How can I confirm the valves are closed (or supposed to be) looking at the camshaft? Here is a photo of what the back lobes look like, hopefully you can tell their position, though I know the angle is bad. With them like they are currently, I put air in the cylinder and it sounded like it all was leaving through the intake...

 

there are a couple different ways to go about it, but visually, you just want to look at the rocker arm and see if the spring is compressed at all, and look at the cam lobe and make sure it is visibly off of the rocker itself. The lobe in the rear of the photo looks like it's pointing at 1-2 o clock, so it shouldn't be opening the valve. The next one closest to the rear is around 9 o clock. That one probably isn't opening the valve, but you could turn the engine over a little to get it away more and watch the spring for movement.

 

So I moved it around and put air in the cylinder again with the lobes as shown in the photo below. Still air free flowing through the intake. Then I moved the lobes to cylinder one in a similar configuration and put air in that cylinder, and it immediately just pushed the piston down turning the engine and opening a valve, making feel fairly confident that I had the valves in the supposed to be closed position when I tested cylinder 5 and have an intake valve not closing properly, whereas cylinder 1 is doing good. With this, it would seem the next step is diving into removing the heads, checking the cylinder wall, and deciding if I can get lucky with just a head rebuild or if it'll be more major. Am I on the right track?
Thank you again for your continued support, advice, and patience in educating me and helping through this.

Grady
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Yes! that's the kind of diagnostics that make responding to these type of threads fun, you're not mechanically illiterate, and take/post good pics....you've proven that.

So you've verified that cylinder 5 leaks down into the intake (what you suspect), then you tried in a cylinder that was good, and it pushed the piston down. What I'd do next, is put constant air on cyl 5 and bar (turn the engine) an entire rotation and see if the sound that you hear in the intake ever stops. It's also possible that you're hearing the air go through the cylinder and back into the intake via the PCV valve....for the sake of this testing, you should remove the pcv valve. While compressing cyl 5, and turning the engine by hand, you'll be listening for any change in the intake. You may find that the intake noise stops by removing the pcv valve.....in which case, easier to run the test described.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, greatly appreciate it and it is motivating.

Isn't the PCV valve in the valve cover, which I have removed? If not, then where is the PCV you are referring to that needs removed? Either way, I will do the test you mention, keeping constant air going in and rotating the engine by hand to listen for it to ever stop escaping from the intake (though I expect less when the exhaust valve is open).

 

I believe the pcv valve is on the drivers side valve cover, and you're working on #5, the passenger side? If so, the hose in your pass side valve cover is the fresh air entry for the pcv system, and you'll have to remove the pcv valve from the drivers side in order to eliminate the path of compressed air from cylinder to intake

 

I ran constant air and it always had some escaping through the intake. Sounded like it would go to different cylinders depending which other intake was open, but never ceased to go through the intake. The PCV valve (image below for confirmation it is the PCV valve) is on the passenger side of my engine. Either way, the breather hose on the driver side is also removed, as are the spark plugs, in case any of that info changes anything, though I don't think it would.

 

Welp, I think you've established well enough that it's time to pull the head. As I believe you said before, you may get lucky and its in the head, but you'll want to thoroughly inspect the cylinder.

 

Welp is right! So, it seems to get the heads removed is a project, but I am planning to tackle it as time allows. First I will need to make some space, which may take time. Anyways, while I get prepped for what lies ahead, I also want to make sure I am on the right path. I found this video series ( ) that this person did on an F-250, which I assume should be pretty identical to my Excursion. I skimmed through the videos, and on one hand it seemed overwhelming, and on the other the person seemed to do a detailed job that makes me feel comfortable I can follow along and do it also, it'll just take me 2-3x as long, if not longer lol. Does this seem to be a practical approach to getting to the heads and getting them removed? How do I go about getting the AC drained if I cannot take it to a shop? Or do I put the valve cover back on, plugs, etc. and drive to a shop to get the A/C stuff vacuumed out? And without getting ahead of myself since I need to see what condition the cylinder is in first, what things should I consider replacing while I am this far in? A/C compressor, power steering pump, water pump, timing chain/guides/whatever other components are involved, etc.? Anyways, I'm sure I'll have lots of questions along the way, but first thing is first, and that is getting all set up for the project. On that note, silly question because I am sure I know the answer, but if I wanted to move the rig from it's location to around the corner of my parking space in front of my garage (2mins run time tops), do I need to get that valve cover back on due to the amount of oil going everywhere, or if I moved it at just idle, would it be minimal enough? Obviously I don't want to coat everything with oil, but I don't want to fight that cover back in place either if I can avoid it.

Thanks again, I am sort of looking forward to what lies ahead, sort of...

Grady

 

Absolutely, I was going to suggest you start with youtube, because there are almost infinite videos of tackling this task. You'll probably break some exhaust bolts, curse the world a few times, but it's not something that can't be done with patience and enough time to research.

Rule #1 with ac components: only remove them when necessary. So often, you can swing the pump and lines outta the way to perform the work you're after. Only remove something from the system if it dead ends the work.

Watch some of the vids, pay close attention to tooling that needs to be collected, and go from there.

This would also be a spectacular time to add some long tubes!

 

before you start keep in mind the head, con rod and main bearing bolts are all torque to yield aka stretch bolts they can not be reused ever, besides a torque wrench your going to need a
Ford 6.8 liter V10 Gas Engine
Cylinder Head Bolt torques

NOTE: The cylinder head bolts must be discarded and new bolts must be installed. They are a tighten-to-yield design and cannot be reused.

Step 1 = 40 Nm, 30 lb.ft
Step 2 = + 90 degrees
Step 3 = + 90 degrees

 

Sounds good, I appreciate it. Definitely will be utilizing YouTube!
Are long tubes beneficial from a performance/fuel economy perspective that will recoup the additional costs, or are they more of a cool thing that also makes cool noise? I'm not familiar with exhaust upgrades, or performance upgrades in general. Just wondering if I would be better off saving that money for fuel for road trips, on a tuner (I've generally be opposed to tuning as I associate it with wanted to hot rod the vehicle, which my goal is durability and reliability, but I think my assumptions are poor), or toward other needs (suspension needs upgraded, brakes, etc...). Also, is there a way to clean injectors and is it worth doing/sending somewhere? I don't know the state of mine, other than some are missing the pintle pieces and such. I just know I was chasing misfires on a few cylinders and have new plugs and COPs. I moved injectors around and a couple of the misfires didn't come back right away, but now I am on this project. Just curious if injectors are a known culprit or if they are usually pretty solid and not worth wasting money on until something is confirmed.

 

Thanks for the instructions and the link to the tool that helps make sure I follow the 90 degree pattern after initial torquing. As for replacement head bolts, would Ford be the best source, or are there other reputable sources they can be had?

Thanks again. Gathering information before I get started will be helpful, and I have time as I don't anticipate being able to do anything for a month or so, unless some things happen in a hurry...

 

you can open source the bolts i normally look to ARP first than summit and jegs racing to check pricing ,ebay and amazon i'd worry about counterfeit non spec

 

Howdy everyone! I finally got to working on this project and got the heads removed. With the heads off, I can manually turn the cam to confirm that the valve that I believe to be at fault is actually not closing properly, correct? I'll have to realign everything for timing when putting everything back together, so no harm? Same with turning the engine over by hand to inspect the cylinder walls? Cylinder 5 the piston is near the bottom, and feeling with my finger first pass, all feels smooth, no obvious scratch or groove...

Please share thoughts on what I should replace or not while I am in this far. So far I am thinking the following:
Timing components (chain, guides, etc,) I assume there is a kit for this
Gaskets (head to block, valve cover, timing cover, exhaust manifold, intake manifold)
Water pump
Power steering pump
idler tensioner pully (it looks pretty new, but thinking I should just replace anyways, though I have not looked up cost haha)
head bolts
crank shaft bolt (stretch bolt also, correct?)

My intake manifold has at least one of the spots for the COP to screw into that is busted, not a big deal, but is it worth looking for a replacement intake? Or if keeping, is there anything I should do to it? I feel I've read about having it cleaned, may be something the shop that rebuilds the heads might be able to do?

I'd like to consider injectors. Are refurbished injectors a good idea? I've seen some shops on Ebay that say they refurbish OEM injectors, and have seen them for around $220-250 for a set of 10 of the orange Bosch ones. Thoughts/recommendations? I have injectors missing the pintle cap, O-rings, etc., so at the minimum I will need buy those replacement parts.

All my clips for attaching to the injectors are broke. One side were zip tied to the injector, other side was just held in place, but no clip. I busted one clip house during removing everything, got smashed. Are these easily replaced without re-wiring?

I assume having my heads taken to a shop and rebuilt is the best option. The other option would be to purchase refurbished heads. Thoughts? When taking to the shop, what should I make sure is being done? I plan to see if they can also timesert all the spark plug holes while they have them.

Long tubes were mentioned previously, is this a worthwhile consideration? If so, what are some recommended options? I know some have gone away that were recommended a few years ago.

Thank you again everyone for helping me to this point.