2004 F-150 5.4
Wife comes home and says the check engine light came on and oil dropped to zero...sure enough I checked it, run for about 5 minutes then whammo.
35K mileage, regular maint. no mods..WTF!!

Sounded like a thrashing machine....Oh man not good.

Any insights or experiences...thank you in advance

TJ

 

My wife breaks all my toys to. Well if the engine was making that much noise then it was suffering from no/low oil pressure and not just a sender issue. Problem is that now it's toast. When you say whammo I take it you mean it either blewup or seized. Why would you keep running it if it was making noise? Those oil pumps are pretty bulletproof so I'd be surprised if it went first but ya never know. Running for five minutes with no oil pressure seems like quite awhile before failure. Was the oil level topped off? About the only way at this point to determine root cause of failure is to disassemble it. Unless you have an extended warranty then it doesn't look good for the houshold budget. Honestly this seems a little unusual the way the failure transpired but stranger things have happened. Sorry for the bad luck. Take care.

 

Talked to my mechanic and he said it was the timing chain....I am at this point still skeptical on what else he will find.......for a vehicle with less than 40k miles I am less than pleased with this type pf premature failure....

Ever hear of this?

Thanks Again

 

Very rare for a failure like this on one of these engines. If you lost oil pressure then its very possible that a timing chain broke, however it more than likey is a secondary failure and not the primary cause. When oil pressure is lost the cams will start to sieze in their bearing caps. This slows the cam down so much and the stress between the crank and cam is so great the chain breaks. Now a possibility is that you had a loose timing chain from a bad chain tensioner. When that happens the chain will flop around tearing up the nylon pad on the chain guide. It shreads the nylon, those pieces of nylon drop down into the oil pan and get pulled into the oil pump pickup screen blocking the screen and obviously preventing any oil from getting to the pump and the oil passages to lube the engine. I would think this is probably what happened. It would make sense because the engine was getting some oil and that allowed it to live until your wife got home. I am just making a guess here and until you get it disassembled you won't know for sure. Unfortunetly you have low mileage but the truck is 6 years old so I doubt you have a warranty. I feel for ya on this because these engines are extremely durable and good for 200,000 miles and more. A reputable reman should give you the same durability. Good luck.

 

Dyno, I think you are right on the money with your scenario. I had a warranty replacement on the cam phsers several thousand miles back due to noise...I believe that was what was done...I cant find the paperwork. I dont know if that issue could be grandfathered into this problem. My mech. seemed quite cetain that it was timing chain related.

I would agree that there is more than likely residual damge to the engine.

Any idea if I had an exisitng "related" warrantyssue if I have a leg to stand on? At this point I am inclined to put a used motor in a trade the damn thing off.......

Thanks again for your assistance. I think you are right on the money

Paul

 

If the tensioners have been removed once before, they are subject to fail prematurely. Dyno can back me up on this. I've done several posts on this subject. The o rings fail and leak oil pressure and cause severe noises in the engine.

 

bigbronc is more familure then most with the tensioners and VCT and he is correct. I have found low oil pressure attributed to loose VCT system as well. If the dealer repair was faulty then you may/should have an argument for your case. You may want to have your mechanic present while the shop that repaired the phasers inspects their repair. It is possible that the noise they thought was a phaser was actually the chain tearing up the guide caused by a bad tensioner as bigbronc suggests. You will have to get into the engine to make a final determination. Good luck

 

Well, usually the tensioners will go about 130K before they fail on their own, but in my experience, if they have been removed and reinstalled previously, they WILL fail prematurely. 35K is extremely low to what I have seen, almost half, but anything is possible depending on the capability of the person repairing it.

 

Plugged oil galleys? Are you kidding me....ran solvent based engine cleaner through the motor, fresh oil nd filter and no codes and good oil pressure. No crankshaft endplay, so the thrust washers are hopefully intact.....

Does this make any sense to you guru's?

 

So I get the truck back, sounds typical, LOL, good oil pressure no check engine light, drive it for about 5 miles the check engine light comes on. No noticable issues, oil pressure good, idles fine, runs good. I disconnect the battery and can get the check engine light to go off until the motor cycles long enough then the check engine light comes on.
Just an update.....

 

Get the codes read.