I have read a lot of thread on many forum about it and im still not sure about what ways to go.

i bought a 08 f150 last year. The guy said that timing job with phaser was done. truck ran fine when i test ride it in spring. I went back next week to get it (i was getting warmer) i drove it home about 1h30 drive on highway. As soon as i got off highway first stop the truck stop. I got code for both vct solenoid over retard and over advance. I changed both solenoid but didnt do a thing.

I have a start up tics that last about a minute then come back when i gave it gas so i tought about tensioner leaking but they have been changed and it dosent seem to be coming from front cover, feels more like an exhaust tic but im not discarding that idea.

I unpluged the solenoid and no more probleme. I repluged them later and it only did it when it got hot outside and after drive of more then 30 min then went away all winter to come back this end of spring. I tried just to see with 5w40 during the hoter day of summer and the probleme went away completely.

in addition to the part that was changed there was a valve cover so im starting to think about sluge blocking oil from returning back to pan but why would ticker oil go easier through a blocked passage then thin?

also i have installed a pressure gauge and with regular oil at start up pressure goes up to 70 psi then around 20 30 and only after about 30 40 min of highway when hot outside it wil go under 15 and vct wont work

i dont want to start throwing part at it, at this point i would like to find what the probleme is for my personal curiosity but im more into saving money for a new engine for when this one blow then opening the hole thing up to rechange a part that was change two year ago or puting a new oil pump hoping that it will fix it.

 

Sounds like non-OEM parts may have been used for the timing job, and they didn't put a high volume oil pump in. Just keep using 5W40.

 

Agree on the pump, im pretty sure they did not change it but most of the time the pressure is right in the high hand of the specs, its really only when outside temperature is over 77 f AND i drive it for more then 40minutes that the vct solenoid stop working.
plus again since when outside temperature get colder i have no problems with 5w20 which tel me that its an oil flow probleme not a vct or timing part issue.
it could be like you said non oem tensioner that are leaking specially with the start up noise but i don't really heard much from timing cover, unless its because i have a cheap sthetoscope.

on that note, i installed a permanent electronic oil gauge so i can see the oil pression in the morning and it stayed betwen 5 and 11 psi even after 24h without runing . I dont know if it change anything tough