ok so heres my mini rant and questions.

no i didnt search.

How do you time an 03 PI 5.4??? Jbrew can you give me a digram or somthing that shows were the cams need to be in relation to the head??

me and my buddy have spent the last week trying to get this right. we tryed again tonight turned over a few times then smack stoped and we couldnt turn it so we are pretty sure we smacked another valve.....Any one at all that knows how to or has done this before or has a digram please post it.. it would be so helpful.

Thank you.

 

hopefully you didn't bend a valve...

I've got some pics, let me dig 'em up for ya

 

Yeah. Thanks for distracting him!

How hard'ya smack 'em anyway ??

 

http://www.modularheadshop.com/Artic...stallation.htm

http://www.modularheadshop.com/Artic...m%20degree.htm

Do both........

 

If you're using the stock keyed cams then you don't need the degree wheel method. The degree wheel is usually only used with keyless cam timing gears. Like we used on the 4V cobra for a short period of time. If the valve made contact with the piston, which it sounds like it did then you will have a bent valve. It doesn't take much. Perform a leakdown before you remove the heads so you can determine which valve or valves need replacing.

 

Found this - courtesy of Dynotech:

https://www.f150online.com/forums/ar...r-engines.html

 

HI!... *****"Degreeing cams on the modular motor is very important as it appears the stock cam gears are + or - 4 degrees from Ford. So you can have one cam 4 degrees advanced on one side and 4 degrees retarded on the other side. Too much cam advance is a good way to put the valve into the piston and too much cam retard is a good way to lose power."*****

 

shifty, you just need to take it to a pro for this one. I think you need special tools to do it right. And hopefully you haven't fubared your valves when turning it over.

 

HI!... Did you turn the engine over by hand? Like a breaker bar on the crank bolt or did you try to turn it over with the starter? If by hand your valve should be o.k, if by the starter, then I would say you have a 80% chance that you bent the valve slightly.

 

Follow the procedure, it's really very simple. Just leave the crank keyway at 12:00 through out the entire process. No special tools needed.

 

Neal's correct, by hand if turned slowly you should be ok thats why a leakdown would be suggested before you remove the heads. To be sure the valves are ok so you don't reinstall them with a bent valve. It all depends on how much force was applied after the valve made contact with the piston. If the engine was turned over with the starter, your a lucky man if valves were not bent.

 

Then you are refering to the early 4V engines or custom cams. The factory cam and gears are keyed and there is no adjustment.. We used to hand time (perform cam events) on hundreds of Cobra engines using a degree wheel as there were no keys used. We were allowed plus or minus 2 deg's. They then went back to using keys as there was no performance advantage on a factory production engine not to. I would suggest he just use the simple factory timing marks and timing procedure for his engine to avoid more confusion for him.

 

HI!... Read the link I posted. They are talking about the 2-valve engines and that the factory cam gears are not accurate and can be off as much as +4/-4 degrees. Timing can be adjusted by elongating the keyway on the cam gears or a better way is to get the Trick Flow adjustable timing crank gears. I've heard of guys picking up 20RWH.P just be properly degreeing the cams in properly on built engines.

 

This guy is just trying to get his engine back together Neal. I really doubt at this point that he cares about tricking out his engine. All kinds of things can be done to enhance performance. I would love to see Dyno data supporting that kind of power increase from just a timing enhancement on a 2v. I played with the Cobras for weeks adjusting timing with a degree wheel for performance runs. There was minimal increases on that engine and it was a 4-V design pushing over 315 hp at that time. Same with the Mach later on with over 330 hp. Thats why the decision was made to install keys in all the production builds. The complexity involved with hand tuning the timing was not worth the effort on a production engine. I think that your last sentence above states the real reason for such CLAIMED hp increases, a "properly built engine". People are claiming 70 -100 hp increases in 2v PI upgrades over Pre PI builds as well and I know that's not happening in the real world. Again I am concerned about confusing this guy even more in regards to timing his engine. I think we should just keep the timing instruction simple and to the point so he can get his truck back on the road...unless I'm the one misunderstanding his intentions here. Take care.

 

HI!... Well I'm just providing all the options available out there. It's up to "HIM" to decide what routes he wants to take.

As for 70-100H.P increases. Do you mean over stock trim in N/A form? Years ago on my stock long blocks with simple bolt-ons I put down 251RWH.P in a N/A trim. I then added a set of stage III FOX LAKE heads and a set of custom ground Comp cams and then put down 354RWH.P. That's a increase of 103RWH.P. That was also done with lowering the compression ratio from 9.0:1 to 8.4:1, and a basic tune on Sunoco 94.