Need to pull the timing cover to do the tensioners, guides, etc. I've read through everything that I can find here and elsewhere and I have the Ford service instructions for pulling the front cover. A few questions...

Do I need to/should I replace the front crank seal? I'm assuming so. The service instructions reference a special tool to pull and another to reinstall the seal. Anything special about it? Can I just pry it out and then replace by tapping it back in using a socket or similar?

Do I really need to actually remove the valve covers or can I just lift them up at the front? I've done the cam phasers and lash adjusters so I'm familiar with what needs to be done to pull them out if I have to but I'd rather avoid doing so. Seems like I could just lift the front enough to get marks and fit the chain back on. Everything else I need to get to is below.

The VCT body (not the solenoid) has a gasket (or what I think that they call a "backing plate") where it fits against the block with formed passages which direct oil to the phasers and tensioner. Should I pull the body while I'm in there and make sure that all of the passages are clear? If so, do I need to change that gasket/plate or is it reusable?

Is there a gasket required for the power steering pump? Looking at the instructions I don't see one but do see O-rings for the lines and they reference a special tool to install the O-rings. Do the O-rings act as the "gasket?" Is the tool required or can I just seat the O-rings some other way?

I also need to fix a leak at the oil filter adapter and while I have the PS pump off and everything else out of the way figured it would be a good time to do it. Anything I need to know that won't be apparent or instructions avaliable for that one?

Anything else I should do while I'm in there?

TIA

 

Ok,

1. You can just lift the cam covers if you want but all the cover bolts will have to be out to do it so removing them is almost as easy.
2. You can replace the front crank seal. It is just a pressed in type that can be pryed out just be careful not to scratch/ gouge the surrounding aluminum bore of the front cover. You can use a large socket to reinstall but take note of the depth of the original before you remove it so you can get as close as possible to the same depth with the replacement and get it as straight in the bore as possible.
3.Yes you can reuse the backing plate or gasket.
4. No gasket for the P/S pump just remove the bolts and swing it out of the way without removing any lines. Tie it out of the way using wire or equivelent.
5. There is a gasket behind the oil filter adapter, Oil and coolant pass through the adapter so beware that a considerable amount of coolant is going pour out from that area when the coolant hose is removed and the bolts are loosened. It is a plastic gasket with flexable sealing bead held in place buy 4 studs and nuts. If you have an oil leak make sure its not coming from the oil temp sender hole sometimes the hole will crack from the sender being installed to deep. Probably the gasket though.
6. Just look everything over real good. Not sure how many miles you have on the engine but I would change the chain tensioners for sure while I'm in there. Chains should be good for well over 200,000 miles if the engine was maintained. Don't forget to put new dabs of RTV at the cam cover front cover and block "T" joint when replacing the cam covers also RTV at the 6 joints behind the front cover and oil pan joints as well. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the response. Appreciated. A couple more quick questions...

I'm assuming that everything is right-hand threaded? I don't see anything saying otherwise.

Is the crank bolt a stretch fastener? I don't see anything saying so but the way that they specify a step-wise torque makes it seem like it may be.


Looks like I don't really need to pull the pulley off right? Can I just move the whole assembly out of the way with the lines connected?


Yeah, I'm going to pull the radiator anyway when doing the cover so thought that I'd do that one while I was there. Best I can tell after cleaning off the gunk is that it's coming from around the edge of the adapter so I'm guessing that it's the gasket. I'll see when I get there.


Truck has about 150K on it so I'm just going to swap out everything while I'm in there. None of the parts are expensive or hard jobs once inside so might as well do it all. Don't want to have to go back in again.

I picked it up cheap as kind of a "mechanic's special." It was running like crap but otherwise in real good shape. Shot plugs, some bad coils, and the typical phaser and adjuster noise. After seeing the gaps on the plugs I'm surprised that the thing ran at all. HUGE lol. Pretty much no electrode tip left. And they were Autolites so that's after being replaced at least once. Internals look good. No sludge just normal varnish and minimal wear on the cam lobes and rockers. About 1/4 of the adjusters were pretty much dead. Tensioner arms and guides look fine but I could see where the chain had been hitting the case a little and can hear it rattling some on cold start. Probably could get away with just letting it go but figured I'd go ahead and do the tensioners, etc. and get it right.

Thanks again.

 

Crank bolt is just a regular bolt they just want to be sure that you pull the damper down completely before it reachs torque. When you replace it put a dab of black RTV in the key slot just before placing the damper on the crank otherwise it will weel oil through that pathway.
I see I made a mistake in regards to the oil filter adapter fasteners. I said they are 4 studs with nuts but they are actually bolts torqued at 20-30 nm. Not sure what I was thinking.
Just remove the bolts on the p/s pump and wire it off to the side no need to remove the pulley.
All the bolts are standard right hand thread.
If the lash adjusters and chain tensioners are collapsed it could be from lack of oil supply/pressure. So I would check the oil passages out especially the supply holes right behind the chain tensioners. Good luck just remember this is an interference engine so the valves will hit the pistons if the timing is not done right. Good luck

 

Yeah, I'm going to check out all of the oil supply areas while I've got everything off which is why I was asking about the VCT body and plate.

Thanks again. Very helpful.

 

Trying to unbolt power steering pump on 2005 5.4 V8 4WD Exped. EB to do chains and phasers. Removed two bolts on top of pump, looks as there is one not installed in lower front hole. Is there another that is hiden on the bottom and is there a locating pin to deal with? In affect with 3 bolts out the pump will not move. Waitng your reply. Thank you for your help. Rich

 

yes there are locating sleeves in the bolt holes of the pump that are holding the pump secure to the block. Take a brass or plastic hammer and try tapping the p/s unit off the pry it away if possible as well. Not positive regarding the 05 5.4 but the pump should have four holes but only three bolts holding it in. The 4.6 pumps (same basic pump) initially had four bolts but Ford found that only three were needed so it looked like they forgot one but it was an assembly decision that confused people sometimes.

 

Thank you for the quick reply. As it turns out my 2005 5.4 has a power steering pump with four places for mounting bolts. Only three had bolts in them and as you said one bolt was not installed from the factory. All bolts are removed from the bottom side of the pump. It was time to change the pwr steering fluid anyway so disconnected the reservoir hose (after drawing down the fluid from the tank) and then unbolted and layer the pump aside.
For the record, the inside of my 5.4 V8.was pretty clean. No ware on cam lobes. No broken chain.guides. Chains were a little loose as the engine has 130000 miles on it. The phasers were in good condition with no broken or worn locating pins. The engine had the famous diesel ticking noises and there is a long trip in near future so had to look in to it. The only thing found was the passenger side tensioner had a blown gasket. Sure wish Ford would do their R and D in their.test facility.and not in the publics pocket.
Hope this info will help someone else.

 

After many days of making the fix for a 2005 Exped. EB 5.4 V8 that sounds like a deisal, I fired it up yesterday. This will be a few of the high points of this project. This may not be the BEST way but it is the way I did it. After geting my F150 Forum/Youtube degree on the 5.4 3 valve Ford engine by watching many videos and picking up a few pointers from each one. THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR EXPERTISE! You have saved me a lot of cash. Ordered the Cloyes engine parts kit (phasers, chains, tensioners, crankshaft chain gear, dampener crank seal & chain guides) w/Gates water pump and a 195 deg. Gates thermostat, and front cover gaskets thru ROCKAUTO. The thermostate does not come with a new Oring seal, you will need one. TOTAL $459. Autolite HT15 spark plugs were aditional $60.08 + $5.43 Priority Mail shipping. All in all a great deal. I would suggest buying or having access to the LISLE spark plug tip remover. Chances are you will need it and it works the best out of the kits available.
Here are the highlights. Remove all the items in the way, fan/shroud, belt waterpump, belt tensioner and idlers, upper radiator hose, air breather and filter box ontop of throttlebody (stuff a rag in throttlebody NOW). Remove alternator and water pump. Remove the PCM and PCM mount from right firewall. Take some photos for referance later and unplug both right and left wiring harnesses. Tie back the rigfht harness back to the hood hinge, lay the left harness next to the throttlebody for much better access to the coils and plugs. Remove the three bolts holding the power steering manifold with metal lines and swig it aside CAREFULLY not to bend or break lines. Remove power steering pump has three bolts from the bottom side. (not easy to get to) Wratchet wrenches do the trick. Swing the pump aside. No need to to pull the P.S. pulley. Leave air conditioner pump as is. Remove single screw from under middle of LFT. valve cover that holds oil level dipstick and a LARGE single BOLT on the RT. side of the engine that holds the Trans. dipstick. Remove coils and spark plugs each bank at a time and roll up a scott towel and stuff in each spark plug bore to keep all the goodies from droping in. Spray the scott towels with carb cleaner to keep the mice from chewing on them. Really It happened. Remove valve covers, LFT. side easy, RT. side not, but doable. Cover each bank with a rag to keep all the goodies out. THIS NEXT STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! Take threaded shell of of one of the spark plugs you broke getting it out and push and supper glue a 10 in. long piece of air hose in the top end. Thread into cylinder #1 (FRONT CYL. PASSENGER SIDE) With 1/2 in. breaker bar rotate crank dampener in correct rotation untill compression stroke is felt with thumb on end of this high tech hose tool. Then put notch on dampener on the TDC mark on the front cover. You can also put the notch at 12 oclock. Check to see the timing mark on the crankshaft gear is at about 7 oclock. Remove the front cover and inspect for worn or broken chain guides. If broke find all the pieces. Use the prior posting as to how to remove the timing parts it is a great referance. Be sure to look at the gaskets on the back side of the tensioners. If they are not complete that will be one of your problems and was one of mine on the pass. side. Install parts with prior posting with photos. Can't go wrong. As suggested in one of the videos I used vise grips to hold the cams from turning when tourqing the phasers. You have to grind then down to fit in between the lobes. It worked but the locking tool might be better. Expensive though.
As to removing the spark plugs. The method I went with was the Ford technision that has a video on Youtube that warms up the engine puts a shot of Kroil or PB Blaster in each bore. Then took an impact and removed them. Talk about nervous!!! These plugs had 120000 miles on them and 7 out of the 8 came out with no problems. Had to extract one, of course it was #4 but went well. On reassembly coated plug threads and tip with antisize, staying away from the last 1/4 in of tip.
When all is reasembled hold gas pedal down and crank untill oil pressure comes up on gauge. Take foot off of gas pedal and START. It will probably click a few times and start up. Bring to operating temp. and recheck all fluid levels. Once satisfied with running you can reprogram the PCM by ; from a dead stop run up to 55-59 MPH and set the cruise controll and let run for about 10 to 12 miles that shoul reset the EGR and etc. Good luck with your job. Feel free to add any info that will help. Torque values are there for a reason, please use then.
The truck is running quiet as a mouse. NO TICKING!!!!

 

After a 2000 mile trip to the East coast, with no problems, I now have what I believe to be a bad rocker arm or lifter. On start up cold there is a loud tap on the passenger side. As engine warms up it goes away. Will try to find the best place for a set of 12 lifters and 12 richer arms and then open it up. There is a miss in the tail pipe so the prior repairs of the timing components purchased at Rockauto are still good with no noise. Any deals on lifters and rocker arms out there? To bad this engine is such a pain in the *** as it is getting 19/20 mpg hiway and 15/16 mixed driving. Also changed the valve timing solenoid and seal on the passenger side and made no difference in tapping noise or performance.
This is an early production 2005 Expedition 5.4 3V. Built 10-04 The Internet says lash adjusters before June 2005 had no groove around the top. After that date had a revision of a groove at the top. Question is will either one work as a replacement? Thanks for any info and you thoughts on this situation. Hope this helps.