I was disassembling my 5.4 out of a 2000 F150, when I removed the crank, there were only 3 thrust washers where there should have been 4!
Was this something that was commonly done, or did I get an engine that was made on a Friday afternoon?

 

Don't know why you have a missing washer but what happened to the motor that caused the rebuild?

 

I'm doing a 4.6-to-5.4 swap for my dad's truck to replace his worn out 4.6. The 5.4 came out of my truck that got wrecked a few years ago.
It was running like a champ with almost 250,000 miles on it, I just decided to take it apart and freshen it up while it was out.
There was NO ridge on the cylinder bores and you could still see the factory crosshatch marks, and the bearings looked new! You could still see the original machining marks on them! Likewise, the crank was fine and only needed polishing (interesting fact: the crank was cross-drilled from the factory).

I wish I knew how to post pictures on this board; I took pictures of the lack of wear on the bearings because because it was so strange.

 

Is the crank cast or steel?

 

Cast crank.

And i just read the service manual, and it says that Windsor engines are only supposed to have 3 washers, and that Romeo engines only use 2. Weird, huh?