changed the chain tensioners, phasers and put the motor together. ran quiet, found i had pulled the vac line off the back of the manifold. removed the manifold to put it back on, runs good now only noise is from the injectors.

 

Where can you order the cam phasers or is this a ford dealer part only

 

Dealer part only. gefracing.com is where I got mine from.

 

I went to the site you referenced and could not find the phasers. Can you provide a direct link to the parts? I may be doing something wrong..lol Thanks in advance

 

For oem ford parts, you need to call or email their parts department...

 

Fantastic Steve, thanks for the prompt response!

 

A buddy and I just replaced both cam phasers in my truck this week thanks to your write up. Everything went smoothly. My truck sounds better now than it did when it was new! I've got two concerns now though. The timing chain rattles a lot more on startup now than it used to. Also, the check engine light is on now and it wasn't before we started. I guess I'll have the codes read and see what's going on. Anyone else have any issues. Thanks so much, Steve! Also, if anyone needs the special tool, I'll sell mine for cheap since I'll (hopefully) never need it again.

 

I now know I don't want to do this yob if/whenever it must be done.

 

What if any are the risks of running your truck with bad phsers? Will it hurt the engine?

 

Spent all day talking to 4 different dealers and taking it in/talking to techs. One of the techs actually has an 04 with the same issue, but he's been putting it off. There were also in the middle of doing the same job on another F150... pretty common they said.

Anyhow, two dealerships told me not to worry about it it, one basically told me not to even drive the truck anywhere, and the third said fix it but no rush. Interesting, eh? The two that wanted to fix it said that the cam phaser failure stems from oiling problems and that most of the time the phasers didn't really fix the problem because other things are also worn out. So, they want to do phasers, solenoids, timing chain, tensioners, and lash adjusters for a total of $3,000. I just bought the truck 5 days ago and I'm in grad school no way can I afford that!

Did you guys have success with just doing the phasers? I think that's something I can manage on my own, but I don't want to do chains and the whole rest of it. Can you do the tensioners without removing the chains? How were you able to tell that one was broken with the front cover on? I just don't want to have spend more than I have to and certainly don't want to re-time the whole motor - thats beyond what I'm comfortable with.

Also, anyone who would like to rent me their chain retention tool, please let me know! Need to take care of this ASAP!

 

It's more of an annoyance at idle than anything else. I suppose after a long (long) time it can start causing problems, if its possible for the cam phasers to completely fall apart. The problem isn't oiling, it's the sheer pins in the phasers that keep it locked in place during low oil pressure situations (basically at idle). If you're only getting noise at hot idle, then you only should worry about replacing the phasers. The tensioners and lash adjusters make different noises, entirely. There's a video somewhere that Ford made for their technicians that goes into detail about the different sounds. You should check to see what side the knocking at idle is coming from. Mine had it on both sides, so both got replaced. I would not panic about this, your motor shouldn't blow up tomorrow if the cam phasers are rattling. Take your time and figure out exactly what needs to be replaced, and get all your stuff together.

Send me an email, sbassen at gmail, regarding the timing wedge tool.

 

When I changed mine I found one had already been done, checked with the dealer and the previous owner had them change it as they had recomended. I found that the cam was out of time and the timimng chain guide was broken, I assume from the wedge tool.
The motor is high mile, over 100000 miles, I changed the chain guides and chains both phasers. The guides had a lot of wear and might have contributed to the broken chain guides when the wedge was installed. 186000 miles on the truck now, runs good, the only thing in hindsite is I should have replaced the chain tensioners when I had it appart.

 

Digging up an old post here, but I have some info to add on how to do the passenger side phaser, as it was knocking on mine. I just got the new phaser on and am putting everything back together. I will have some pics along with some info when I am done.

*Edit-
I finished and went for a drive, still knocking on the left side. Although it is much better, the left side is still making noise. It was masked by the louder right side. Guess I have to do both of them. I really hate my truck now. I can't believe there was no recall, whether it causes damage or not, this should have been fixed. Last Ford I will buy.

 

Great article...

I just moved back to California from Annapolis, wish I'd of looked for this article before. The price you paid for that set is that the standard price or was that a hook up price? I'd like to get a set to fix mine before I lift it etc.

Thanks!

 

Standard price, but the price has apparently gone up, since.