My 17 year old nephew has an 04 that the 5.4 threw a rod. I am helping him out by replacing the engine with a uesd one. I was looking into cam phaser lockouts and there are cheap ones ($20-$30) and expensive ones ($70-$150). This is a budget swap so I was wondering if the cheaper ones are acceptable? Just looke like a block of aluminum to me. I am planning on sending the PCM out to get the cam phaser delete tune done as well.

 

Do what you will, of course, but keep in mind that cam phaser issues are just a side effect of oil flow issues from elsewhere.

Fix those issues and cam phasers aren’t clacking.

P.S. Reading your other post, just sell that truck if those are your two plans of attack. This isn’t a pond bottom budget operation or you’ll be looking for another engine sooner than later.

Aftermarket phasers = no-no.

Reusing timing chains = big no-no.

 

Phaser lockouts and the terrible performance is not worth the hassle. These engines don't have power to spare so don't give up 20% by locking the cams.

 

I became overwhelmed by all the issues with cam phasers (reading on the internet) and the likely hood of them to fail again. I was also being cheap as my truck has 200,000+ miles on it and I have no idea how long it will last. So I bought some cheap phaser lockouts off ebay. Just a little aluminum block. Nothing special about them. No need that I can see to pay more money for a "spacer". I mean its just a spacer. I did replace timing chains, tensioners, oil pump.....that is about all I remember. In any event, The truck has been going for quite some time since. It pulls a 8k gvw trailer loaded with all I want to put on it. It gets 13-15 MPG depending on conditions and highway or no (not towing obviously). It may have lost a little mileage and "power" from what I remember when the truck had 100,000 on it but is that due to the mileage and normal decline of a worn engine or the phasers??? Not sure. I did not notice it happen all at once when I locked the phasers.

All that being said, if I had it to do over again, I would likely fix it "right". But the truck is perfectly functional with the locked phasers. It has enough power to pull more weight than it is rated to. It will spin the tires if ya get feeling spunky. Race truck? No. 1 ton diesel? No. BUt a VERY capable half ton work truck. And believe me when I say, I work my trucks hard. They are not street queens.

I am not convincing you to go one way or the other. I just wanted to say that IF you decide to lock them, it will still serve its purpose as a truck.

 

My 5.4 phasers are locked out too and the truck is fine. It does everything I need it to do.

 

I decided to keep the system intact for now. I moved my FORD phasers from my original engine (which was a "reman" engine that only has 20-30k miles on it) to my donor engine. New tensioners, and gonna put it back together. If I decide to lock it out Ill do it later.

 

I have an 07 STX special edition and i replaced my motor in Jan 2018 at 225,000 miles with a long block from LKQ I believe they are called and I've only put 30K miles on the new motor but the phasers are ticking like hell already. I've been thinking about lock out kits so thanks for your input. Now if everything else will stop needing replaced I could get around to it.

 

Hell, for what they're designed to do, I wouldn't spend fifty cents for them. Just get you a proper sized 1/4 inch bolt, or cut a square piece out of an old used tire, and jam it in any one of the Phaser chambers where they show putting their little high-priced highly technical pieces of aluminum or hard rubber.

EDIT: But - I would use neither. I'd try to address all issues that lead to the problem and fix it all correctly.

 

I was unsure of what exactly they were and what went on in there. After having done it, I was like...."so jam something in there to keep it form moving, got it" LOL And after actually being in there and not just reading horror stories, like you, I would have fixed it "right". It did not seem nearly as intimidating in real life as it did in internet type.

 

Cheers to you. You'll probably be fine with the somewhat negligible loss of 'torque' in certain RPM ranges. The effect (both in performance and engine life expectancy) is probably not that great. It does totally defeat exhaust gas recirculation on this engine design - so avoid driving close to any Green New Deal / Global Warming biggots.