Cam phasers do not tick, they knock. Injectors tick.

 

Interesting statement. Yesterday I bought a showroom clean Screw with the 5.4 and 85k miles,after getting it back to my house heard the ticking sound, almost sounds like a lifter tap. After reading about the cam phaser issues i had figured thats what it was and was going to live with it. Now this statement has me second guessing my decision. Is there a concrete way to eliminate cam phasers from the diagnosis? Meaning I want to know exactly what the noise is and figure out my game plan. Great info. here guys. Thanks.

 

The cam phasers make more of a knocking sound, nmetal on metal. The injectors make a ticking noise as they o9pen and close. This is normal. They sound pretty much like the old 6 cylinders that needed the lifters adjusted.

 

You can look it up, -there's Audio here on this site (I know I've seen it here) and on You Tube as well.

Those quick lube joints can screw up those phasers as well.

This is from Babcox (Engine Builders) -

"Watch out when you change the oil on one of these three-valve engines found on 2004-and-up F-Series. The cam sprockets are variable timing sprockets called phasers. The cam phasers have six metal tabs that stick out from the sides, which excite the cam sensors to tell the PCM the exact position of the camshaft. The right-hand phaser is located directly under the oil filler neck, and can be viewed by looking down the neck. Occasionally, a careless oil change tech will leave the oil gun in the filler neck and start the engine. The tabs are then bent and broken from the phaser. This causes anything from just a check engine light with a cam sensor code to a severe loss of power from the PCM over-advancing the camshaft."

 

every time I have run inta an entire bank missfiring it has either been a stuck or broken cam phaser or a plugged converter. Monitor the VCT adv. PID if both banks hover around zero at idle there is no problem there. Disonnect the exhaust on the affected bank and re-test. Diag time= 5minutes at your local dealer, of course you will pay 1.5 hours money for me

 

Gotcha, thanks. Im wondering if aftermarket underhood insulation might do the trick to at least muffle the ticking noise, I used some years ago on a Cummins project and it worked well

 

We are looking at purchasing a 2004 f150xl 4x4 with the triton 4.6 engine. It has 88787 miles on it and it looks, feels and sounds like it is in good shape. We were wondering what the major issues have been with this engine and whole drivetrain. If you all could help we would appreciate it. Would rather look to the community than to the dealership on ratings on this truck. Thank you.

 

porcupine, the 4.6 is a dam good engine. Only thing thats a let down is the power. I just traded my 4.6 which had 97,000 in for a 07 f150 with a 5.4. I dont miss it either cause i like power lol. The only problems is if you put a fram oil filter on the mod motors. They rattle on start cause the filter pos(piece of shi#). stick with motorcraft and that engine will a last a very long time. 4.6 has very little problems.

 

i need help i have a 2004 f150 5.4 triton it has a misfire. i have replaced the plugs and 2 of the coils and reset the computer and i still am having the same problem running bad. to top it all off the a/c stop working at the same time it started running bad.