Ok, I guess it's time to let you guys know what I found when I rebuilt the motor in our 99. I am going to include ALL the information that I have been collecting since day one on the piston slap issue.

My 99 had the cold piston slap since the day I picked it up from the dealership. I knew it was not a good noise, but when I tried to find out info on it from Ford, I was told that most Triton truck motors have had this problem since 1997, and that they do not know what causes it, but yet I was told it was normal. Okey dokey...

After about 1500 miles, my 99 engine started having the lower end slap ALL the time, not just on cold starts. At 2200 miles, I called the engine plant and they said that this was the first motor they have heard of having the noise all the time. They sent me a new motor Fed Ex, and it came in 3 days. They would not let me open up the old one and wanted it back right away to inspect it. Totally understandable.

Before the new motor came, I was told by a motor engineer that the problem was an improper wrist pin location and that the new motor would have "updated" pistons. At first I bought that reason, as it did sound like a wrist pin related issue, but after thinking about it for a while, it didn't make sense that if it were a casting issue with the piston, then why does only ONE cylinder have the slap in every motor. I had my parts guy check into it and Ford DID change the piston part number as they said. Interesting.

Now I have a new motor in my truck and it had NO piston slap on startup. It did however smoke like a bastard on cold starts if it sat overnight. But I could live with that more than the slap. At about 3000 miles on the new motor, the slap started. Just cold starts at first, then became permanent just like the 99. I dealt with this for another 7000 miles. It was embarrasing to even drive the truck. Not to mention that the truck was gradually getting slower.

This time when we called for a new motor, the plant said no problem. Then they called back and said that instead of sending me a new motor, they were going to cancel my powertrain warrenty. I was told that Ford had a 2" think stack of papers printed off the web showing that my vehicle was being used for racing and testing. I was told that if I tried to fight it, I would have no case. Gee, thanks Ford. I devote my life to helping Ford make one of thier best performance vehicles even better, and that's how they repay me.

To make a long story short on the warrenty thing, I did eventually get my warrenty back, and was told that I could do anything to fix the motor, short of replacing the block. Ok, I could live with that. I ordered up all the parts needed and started to tear the motor apart.

I actually rebuilt the motor in the truck. It was not as bad as you may think. I started with the rear pistons and worked my way forward. I had 6 of the 8 pistons out and wasn't seeing anything related to this noise. It was pretty upsetting at this piont. Then I pulled the last two out, and low and behold, the number 5 piston looked like someone took a grinder to the skirt and ring landing areas. The cylinder wall was not much better. I flex honed the block and it actually came out great. In went 8 new piston and rod assemblies.

The new pistons were kind of odd though. They had a coating on the skirts that was about 1/16 thick and soft. Now, I've built quite a few motors in my day, and I know that skirt to wall clearance is important. When this coating wears away, the pistons will have excess wall clearance. Looking at the "revised" pistons I just took out of the old motor, you can see the faint outline of where this stuff was.

This is what I have concluded:

1. Mostly all 99s that had piston slap, had it from day one. Very few got it after some miles. These motors would not have the skirt coating.

2. Mostly all 00s and 01s have the slap after about 3k miles, not from new. Just like the second motor I had did. These motors would have the skirt coating.

3.Ford has been replacing motors left and right for this problem, and the dealers are told SPECIFICALLY to NOT take the motors apart, and they must be sent back to Ford immediately.

4.Ford has also been blaming this problem on any and all aftermarket devices, which we all know is BS. Try telling that to a guy with a bone stock 97 F-150.

Ford does state in the 01 brochure that the pistons have a "friction reducing" coating on the piston skirts to allow the motor to rev better. I say this coating is a band-aid fix that Ford hopes will lessen the amount of piston slap complaints. It's pretty obvious that Ford has BIG problems with this subject and has not been able to fix it.

These are just my observations and my opinions on the subject. Use what I have shown you and make you're own conclusions.

SAL

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Gee, kind of makes me want to PISTON SLAP a Ford Rep

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LEFT ON VACATION CAME BACK ON PROBATION

 

Intresting. Depressing, but intresting.

 

Sal,
On the other 7 pistons, was the coating completely worn away?
Also, what would cause the skirt and ring lands to be all chewed up, if nothing came apart? Were any of the rings coming apart?
Did the thrust side of the piston show much more wear than the opposite side?

If the L motor uses forged pistons from a different supplier, why is it nearly all 5.4s slap?

Is it possible that the way in which Ford decided to stroke this motor, (from a 4.6) causes this, a.k.a. the wrist pin misalignment?

I have taken rebuilt quite a few motors (old 5 liters) with alot of miles, and have seen beat up lands from the rings fluttering in the grooves. Any evidence of this?

My '99 has the slap, only in 50* and down temps, and it only lasts for about the first 300' or so of (easy) driving. When I switched to Redline, it got much quieter. No noise once warm. Currently 12k miles.

Sorry for all the questions. Just curious.

 

Thanks Sal
I would like to back you up on these observations.

The engine I saw at a machine shop, had probably 70% of the piston coating missing, one piston in the box still had all the coating on one skirt but it was all bubbled up and getting ready to fall off. Also after the coating strips off of the pistons it clogs up the oil pickup tube.
Nice huh !

A friend of mine saw the same thing in his motor, the dealership was going to rebuild it, but when he saw the piston coating falling off, he said no way. And got a new motor.

And since this is probably the start of something big. I'm going to go hide in the closet now.
Dale

 

Anyone have Mulder or Scully's phone #'s

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LEFT ON VACATION CAME BACK ON PROBATION

 

Well, that's pretty easy. Take any kind of "gunk" (such as the coating on a piston or two that comes loose) and let it grind into the walls. Kinda like sugaring the tank. What do you have then? Screwed up aluminum (forged or not) pistons that rattle like hell because of loose tolerances.

Then, like Lightningquick and myself, you can wonder why you're losing power. Keep in mind I had this damn looseness at 1,200 miles before I "modded" a thing. And I babied it to boot with all highway driving. So far on my earlier post, 19 of you should be OK. I don't know why the rest of you won't answer. My Chevy 3.4 does this and there's a TSB on it, but then again, it doesn't have the HP to tear things up, so it'll probably be OK for 150k or more.

 

This piston slap is it really loud I dont notice it at all? Is it very noticable? My supercharger snoot bearings rattle sometimes but thats it.

 

Thanks Sal
Mike

 

I am most curious as to the sound of this "slap". Would it by chance sound slightly like bearing knock? The reason I ask, is I have a Conversion E-150 w/5.4. It has the oddest problem of, only when cold, sayaround 40 degrees, at startup sounding as if a few rod bearings were knocking. Has also puffed blue smoke a time or two untill warmup up. This started at approx.20K and is almost at 34K and near the 3 year limit. Its been back to the dealer a few times, but surprise!, they never can duplicate it. Right now my L dosen't seem to have this noise and it has 7800 miles.

 

Like I said in my "engine rattle" post, If you don't know what we're talking about, you don't have it. It sounds like a small hammer bouncing around in the bottom of your engine block. You can't miss it. Nothing like a valve or fuel injector tick.

 

ally 69,when my 99 regular 5.4 on my other truck got replaced you could barely hear a slight diesel sound at start up after sitting and yet the dealer said yep order a knew 00 engine much to my suprise.The people who had 98 or 97 models got rebuilt engines and the 99 owners got a new 00 motor. My 00 L does have the diesel sound but i am not going to worry about it just yet.If and when something happens to my L motor,i would like to see them try and blame it on the aftermarket.I also had a 97 off road with a 4.6 but i don't think they had this problem.

 

Yes. 5.4's are notorious for this it seems, "charged" or not. My friends '99 XLT w/5.4 did it worse than mine. Except a rod knock is just about a perfect knock, knock, knock. This is a hollow, haphazard banging around.

 

Sal, out of curiousity, why would you buy another L knowing this info? I know Lightnings are your second life, but doesn't this info give you the shivers?

Being in my second L in two years, I can't believe how many shakes and vibrations can be built into these trucks. I have told many that you can't expect miracles from a parts shelf built truck but this is friggin' ridiculous.

There is no way in hell that any of these engines can survive long term, not to mention the transmissions, intercoolers etc.

Ford should be embarrassed. No joke. I hope the whole fuggin' thing turns into a disaster. Not just L's, but the whole 5.4l engine line-up.

Time to stop the mods on this time bomb, and plan my next non-Ford fun machine. This blows.

Rant over!

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2000 Red Lightning - #835 of 4966 Sold 3-8-2001

2001 Yukon Denali White, All Stock

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I can't believe that Ford would say they are going to void your powertrain warranty because of "racing and testing"!! That is total BS! Ford/SVT lists the power and performance numbers for these vehicles and then SVT has the "meets" where you bring your SVT vehicle to road and drag race,so what's the difference. I think that if they really tried to void the warranty that way, you could win in court, and that is why they gave you your warranty back. If the 99 Cobra owners wouldn't have raced and tested their cars, and found out that Ford was screwing them, they would have never got what they paid for. Looks like it might be time for a class action lawsuit for the intercooler leakin', drivetrain vibratin', piston slapin', clunkin', and fog light crackin', baddest production truck made... (I know I left out a few probs there! lol)

Later,
Roger


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The early bird gets the worm, but the 2nd mouse gets the cheese.

2001 Black Lightning
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1/4 13.73
MPH 99.83

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