2020 F-150 3rd Gen Coyote. I have always been religious about checking the oil. Found out early that it ate it.
After oil change #2 I switched it over, when I found out the rest of the world doesn't even try to run these engines on "water".
Have been running it on 10W-30 since. Still eats oil.
Two days before Christmas, I found some antique tractor (another one of my hobbies) parts that I've been looking for, north of Dallas.
That's about a 3 1/2 hour haul for me. Keep that in mind.
Took off from the farm, got up there and bought the parts and loaded. Headed back to McKinney to stay with friends for the night.
Got up the next morning. Before I took off I checked the oil, about a 1/4 below half on the hashmarks. I thought I was fine.
By the time I got to Waco ( 2 hours) it was clacking on top. Pulled over, and the lifters are all clacking. Shut it down and checked the dipstick.
Completely off the stick.
Limped to the nearest Auto Parts, filled it back up and went on my way.
Now, when you start it, it sounds like the tensioners for the timing chains are shot (clank, clank, clank, then smooths out and doesn't do it again unless it sits
for a while). And I'm getting a cam phaser code.
Haven't torn it down yet. Called the only local mechanic I trust and was told they don't even try to fix it. They just replace the engine.
To the tune of $12K...
So okay... Here I go. Have never worked on one of these engines. Where do I start? What advice do you guys have?
Thanks in advance!

 

How many miles are on your truck? Ford hasn't addressed the loss of oil issue yet as they have with others?

If you go into a rebuild on your own, my only uneducated input would be to source Ford parts for the build.

 

The truck has about 165K miles on it. I live out in the country and we drive A LOT.
And no, Ford hasn't addressed the issue to my knowledge. I understand that there's a class action lawsuit ongoing over these.
But I didn't get into it, because I know it will stay in litigation for decades knowing Ford.
As for parts, a lot of what I think I'll need you can only get from Ford at this time.

 

There was a TSB a few years ago about the oil use in 18-20 5.0s. There was quite a bit of talk about it here.

Your mechanic gave you the correct advice. At that milage it would be a waste of $6k to do the timing chain and tensioners, along with related work while in there.

 

Thanks I think... Ugh. Wasn't wanting to hear that news. I think I'm still going to tear it down to see what happened though. Then I'll be giving LKQ a call...

 

The 5.0 between 2018 and 2020 is an all new engine, different from the years before, and different from the years 2021-current. It was the first generation of an all aluminum block with no steel cylinder inserts. It has plasma arc coated and hardened aluminum bores. There is no way to rebuild the block.

The problem was that with the low tension rings, thin oil, and high vacuum pressures in the engine, oil was being pulled out of the engine. Fords "fix" was to remap the intake manifold flap to keep it from fully closing so as not to have hear as many high vacuum events. Also, Ford would replace the dipstick with a new one that showed the add oil mark at 2 qts low, rather than 1 qt low as most people know it. Ford was initially replacing the 5.0s that were having the problem, but it got to be so many that they came up with the "fix".

As you stated, you've ran it low before, and it got to a point where it's drinking oil. Doubt that will only be due to the phasers, tensions and timing chains. The miles are kinda high, and that was a problematic engine. If you really want to perform the repair to the timing chains and phasers, I would highly recommend having the bores scoped before to see if there is any significant damage to them prior to proceeding.

Yes, it sucks. Almost everything these days is throw away. A new pickup costs about $60-70k, so that's one way to look at it. You will have to take the overall condition of your truck into account, body, interior, transmission, then decide from there. Is it worth putting a new engine into?

 

If it was me I would do a couple of fast checks first. First one get the motor warm and remove the oil fill cap and have someone put it in gear and with the brakes locked give it some gas and see if you get any oil vapor out of the cap(blow by). If it doesn't have any the rings are good and the short block is good but if it does get a crate motor. I would also give it a compression test dry. After that check the PCV system for any excess oil in the hose. You ran it low on oil so the valve train may have a problem and to that's up to you how far you want to go to replace parts but if you do check and see what a crate motor would cost.
Denny

 

This is why it's important to add all the particular details of the truck in the initial post so we can get right into it.

Is the truck in fantastic condition and worth keeping? If so, I'd re-engine the truck and address other items as well such as trans flush, axles, transfer case flush, etc.

Consider doing an engine exchange with Jasper as a for instance. It beats the hell out of a massive truck payment.

I did this on my old '88 F150 that had the old 302. The block cracked in the three places before it had 90K miles on it. I had the engine replaced with a reman and I sold it with 250K on the odo and the engine was still perfect. Everything else was falling apart. No easy answers here and no matter what you do, it'll cost lots of dollars.

 

I'd keep my eyes open on marketplace, eBay, etc. for a used motor and swap it. Copart maybe. Good luck.

 

Timing codes and noise may just require VCT solenoids. Try unplugging them and see if the noise goes away. Then you'll know if you've got bad phasers/chains/tensioners or just bad solenoids from being starved of oil. Even some of the engines we replaced still burn oil. Many of these were done at the end of powertrain warranty or near the end of an extended warranty so by the time it presents itself again they're already passed the 12/12 you get if you didn't pay out of pocket

 

Good point, and a easy place to start. If you pull them out, and the screens are covered with gunk, then that will be part of the problem. Oil loss is still a major issue though.

 

First, I recommend finding a new shop. They don't sound like they know what they are doing.
Second, timing jobs are not the worst. I would recommend some sort of oil detergent first. I've heard of oil gumming and collecting in passages restricting oil flow. You dont want recurring issue. But I feel this problem needs to be addressed from Ford. Thats quite a bit of oil usage, my 3.5, 5.4 and 6.7 don't use any oil.

 

Funny that you mention this. My 3.5L and my 2.3L in my Explorer don't use a drop. But, both of my 300's, my '88 302 and the 4.6L in my 2004 Expedition all used oil. The 302 drank a quart every 3000 miles, the OE and reman engines both. The 4.6L used a quart in 5K in the summer months but not winter.

When I bought my 3.5L in 2011, all my friends and even my Ford dealer all told me that I'd be sorry. I've never been so damned happy with a Ford engine.