Greetings all,
After i finished changing the oil on my 05 5.4L, I noticed that the front 2 bolts that hold the fuel injection intake to the head appeared loose. Upon further inspection, i found both of them to be hand loose. After looking further i found that the next 2 bolts were also movable by hand. having never seen any engine that had bolts this loose purposely, but not having the slightest idea of torque specs, i finger tightened the 4 down to finger snug. Figured that would do until i could get it into the dealer to check it out.
This morning, the truck kept stalling after running for less then a minute. I had autostarted it and it retrys 3 times and each time it would stall in the end. im half asleep and freaking out, thinking, i only changed the oil. then i remembered the bolts. so, after all was said and done, it took me loosening those 4 bolts up again, and then i restarted, and voila', it was running like a champ again, ceptin the check engine light is now on.
so can anyone tell me exactly what the heck happened? i just cant see 4 manifold bolts being some kind of ajusters of anything.
looking from the front, the black tunnels that curve down like ribs to the heads, the bolt on passender side front also goes through one of the cooling intake boltons, the other side something of the same. then the next bolt back between the next 2 tunnels. easy to see, and amazing enough even easy to hand reach for the most part. I am at a loss as to how hand snugging these could just throw the engine for a loop and bring on the check engine light.
only 15000 on truck......
Any and all input apprectiated....thanks folks...
I bid you all a great day...

 

Sounds like your truck was built on a Monday
Don't know what to tell ya but I'd be sure and get it to your dealer ASAP.
Did you buy an Extended Warranty? If you keep having mishapes of that nature, an E W might not be a bad idea.

 

I'm waiting for the answer to this one. Never heard of such a thing. Hopefully one of our resident tech's can give us a clue.

 

Hi folks,
Upon further inspection, I found that out of the 8 bolts that hold that thing to the heads, 7 were finger turning loose. only one was snug. I looked at it off and on all day, and did much research, and decided to finger snug them all down.
Then i tried to run it and it ran like cow puckey. Then i reset ol bess with a half hour of no battery w/ headlights on. Changed nothing else. Put the power back to her, and low, she runs like a clock...with the bolts snugged down. Took er on a nice test ride, reset my stations, all seems fine.
We will see what happens when i auto start it at 6 am....its winter here now and nothing like a friday surprise.
I seriously think theyve been loose since birth, and computer compensated for the obvious air leaking. Then when i cut off its "fix" it went nuts, till i erased its memory...now its happy again....
Course i could be wrong as rain....would still like real knowlegable types to chime in....
Thanks to all

 

Why even fool with it get it back to the dealer I am not a mechanic but I can tell you intake manifold bolts need to be more than finger tight even on the plastic intakes, you may do some maj0r damage on these engines arent' like the old ones.?????

 

What year is your truck? If it is new, then take it to the dealer so a proper torq can be applied. If it's an older version, I bet it is one that had the plastic intake spring a water leak and had to be replaced. Happened on a bunch of ford vehicles in the late 90's that had the plastic intake. Get a manual and find out the torque specs and do it yourself. It's not hard. Just be careful and not overtighten. Or maybe someone on this thread can give you the torque specs.

 

True words, but it takes at least 3 weeks at this time of year to get into the only ford dealership in 400 miles. The price of living in interior Alaska. Cant just wait till then. Its better off now then it was, just couldnt live with those bolts loose.
Ill keep folks advised as to how this goes...

 

Well howdy,
I was able to wrangle a tuesday appt out of the ford dealer. Even had my free rental available, thanks to the mighty esp....
ill let folks know what they say.....

 

Greetings all,
just a quick heads up. the intake was indeed ready to fly off. the way they handled it, i think they did it during the last repair.
but, all is torqued and restested and now we will see if this thing might get a bit better milage.
Hit 20 below last night here in North Pole, Alaska
I bid you all a good day...

 

Good luck with your truck.

As for the weather

Down here on the Texas Gulf Coast, it got down to 38 last night. It's a nice 73 right now

 

With temps like that, I'll bet you Oval is a little bluer than most

 

At 20 below, maybe your plastic intake won't crack and leak like a lot of them do. My 02 F150 has a reinforced intake on the front where the most heat is absorbed.

Being a long ways from the dealer, if it happens again after the dealer torques the bolts, check into the plastic intake compressing or shrinking at sub-zero temperatures; buy a tech manual and get the torque specs, and invest in a torque wrench.

In super cold weather, even metal bolts and parts can loosen if they have a relatively low torque requirement.

According to my Haynes book, the torque requirement on the 1997 to 2002 4.6 L and 5.4 L intake manifolds is a two step process; and there is a required tightening sequence. Different year engines might require a different process.

Hope this is useful information.