Hey guys, Great site you have here! Just stopped in to poke around and see if anyone has experienced what happened to my father in law.

He owns a 99 EB Expedition with the 5.4 and an auto tranny. He is completely clueless when it comes to automobiles so when his truck started losing power recently and making a fair bit of noise he parked it.

I will try and explain what I know of the situation.

He claims he was hauling a trailer of furniture and the truck just "lost power". No noise associated with the loss, just started running sluggish. At the time it had 110k plus miles. I asked him about maintenance and he said he had it done and it took 2 hours at the dealer at 100k. I am wondering if that time would account for a timing chain replacment, as I am not familiar enough with these engines. If this is a timing issue, like the chain slipped a tooth and it is off time, is there any chance there was a piston to valve impact?

Any other ideas what could have caused the sudden and quiet loss of power?

He continued to drive the truck for another 10k miles until it started using oil and making ticking and knocking noises (according to him) and then he parked it.

I am an experienced mechanic but mainly work on GMs and Subarus (don't shoot me please). I want to get his truck running again for him as a Christmass gift, but I cant afford a new long block. I have read hundreds of threads and used the search function and found little to aid me on this issue. Any help you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated!

Walker

 

timing chains in these engines don't go out and never need replacing. the ticking sound could be a blown spark plug. that would account for the power loss. i would start it up and find where the noise is coming from. then pull the codes.

 

Ok, timing chain is out. Is there a reason to take a timing light to the initial diagnosis then? I was going to take that, a compression tester, and the general tools, sockets, wrenches, etc...

What I have read about the spark plug problems makes me think if he blew one it would have been loud and obvious something was wrong. Of course like I mentioned he is very dumb about cars, very good at restoring antiques, but mechanically challenged.

I have thought about a list of items to take with me.

1 new motorcraft oil filter.
5w20 synthetic oil for a full change. (any brand better with fords?)
Jumper cables since its been sitting a few months.
The above mentioned tools.

Any recomendations for additional tools? He lives over an hour away and I wont have access to any tools other than what I can bring with me.


He called to day to tell me he found a small garage to park the truck in so I could work on it out of the elements. He mentioned something to me that made me cringe. "It had an oil leak that the dealer wouldn't repair unless it was an obvious detrimental problem. One mechanic told him to just keep an eye on the level and drive it "normal". As I have stated a couple of times he isnt the best with keeping on top of mechanical things and it is my suspicion he may have driven the truck low on oil several times.

All of this is just preliminary thought and worry since I haven't even heard it run with my own ears. I hope for his sake its a simple spark plug helicoil fix and oil change. Then maybe I can fix the bigger leak.

 

i would just use motorcraft semi synthetic 5w20. there is no need to take a timing light with you. because you can not use it on this engine. timing is done thru a scanner. he may very well have spun a bearing or has rod knock if it was run low on oil.

 

The head gasket oil leaks are common, but most say not big enough to even drip oil onto the ground. Keep in mind these triton engines are notorious for "using" oil and possibly a lot of it between oil changes. Sounds like you have your work cut out for you....good luck.

 

Well I went and started his truck yesterday after checking all the fluids and swapping batteries out of my wifes Honda. Apon initial start up it made 3 loud knocks and then smoothed out. Not a great way to start out but I thought just maybe it was from sitting for almost a year the temp being in the teens.

I let it warm up and no more noise came from the motor. It sounded very smooth actually. All 8 cylinders running and no misfires.

After the truck warmed up I took it for a spin... thats when it started knocking hard. Right between shifts in the neutral zone not accelerating or decelerating. By the time I turned around and pulled it in to park it again it was knocking slightly even at idle.

I checked the oil again and sure enough, little metal flakes. Some bronze colored the rest were silver.

So now I know the engine needs a rebuild. I have looked on several online parts stores (think summit racing), and haven't had alot of luck finding kits for this motor. I would be just as happy finding a used motor from a wrecked vehicle that I could drop into his truck in a day as I would yanking this motor, dragging it 2 hours to my house to rebuild it, and then driving back to spend another whole day working on this thing to put it all back together.

Any ideas and advice I can get on parts, and if anyone has a lead on a used motor I would be gratefull.

 

The idea behind the modular motors (as all the Triton V8's are) is that you do not repair them. Yank them out, drop in a new one and rock and roll. Also, it has been said that the best way to take the engine out of one is through the bottom. You unbolt the body, lift the body off of the frame, then take the engine off of the rolling chassis. I looked it up in Mitchell Estimator last week for a customer and it gave roughly 20hrs to swap it out give or take some with different options. A used engine is going to be your best bet, or something along the lines of a Jasper Reman engine.

 

You might be able to get away with just dropping the pan, and putting in new bearings.