Hi everyone,

I have an 05 f150 4.6 4x4 stx with 198500 miles on it. I had been hearing the dreaded rattle at start up for quite a while and last July I was driving to work and my oil pressure dropped to 0. I stopped, parked, waited a little bit. started it up again with minimal oil pressure and drove it home and parked it. I ended up buying a 16 super duty 6.2l (awesome truck by the way) because I needed something more substantial for work, pulling job trailer and skid steer. I've moved the old f150 a few times around the house playing musical vehicles and sometimes is has pressure, sometimes it doesn't. My best assumption is that the timing chain tensioners wore out, broke and have plugged the oil pickup tube. I've got some motivation now to tackle this project. I've watched the 1a auto replacement video a couple of time and there isn't really anything too complex with the procedure, it just seems very time consuming. I have a couple of questions for anyone that wouldn't mind chiming in with their experiences.

1. Which kits have you used and which components have they included?
2. Are there any additional items that are worth addressing in the procedure? Oil pump, other seals and such that are easily accessible?
3. Are the gears and chains necessary to replace or just the tensioners and guides? I saw this posted on the explorer forum that the guy didn't think messing with the chains was required.
4. Cam holding tool?? Good place to purchase one or does anyone have a used one they would like to recoup some of the cost on and sell to me?

Thanks in advance to any one with any advice!
I'd like to get the old girl running again, I bought her in 08 with 15k on the clock and would love to see her get over the 200k hump!

Matt

 

I would just replace them with Motorcraft parts OEM parts.

You'll get another 200k out of them.

 

Replace the tensioners and chains with Motorcraft.

Read this thread:

https://www.f150online.com/forums/ar...r-engines.html

I know it says 1997-2003, but it does apply to a 2006 4.6 2 valve.

 

Thank you for the help everyone. Here's the ultimate dumb *** moment from me. I haven't driven the truck since July of 2017 because I had diagnosed the cam chain tensioners as the culprit of the low/no oil pressure issue. Well, today a year and a half later, I did an oil change to get the chunks out of the oil pan so I could drive the truck to my shop 2 miles from my house and begin to tear it apart. I bought a new drain pan and mesh filter that fit inside a funnel I have and strained the oil through it to catch any debris. Guess what....NOTHING... and when I started the truck up to move it into the garage to do the oil change I had full pressure. So coming down to my handy dandy computer I did some research on the oh so awesome instrument cluster and guess what, the gauges are prone to wearing out and sticking. Plus the oil pressure sensor/switch is a switch and not a sensor. As long as there is any oil pressure above 4psi it will show 2/3 oil pressure.... yup. So please learn from my mistakes everyone and don't automatically assume the worst. Start diagnosing with the simple things first. At least the truck runs great still!! Gonna top it off with premium gas and run it to clear out any crud.

 

Do you still plan to swap out the timing chains/tensioners to get rid of the noise?

 

Good chance the startup rattle was caused by a defective oil filter - anti-drainback valve failure. This is common with Fram filters.

 

I have exclusively used motorcraft filters and oil since about 40k. But yes non backvalve filters cause premature cam chain tensioner and guide failure.

I don't know if I'm going to dive into the project of replacing them or just bring the services up to date and sell it. I'm going to drive it for a while and see how bad the noise at startup is. It's been so long I cant remember.