My dad has a 2004 F150 5.4 with 61k. The truck has been 100% drivetrain trouble free since they day he bought it. Today he told me about it making a noise and loss of power.

Here is what I know. Its a distinct tick almost like a knock, but not quite that deep. Seems to be coming from the center of the passenger side valve cover but almost sounds like its under the intake. The noise increases with RPM. It can better be heard from under the truck. Its not as loud standing in front of the truck. He says it does it warm and it did it cold when I started it today. He also mentioned that he "punched into it" at a toll booth and it seemed to go no where. He said it drives normal outside of WOT/nearly WOT.

I put a pipe on the valve cover and up to my ear and heard nothing. Very quiet. I put the pipe on the passenger fuel rail and heard almost a boiling or bubbling noise. Definately A difference between the two banks when listening to the fuel rail. It idles about like my 06. I looked at the exhaust pipe and its so clean you can see the seam in the factory tubing.

I pulled the codes with the key on and again with the engine running and its clean.

I may start unplugging injectors to see if I can make the noise go away. I havent done anything intrusive, just monitored. Can an injector be that loud? Anyone have any ideas?

 

Clean the MAF sensor and use better quality gas. See if that solves it.

 

We inspected the truck again today. I removed each of the injector harnesses one by one and not one of the silenced the noise, so it doesnt seem to be an injector.

I revved the truck up to a steady 2000 rpm and it was still there - does this mean not the cam phaser?

Looked at haynes manual and they mention the lash adjusters. Makes sense to me as it does sound like a lifter tapping. Holding a pipe up to the oil fill and the noise is louder.

My father changed the oil in his truck several days ago and I looked at it today and its clear and golden still and right between the hash marks.

Whats the best way to decide on lifters vs cam phaser?

 

Correct, cam phaser knocks only at idle when warm. Doesn't knock when it revs up or while driving.

 

And the cam phaser knock is normal.

 

Then why did Ford fix it on my 05? It went away after the fix and never came back. . .My 08 doesn't have the knock.

 

The lifters are fairly cheap from Tasca Ford. Could do the whole head for $100 plus S&H. Unfortunately there are 2 part numbers. One is under $6 and the other is under $9. The note on the cheaper says before 9/XX/04. I am assuming that is build date.

What about this valve spring compressor tool? Anyone have a part number for that? I'll need to buy/rent that to make it all happen.

 

Because your cam phasers were defective, duh? Ask any Ford ASE Tech about the knock.

 

go to Autozone to rent the Spring Compressors

 

So they have the one specific to the OHC? I have 2 OHV compressors, but have never worked on a mod motor before.

 

Cam phasers do make noise, some more than others. It's normal and does not effect operation of them. Of course there are those select few ...

 

Not yet. Its on pops right now. I dont think he has decided what he wants to do just yet. He has been driving it for a couple of weeks like this, with the tapping noise. When/If he's ready, I'll help him with the noise and follow up with the hesitation to see whats going on. I told him I would order the lifters and the price. He understands ship times, so since he has not asked me to order them, I dont think he is going to work on it this weekend. He drives the truck ~60 miles per day for work.

Knowing my father, he is going to try to flush the motor. But like I said with 1000 miles since the last oil change and its still clear, that means to me that he is taking good care of the truck, so I dont know what flushing is really going to do for him.

 

Dad finally got around to tearing into the motor to see what is wrong. We were using a haynes manual to guide us. Found some pretty serious damage. Going to cost some money to fix.

Warning: The pictures are fairly graphic. If expensive motor repairs make you uneasy, please leave now.

As you can see from this first picture, its pretty tight on the right side of the engine (passenger side). The computer, injector and coil wiring harness are all in the way and need to be removed.





The manual says that the ac system should be drained. We were able to squeze the valve cover by without draining the AC system I do mean squeeze.


Then you can see the cam, the valve spring and the lifters. This is the number one cylinder. 2 intakes and one exhaust in the center. Shown are the number exhaust and one intake. Its upside down too.

 

Some close ups of the damage. You can see the cam lobe is very rough.




The rear intake rocker arm had a lot of slack in it. You could wiggle the rocker so much that it was easy to see. None of the other rockers moved more than a super tiny bit, so the problem was obvious. The pictures actually enhance the detail of the damage. Its a lot harder to see in person, but you can feel it and its there.

If all of the parts come in, we'll be replacing the cam, the lifters and the rockers next weekend. I couldnt get pops to spring for a high performance cam or even chrome valve covers. Oh well. I know money is tight.

 

performance cams for these motors are over $2k usually...and then you need a tuner and dyno time...so I could easily see it being about $3k to gain maybe 20-30 hp...I know they exist for the 4.6, but do they for the 5.4?

great pictures and keep us updated