I just bought this truck with 172,000 on it to use for pulling my duck boat and occasional trips to Lowes. Had the codes on when I bought it but ran perfect. I bought it about 50 miles from my house and it ran great all the way home until I stopped at a stoplight by my house and went to take off again. I hit probably 30mph and had to let off the throttle because the person in front of me was driving slow. When I hit the gas again, the truck kind of bucked or surged maybe 3-5 times and then accelerated as normal. This was about 5 weeks ago.

The issue has become more frequent. Now, mainly at operating temperature, 1/4 times I let off the gas and reapply I get the same bucking or surging and then it accelerates normally. When, the surging occurs the RPMs do not move until the surging stops and then the tach moves up as it should.

Since then, I changed the camshaft position sensor on bank 2, and the VCT solenoid on the same bank. Clearly this didn't work but I was convinced by internet stories and thought I'd throw $80 at it. I then decided to take the truck to Ford and see if they could diagnose it so I didn't have to throw parts at it. They missed and cost me another $500 after a PCM replacement (I didn't let them do it for $1200 at least). I have now reinstalled the old PCM and the truck runs exactly how it has been.

I really don't know where to go next. I don't want to spend any money on this truck because I paid too much for it in the first place because it looks so good. I really just need to figure out if I'm going to sell it or dump more money in it. My next thought is a timing set? Loose chain, bad tensioner gaskets, or phasers. I have no idea how old plugs and CP are but like I said I don't want to throw money at it since I'll probably put less than 5k miles a year on it.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I tried to make that fairly concise so if you need to know more just ask.

Edit: Codes are P0345, and P0349.

 

Unfortunately, you bought the wrong truck - a high mileage 5.4 3 valve is a pretty big risk when you don't know its service history. Why on earth did you buy it when it was throwing those codes?

Sounds like you may need a complete timing set with chains, tensioners, phasers, and an oil pump. However, if you plan on throwing any more money into it and keeping it, I'd get some new plugs in it on general principle.

 

Yes it is. You would've been better off getting an older F150 with the 2v 5.4l.

Even if I got your truck for free, I'd pick parts off of it, and drop the rest of it off at the nearest junkyard. Unfortunately those 3v 5.4l engines are nothing but headaches with the VCT issues. They are great once they are properly fixed, but without getting them fixed, they are ticking time bombs waiting to steal your cash. Heck, for a new engine, you might as well use that as a down payment on a different vehicle -- and if the new engine doesn't use for example a Melling oil pump, you could be back at square one.

You can throw parts at it if you want, but I wouldn't dump thousands into it...

 

I didn't know what codes were there when I bought it, but like I said it ran spectacular the first 60 miles I drove it. Yea, I felt like I was going to get a resounding "you shouldn't have bought it". But I figured I'd try here before I made a decision. I really don't know what it's worth but I figure I stand to loose $2k or so if I sell it as is.

 

Are you sure those are the correct codes? When I google them not much comes up related to a vehicle.

 

 

I think you have transposed digits - do you mean P0345 and P0349? Unplug the CPS on the driver's side. If it runs okay, your cams are out of time. Replace the solenoids, phasers, chains, and tensioners, and replace the oil pump with a Melling.

 

Yea, sorry for the mistake. I took them both off and it ran much worse.