After many months now I FINALLY fixed my truck today. Grab a drink this story is long.

On a trip from Phoenix to Santa Fe my cruse control had problems climbing a hill. It was letting speed fall 10 below set point, and then downshifting and winding up. The second time it did this it started to overrev and I hit the breaks to shut down the cruise control. When I did I heard a bang. When I stopped for gas in Gallop I could here a lifter tap. I had no real issues until I got back to Phoenix. The truck would not idle at all, so I changed the fuel filter. I drove about 10 miles and it seemed to be better.

When I got back home from the test drive I changed the oil, trans, diff, brake fluid, and power sterring fluid. After all this the truck would not idle again, unless I unplugged on of the cam sensors. i started getting all kinds of codes for the VCT issues. I susspected the timing chains we off. I pulled the front of the motor off and changed the phasers, and fixed the rocker that was bad. Since the codes said it was reterded I advanced the chain one link, on the passenger side that had the bad rocker. After putting it back together it now had issue with the driver side being out of time. I pulled the valve cover and moved the chain on that side. Still the same problem. I changed both VCT solenoids, still no luck. It would only run with one cam sensor unpluged.

After much reading on this site and other I found the issues about fram filters, and only using 5-20 oil. I had alway used fram toughgards, and here in the desert I have always used 20-50 valvoline. 75K never had a problem. I switched to motorcraft filters, and the thin oil. This seemed to make things worse, but I did it anyways. I knew I needed to rip the front off again and co through everything, but waited til after summer. It drove decent with one cam sensor unpluged.

I pulled it all apart again a few weeks ago, and changed the timing chains and guides. The passenger side was streched. When I compaired it to the new one ther was one link differece in length. The new chains helped, but I caused another issue when I pulled it apart. I hosed off the engine prior to starting and because I pulled the coil packs off before it dried there was water down in the plugs. This caused misfire issues. the plugs were not that old, so i got so new coil packs and started chasing the cyclinders that would misfire. These helped some, but I was still getting misfires under any load. Changed plugs again, and it helped some but not much.

I had read a story like mine that ended up being oil pump. The guy had bought a new short block from Jeggs amd had it put in. When they started it it had the same problems. Jeggs replaced it and they found the oil pump was dropping out under load. At that point I changed my oil back to 20-50 again, and that helped a bunch. I was still getting misfire at WOT.

Another story similar to mine ended up being bad cats, so I drilled an 1/8 hole in my cat to see how much pressure it had. Bingo the cat was plugged. I ordered a new Eastern cat from partsgeeks for $290, and it came 2 days later. Great place! After putting this on today I was finally able to complete a drive cycle so I could pass emisions testing. YEA...it passed.

I'n not sure if it was the driving with the cam sensor off for 3 months that caused the cat to melt down, or all the occasional misfires. i'm still hoping there are no sticking injectors that these are know for. I use lucas gas treatment quite a bit, so I hope they're good.

During this whole process I only saw 1 code that said bad O2 sensor, and I did change it to no avail. Never did I get a code for a bad cat. Not sure how that could happen since the driverside that I changed today was almost totally plugged.

Lessons learned
I'm sticking with my 20-50, maybe 10-40 for winter.
Never wash off your motor without letting it dry before you tear the COPs off.
NEVER USE FRAM
These fourms are INVALUABLE. Thanks to all here!

Hope this helps someone else who may be stuck with the same issues.

 

Just wanted to give an update. I have now had time to clear my drive cycle data, and redo the drive cycle with the new cat in place. My mileage came back up to almost 20 MPG again on the Freeway, and that's with the 20-50 oil. My power seems back to normal, and no more misfires. I have a 700 mile trip this week to the NE corner of the state. I have to climb the hill that took out my rocker last year, so we'll see if this has fixed all the issues.

 

That 20-50 is waaaay different that what the 5-20 it's supposed to have . . . And not washing off your motor ever is also good practice - electronics don't like water haha. Glad it's better though.

 

I'd seriously get rid of the 20-50 you have in there. That's way too heavy. I personally wouldn't run more than 10-30 in these motors for the cam phasers alone.

 

Ford does approve 15w40 as a TEMPORARY measure to quiet the phasers down.

 

And even that ain't as heavy as 20w-50, for all the time. Holy crap