Hello,
I know this is my first post, but I have used this forum for several years as a resource. There is a ton of great info here and I have tried using the search function for this, but decided it was time to post a question.

I just finished replacing the cam phasers, tensioners, phaser solenoids and cleaning the oil pickup on my 2005 f150 5.4 3v. Everything seemed to go well. I also replaced the passenger side exhaust manifold. I triple checked cam timing before reassembly.

Doing all this work, I had a lot of systems unplugged and torn apart.

I finished it up and it fired right up and sounded great. Then I took it for a test drive and it didn't go well.

It didn't seem to have any power and when I would press the accelerator enough that it should have down shifted, it shuttered and didn't shift down. Before I tore it apart, it didn't do this and just had the dieseling sounding problem at hot idle.

Very disappointing. No check engine light either. Any suggestions on where to look?

Jeff

 

ok, here's more info. Maybe someone can pipe in.

I connected a scan tool and looked cam advance and advance error. The passenger side shows 0 cam advance and 0 error at all rpm's. I swapped sensors from side to side and the problem stayed on the passenger side. What does 0 and 0 mean? I would think that if the phaser wasn't working, the error would be some large number. The driver's side reads about 25 degrees advance at 2000 rpm.

 

Was it a ford part cam phaser or aftermarket? I've heard people that have had problems with aftermarkets parts..

 

Check the solenoid for operation. You could probably Ohm it out to check if it is good.

 

After much messing around I found that I had 2 bad coils. 1 & 2. It looks like coolant got down the plug holes and shorted out the coils. Coolant got down there when the heater hose was disconnected.

 

Great. So does that mean it runs properly now? Any pictures and other gotchas you want to share?

 

It runs better than ever, although I have only had it since August.

One thing I did that I hadn't heard mentioned before was pulling the passenger side fuel rail instead of messing with AC system. I was able to remove the passenger valve cover while leaving the AC system in place with the fuel rail removed.