Hi everyone, earlier this year I bought a 2008 Ford Expedition with the 5.4 L Triton 3 valve engine.
The dealer that I bought it from in Layton, Utah told me that they had replaced the timing chain, timing chain guides, and cam sensor. The Expedition had $117,000 Mi when I bought it in February.

Around May the driver side cam phaser started making a ticking noise. It has been slowly getting worse as time goes along and I finally decided it was time to change it. The Ford dealership where I live wanted about $1,700 to change it, plus the cost of the new cam phaser. I just couldn't afford that so I watched the YouTube channel Makuloco to learn how to do it myself.

Yesterday I tore into it and tried to change it, using all the suggestions that the Makuloco videos suggested.
everything went great except that the camshaft kicked about 1/4" to the right. I tried to change it back by hand but there was too much tension on the camshaft so I put a socket wrench on the crankshaft nut and tried to manually rotate the engine. I managed to rotate the engine about 1/8" ( not 1/8 turn, 1/8") but then stopped, being unsure of whether or not this was the right way to fix the problem. I've called two local mechanics to find out if that tiny bit of turning would throw off the timing and got two different answers by two different mechanics.

The second mechanic told me to take either a wrench or vice grip, put it right behind the cam cap, and pull the camshaft back where it needs to be. He said that that small amount that I rotated the engine shouldn't affect the timing.

Is that true?

 

I would ask this ober in the Modular Engine forum, probably won't get much input here. Its been so long since I've had one torn down I couldn't advise you.