I was replacing my VCT solenoids and bam there goes the bolt down the timing cover. fought my truck to get the valve covers off still no bolt or sign im guessing oil pan. throughout this i sheared a bolt and broke the break line going to the master cylinder. Im about to start pulling hairs if its not in the oil pan and instead is in the timing cover. I also need tto clean the passenger side cams cause their now coating in tastey coolent. any advice on how to not further loose my mind? btw 05 F150 5.4

 

Also is there a better CHEAP motor to swap in im bouta just scrap my truck i just bought cause itts pissing me off

 

I would check the pan first.

 

Hey buddy, I know what you're dealing with and they sure are a pain sometimes. I've done quite a few of these 5-4 timing jobs, and every time I swear I don't want to do another one, lol. You've gotten a long ways already if you have the valve covers off. One thing I'm going to start with is if you're having symptoms on VVT, just replacing those solenoids rarely solves the big time problem. You're probably going to want to pull the front cover off because it could be stuck in the chains. What you're probably going to find after that is that your guides are broken, due to collapsed chain tensioners and chain slap. If you're having issues that are related to VVT timing stuff, it's best to do a timing job, which is to replace the chains and guides, tensioners, sprocket. (all in the kit). The crappy rubber gasket they had put on those tensioners blow out and that is your failure point - chain gets sloppy slaps around and busts is all up. Can cause hesitation, rough running, tapping and engine knock. I just did one that was slapping so hard in there it sounded like a rod knock. So then, while you're at it get the oil pan off In order to hopefully find that bolt but also clean the sludge and plastic parts if there are some. Usually there's going to be metal filings too, from the chain wear on the inside of the front cover. You'll need to drop the skid plate, cross bar the skid plate bolts to in the rear, undo the sway bar so it will swing down, and unbolt the right hand front axle enough to push it down and then you can squeeze the pan out. If you're gonna do it, refer to Fordtechmakuloco on youtube. Best of luck, hope any part of this comment helps you out. Eric