Im new to this board, and I just bought a 98' F150 4x4 extended cab step side truck.. It has the 5.4L.. Are these engines good for alot of miles? Is there anything that I should know about these motors or drivetrains? How many miles do some of you have on your 5.4L's?

 

the Triton motors seem to hold up very well with regular maintence, however the earlier model 5.4's had problems with spitting spark plugs out due to lack of threads to hold them in, thus ruining the head and costing the owner alot of money.
Have the plugs checked or changed and make sure theyre at the correct torque specs often, and you should be fine

 

They didnt change the number of threads on the spark plug holes until '03, so anything before that has the chance of spitting a plug (but its not THAT big of a problem, although youd think every truck spits em the way you hear about it on here sometimes).

I have 125k on my truck (I bought it at 96k), no issues.

Oh and, I drive a shortbed regular cab '97 with the V6 for work. Im glad I dont have that engine in my personal truck! Its night and day when I get into my truck after work.

 

I believe the models before the late model 99 PI heads had an issue with head gaskets as well. Usually happend around 30k if it was going to happen. Could be wrong though. Just what i have noticed on the boards. I would feel safer to have the "power improved" engine

 

The PI heads also suffered from the head gasket problem. Most failed early and were covered under warrantee. My 99 with a PI heads 5.4 had both head gaskets fail prior to 30,000 miles, which was covered by an extended warantee. This was about 2 1/2 years ago, and no problems since.

 

Sorry but here's what you didn't want. Piston slap 1 out of 200 engines since 1999. Plugs being ejected to this day. Junk:

 

very good engine. i have one and would not get a smaller one in a truck. plenty of power for driving or towing. Every engine on the road has its share of problems. Think about haw many of the 5.4's are on the road in f150, E150, F250, E250, Explorer, Excursion etc, It is prolly a fraction of a % what have problems blowing plugs. If you do blow a plug then it costs less than $200 to fix.

 

Im reading all of this, and this post sounds more realistic.. As many 5.4L Fords as there are on the road, you would think that everyone would be talking about the plug, head gasket, and piston probs ya know?..

So I take it that the answer to my question is that they are good long lasting motors. A very small % of them had a few common problems, but just like all gas engines, they do run into problems every now and then.....

Thanks for all of the info. tho!