Just bought a 05 F150 with a 5.4 3 valve 150,000 mi and a bad head.

Rockers broke on the right side chewed up the cam.

Head was rebuilt with new cam, chain tentioners, rockers and cam phaser.

we believe the rocker broke due to clogged oil ports and gumed up cam phaser.

Have 150 5.4 2 valve motors in my fleet.
lost two motors this year due to valve/rocker damage. two other motors saved and repared.

Working on cause and best way to avoid the damage in the first place.

1, Regular oil changes.
2, Replace chain tenteners (haven"t figured the miles yet.)
3, Testing the old trick of running two quarts of trans fluid in the crank case for 1,000 miles to clean oil pasages and cam phaser. (5.4 3 valve 130,000 mi and 250,00 mi.)
4, Possable replacement of cam phaser if two sticky.

On the truck I bought the broken rocker parts were found in the oil pan and after we repaired the right head we found a rocker pin in the #5 cylinder. It ruined the left head and piston.

We are working on ways to avoid failures and I am wondering if any of you have simular issues.

THX
Joe

 

As I'm sure you know, the 2V engines do not have the phasers. The transmission fluid is not going to do anything for you. Years back when engines were using 30-40 viscosity oils, the transmission fluid being a 20 viscosity fluid would get into places the others wouldn't and free up stuck lifters, valves etc. Today, you are probably already using a Xw-20 oil in your units.
There are several ways to remove any debris from the drain holes without using a solvent based flush which can easily damage an engine. One is using every 75,000 miles a dose of Auto-Rx. It's a lanolin ester product that will slowly soften the sludge and junk. Then you have the rinse cycle which removes the crap and usually you want to use a HDEO product like Rotella, Delvac, Delo, the dual rated oils for the cleaning. You can also use a multi based oil like the newer Pennzoil oils with the Platinum being the top performer for cleaning. I'm going to throw this one in but the testing is not complete. There is a new oil on the market that is a REAL synthetic unlike anything you have ever even heard of called Green Earth Technologies oils. It is made from animal fat. Yeah, don't laugh yet. It is animal fats and an alcohol reaction that yields a dandy ester basestock. It requires no binders, no major chemistry to make it work, just a fairly straight forward additive package. The only thing I can tell is that you would need to monitor the oil closely when using it as a flush cycle oil. I have in some of my equipment for testing and it is cleaning the heck out of everything which I would expect from the ester base. It does make an engine that does not normally use oil, use some. Another good thing about it is it's bio-degradable meaning you can throw it out on the ground if you want. Ants love it. I'd recommend if you decide to go this route to run it about 3500 miles and change it. I don't think this will make an extended change possible- not yet anyway.
Another maintenance issue with the 5.4 is the PCV system. I'd put the entire system, hose and valve, on a 75,000 mile schedule and use ONLY Motorcraft parts. That may be why you're getting sludge in the engines. Normally with todays oils, sludge and particulates are not an issue. Ford speced oils do not allow the sludge or particulate matter to form like oils of old. You can still have them if you are short cycling the engine or making short trips where the engine never reaches full temp for at least 20 minutes. Condensate is the biggest issue in forming sludge so you might look to see where in your maintenance that water or condensation is an issue.
Hope this provided you with some maintenance help

 

I was responding at the same time Labnerd was writing. He has more knowledge than I on lubrication properties so I suggest you take his advice. I do know after disassembling many fleet vehicle engines that its not uncommon to see lubrication issues. Many fleet owners ( police, taxies,etc) use poor quality bulk oil and poor quality filters because its cheaper in the short term and with tight budgets its just a fact of life. By the way the roller follower pin/bearing that was found in the #5 cyl was dropped into that cyl during the repair of the opposite cyl head. Parts get dropped into the cyl head intake ports while the intake is off the engine and end up in the cyls. Good luck.

 

The old school way to clean the inside of the motor is to use Marvel Mystery Oil. The old guys always told me to run this in my oil (one quart) and in my gas tank.

 

Thanks Guys,

As you said DYNOTECK, the pin would have had to be dropped in the intake while the motor was open to have access to the cylinder. My rep purposed that it went thru the intake manafold when it was running but I can't see that happening. (oil galley to intake port??)

have you guys experenced the sticky cam phasers?

Has anyone been sussessfull in cleaning them?