carF150 - I found TDC on the compression stroke in a simple, but crude way.

I removed the #1 spark plug and packed a paper towel in the hole (not all the way to the threads, but where the spark plug boot usually resides). I then rotated the crank clockwise until the paper towel plug shot out. I then made a minor adjustement until the notch on the damper lined up with the TDC mark on the timing cover.

 

FloppyJoe - have you had any luck contacting Ford about the heads?

 

yeah, the service manager at the local place was cool about it

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hreadid=176758

 

FloppyJoe - that is great news! It is nice to see that they owned up to their mistake so easily.

 

Well, I got my timing cover back off today and here is what I noticed. I had 3 rockers just lying there on the right side. I then turned the engine by hand and noticed that the bearings on the camshaft weren't hitting the rockers all the time. This is just on the right side. On the left side of the engine the bearings were touching the rockers all the time.

What would be causing this?

 

The picture shows that your cam lobe in not coming in contact with the roller follower. The hydraulic lash adjuster must be damaged for this to happen. The Lash adjuster is there to push the follower up against the cam lobe. If it isn't working it won't push up. The lash adjuster uses oil to pump itself up to tale up the slack. If its oil supply is cut off it will not be able to pump up. Was there oil in the head on that side of the engine? It also looks like you have removed the camshaft caps. You must have them on inorder to remove the followers. The valve spring must be compressed to allow removal. They must be replaced in the same spot as they were removed.

JMC

 

Here is a picture of a disassembled lash adjuster. It fills up with oil under pressure and pushes up against the follower to take up the slack.



Here is a picture of the follower and the lash adjuster. The camshaft lobe pushes against the roller in the middle, the lash adjuster removes the slack and the other end pushes against the valve to open it. Disregard the one on the left it is a different version. The one on the right is what you have in your truck.

 

Yes, there was oil in the head on that side. I am not sure what you mean by the camshaft caps. I didn't take off anything from the camshaft.

 

The first thing that I thought was that one of the valves was broken. Does that sound logical to anyone?

 

The cam cap is the top part of where the camshaft rests. There are two bolts holding it on. A broken valve would have made a terrible racket when the piston punched it. Are all the followers loose or just a few on that side?

JMC

 

It seems as though most of them on the passenger side of the engine are loose.

 

Do you know what would cause this to happen, JMC? Maybe the engine is just low on oil?

 

For the lifters to collapse like that they were starved for oil. Did you remove any of the oil gallery plugs? When you cleaned the gasked off the cylinder head did any debris fall into an oil passage?

JMC

 

I didn't remove anything from the cylinder head and I tried to keep everything as clean as possible. What would be the best way to fix the problem. Should I take the head back off and check everything out?

 

You will have to take out the valve lash adjusters and have a look at them. To do this you need to compress the spring, remove the roller follower and then the adjuster. Why did they collapse in the first place has me curious. Are all of them on that side collapsed?

JMC