I hear that man, but when its hot enough in direct sunlight to blister the steering wheel in my truck it gets to be a bit much lol

 

 

Alright, i got my heads back, and are installed back on the block. Now i am cerious as to the next worry i have. On the chain tensioner guide, was there a spacer behind the prong that comes off the block or is this the way its supposed to be, and i should stop worrying? LOL



Almost done! I really really cant wait to drop her back in dangit!




All the help is always appriciated.

 

spiffy... but you forgot to put your cam in the block...

 

There is a left and a right side tensioner guide. I believe the 5.4 leftside (drivers) is R75396 and rightside is R75397

 

camarothatcould, lol, are you being serious now? Its hard to tell after a 12 pack. Dynotech, yeah, on the tensionars and guides there are L's and R's stamped amongst them. Drivers side being L passanger being R. Question remains, is that guide supposed to stick out off the prong that far? I do not remember there being a spacer so that has to be how it goes right?!

 

 

Correct there is no spacer. The guide will stay in its position as the chain tracks over it and the tensioner holds it in place below. Now get it together and see how it runs..

 

brave soul... I still have yet to dig deep into a modular motor... I took my 4.6 apart after I swapped in the 5.4 and told myself I could never build a modular motor...

 

I think you can man...once you see how it comes apart, you understand how it goes back together for the most part. The cam timing is pretty easy when you figure out exactly what to do. Porting costs alot in general, and because of the low amount of popularity, is the reason why everything is so expensive for these motors. I just dumped $1800 in so the worry of the gains is intensifying! But i think its going to be worth it. The performance shop that did the porting and decking and installation of the cams said i will pick up 100 hp from this...So he better be right!

 

I have to replace the head gaskets on my 2000 f 150 5.4 l engine. At first I did not consider doing it myself but reading this board has given me the confidence I needed. I also see the support everyone gives each other, this is great. My plan, so far, is:

Take apart top of the engine
Have the cylinder heads re surfaced and re build
replace water pump
replace timing chains and tensioners
install new Head gaskets
put everything back together

I would appreciate any advice for the forum. If someone has done this job, any instructions would be appreciated. Anything else I should be looking at? any pictures? send them to me, kevinhennelly@comcast.net

Please advise.

Thanks in advance.
Kevin

 

Hey kevhenn54,

I just went through this process in january on my L vin 5.4. Basically, your plan is a good general plan for things. The trickiest part is making sure you get the timing right, but its not extremely difficult. Just read through all the info in this thread and you should be able to figure it out.

The disassembly and reassembly of the motor is quite a process, and takes time, but its doable. The only part that I found difficult was there's a ton of very stuck bolts that just don't want to break free, but I solved that by buying a good breaker bar.

You need to get a good torque wrench because its crucial you tighten the heads back on to specification, and its preferable that you don't reuse the head bolts. Buy new ones because they stretch to hold the heads on tighter.

Before you start this start spraying all the exhaust manifold and collector bolts down with PB Blaster so that you don't break any bolts getting them free.

Before you remove the heads make sure you use a shop vac to suck out as much coolant as you can through the thermostat hole because when I removed the drivers side head a ton of coolant spilled into the cylinders.

Take the hood off before you begin, as it's real easy to do and gives you much more room.

I don't have any pics of the process because I don't have a good digital camera (only old school film lol) but if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Good Luck,

- Erik