for most guys. You're looking at about $1200-1400 for parts if you do it yourself. At least $2400 if you take it somewhere. Again, it's not all that difficult if you pay attention to the details. Basically bolt off, bolt on stuff. You just have to pay attention to the timing, which is very simple.

Best of luck, check back in with any questions.

 

okay so I do t think I’ll be changing anything myself. I do t think I have the tools, and I know I do t ha e the time or patience. So if I was to fork out the $2500 to get while timing kit etc changed....will that job last another 260km (current mileage) or will I need to do it again before that? It seems to be a good truck otherwise so wondering if I should invest the money, cut my losses and dump the truck at a bargain price, or drive it until it dies, putting with the staling.

Any opinions?

 

Common consensus is that a new timing set USING ONLY FORD PARTS should easily last you another 100k miles, assuming nothing else is wrong with the motor, but I imagine you could safely plan on getting much more than that. I mean, running the original parts that are prone to failure you can still get 100-150k miles easy, makes sense that using the upgraded parts you should expect many more miles. Avoid aftermarket parts at all costs - they simply aren't any good and have failed on guys after less than 10k miles. The new Ford parts are updated to attempt to avoid this problem from happening again. I haven't heard of anyone having to redo the timing set when using Ford parts.

As far as tools go - there really isn't anything specific you'd need. Basic sockets and wrenches, a variety of extensions and a torque wrench should do it. There are a couple of holding and alignment pieces (for the camshafts and crank) that you can pick up on amazon for under $20, but it's possible to do the job without them, just not recommended since they're so cheap. The only specialty tool needed is for removing the cam followers, but a lot of guys skip that step. Either way, the tool is less than $50 on amazon. I'd advise picking up the best impact wrench you're comfortable spending as well. Tools alone shouldn't run you very much, except for the impact wrench, which honestly is probably the best tool I've ever bought, zero regrets. I spent about $250 on a 1/2" Dewalt impact and I absolutely love it. Only a few times has that thing not gotten a bolt or nut off. One was a lug nut that ended up snapping the the stud off and the pinion nut on my '77 that took a shop hours to get off.

I would 100% recommend getting the timing replaced, even if you plan on selling it. Selling a poorly running truck that needs this work will get you a fraction of what it's worth. You'll recoup your money and then some with a fresh timing set.

If you've gotten a quote for $2500 canadian (about $1850 US) I'd go for that. Guys in the states are paying about $2500 USD to get the timing components swapped.

Again, watch everything you can from Fordtechmakuloco (or however it's spelled) before you make your decision. His videos are pretty dry and boring, but extremely informative. He also provides links to every part and tool needed in the descriptions.