Ju out of curiosity, anyone out there care to suggest / discuss a pre-emptive replacement of guides or other components related to timing on a perfectly good running 5.4-3v that is as quiet as a church mouse? A buddy of mine mention that he was considering replacing guides and tensioners on his well running '06 5.4-3v and asked me if I ever thought of it, before any trouble was evident. He was thinking that if nothing was broken, he would do his and not even look in the oil pan. I thought about it, related that if I did it, be nice to replace the oil pump too with the Melling. His thought is there is no point in replacing the oil pump, just the guides and tensioners.

Dumb idea ... yeah or nay?

 

Was a official/nonofficial, statement from Ford on suggestions, what to do, because they would not do TSB?
I'm wondering myself

 

If there was one item to concentrate on -maybe two but numerous items need attention . The oil pump is marginal , plastic tension gaskets original prone to seal failure dropping oil pressure way down , poor design of rollers too large of oil hole using up oil pressure and incorrectly pointed , old tensioners seem to be better they ratchet and don't fully rely on oil pressure to provide tension each start , no seal to leak on metal ratcheting tensioners. Chain stretch aggravated by low oil flow .
I lost one roller thrown to the side missing cam causing no long term damage . I replaced all rollers at 130k and lashs . Rollers can destroy your head /cams can lose valve keepers dropping valve .
How clean is your engine how much sludge ,do you live in extreme cold and do short trips robbing pcv system of time to remove hot vapors from engine to stop sludge. I am on my third set of injectors the second set failed at around 125kmiles on them ,number two was shooting a solid stream when key on , number 5 was dripping ,luckily it did not hydro engine .
So you see it takes a lot of judgement /luck to catch it in time . I'm shooting for greater than 350k on my engine .
Keep your engine very clean , i do a motor flush every other oil change .Some guys do it every time and let it sit overnight before draining . I run 1 quart of marvel m.oil all the time for cleaning . Forget extended oil changes ,forget hi mileage oil . Use a good grade change it before 5k miles or 3 months . That dirty carbon oil must get out of there. Listen to your engine don't let oil get low . Do the easy stuff like changing vcts after 100k miles . There's lots of improved parts when you do timing job .
Your truck your call !

 

180k on my engine, and unable to buy a good used engine due to what they cost. I tried buying a donor truck but got ripped off (it did not have the 3v engine and I bought it from CL without being able to inspect it in person) so I am going to keep the engine, but I bought a Mellings HV oil pump and am instructing the shop to put in a thicker grade oil in it. I also bought a timing chain/tensioner set that they will install. The kit I bought also comes with the water pump so that too will be replaced. I did not want to use a stock volume oil pump. Not after reading more about these engines. If I were you, I would buy the Melling HV oil pump, and a good timing chain/tensioner set and keep them for future use. If it isn't broke don't fix it. But when it does start acting up you will already have the parts needed. Just my 2 cents.

Jim