I am an engineer by trade, and I like to document and test things. I've always worked on all my cars and have generally done a good job at it. I've found a lot of incomplete stories about upgrades of our beloved 5.4l regarding oil pump and tensioners which caused me to spend a lot of time investigating for myself what I feel is right in my situation. I as well don't like to put off something that will save me much time and money later on. Here is the situation, and thinking behind it:
* I have a 2014 XL 5.4l 3 valve with 75k on it that runs perfectly, and I'd like to keep it that way.
* I don't want to wait till I have a worn out engine to start thinking about what types of upgrades I'd like to do to keep a worn out engine still running.
* Many of the worn out 5.4l's arrive that way because of a single detrimental design flaw... the tensioners (there are more design flaws, but this is the biggest from my viewpoint, feel free to rant if you like). Once the ridiculously & idiotic designed gasket on the tensioners wears out, it causes a series failures that start seemingly very mild (oil starvation), and end up being catastrophic to the overall design (cam bearings ground up, stretched timing chains, chunks of plastic from tensioner guides, clogged oil pump, timing cover ground away till there are holes in it, seized pistons, thrown rods, and overall engine failure).
* Why put off repairing mine? I might as well upgrade the oil pump as well.
So I decided I want to keep my engine from wearing out to begin with. I did a lot of research, and I've seen a lot of videos. Some pointed my to use all original parts, others with cheap knock-offs. What I decided to do:
* My sensors and chains are not stretched far enough yet to affect the performance of the vehicle.
* I will never put a ford tensioner back in place of the existing. Ford wants a $75k+ truck to be disposable at somewhere around 100,000 or 150,000 miles. This is unforgivable and ridiculous. I could be wrong, but I highly doubt it. I'm going with Melling ratcheting, BT403 & BT402. If they fail, I will document it, with pictures. We'll learn together. They seem to be the most durable design.
* As for the oil pump, Melling as well, M340HV.
* If I were to find something else wrong, I'll replace it.
I want to get 300,000+ miles out of my expedition, maybe even 400,000. Early maintenance is vital!
So this is the setup and the configuration I went with. I know I was going on this journey when I purchased the truck with around 30,000 miles on it. I accepted it, and now this is the story of me setting the foundation for a long lived truck. Again, we'll see. But as an Engineer, I believe these steps to be the right ones to get me there. I am documenting it to show what goes wrong, so that people don't have incomplete threads about "Oh it broke after 10k miles" with no explanation or pictures of IRON components simply failing. To me that screams a reassembly issue, but I digress.
So I purchase the parts and took a week off of work to get cracking.
Disassembly was not too bad. Hardest thing was the harmonic balancer. I thought mine needed the one with the holes in it, which I rented, but I was wrong, it needed the Chrysler one with the hooks. So a quick trip to the local parts store, and switched it out, though way more pricey.
I marked the timing chain with a paint marker (big mistake, I should have used scratches or a punch). And then I got all the way down to the oil pump. It cannot be stressed enough how difficult the oil pickup tube flange bolts are to get to. Well, the one to the most right (passenger) side of the car is "easy" compared to the sinister 2nd. You'll be questioning why you are doing this yourself, likely be uncomfortable, probably in a lot of pain, hands contorting near the point of dislocation, perhaps even seeing visions from the amount of difficulty you are putting yourself through. It is nearly impossible but not all the way.
I did it! Then I took out the tensioners, and with only 75k, both are blown gaskets but still had working springs. The truck had no noise! Nothing to indicate they were failing, and it still ran well. I'm so very saddened by what is essentially a 10 cent part (the gasket), maybe 25 at tops. Shame on you Ford engineers. You built a very solid engine, and then you designed it to fail silently. I planned for this.
Next I marked the timing chain with a paint marker. Took off the chains, and timing gear, and the timing gear. Then I took off the oil pump, disassembled & primed the new one with oil manually, and started reassembly.
I attached the new oil pump, and tightened the first bolts. Then I erroneously put the timing chains back on, lining everything back up. I confirmed the marks on the chains lined up with gear but it was fairly tight back onto the crank. I had to finesse it on, and I did, without skipping a tooth, but in doing so, the marks wore off on the gear (blimey). So I may have to do a timing job. This is documentation, the good and the bad.
I should have waited on timing chains and gear until I had the pickup tube flange bolts installed. But I didn't. Too, I could have probably remarked the gear, which I just thought of, but I didn't. Aside from being off of work, my excuse is: life doesn't stop, which has occasionally distracted me during this job.
Anyway, I got the first bolt in within 10 minutes. The second?... I'm a large guy, 6' 1", 235lbs. I don't have what I would call thick fingers but in short, I simply couldn't do it. I could get the bolt in the hole, but I couldn't fit the bolt, an 8mm hinged gear ratchet, and a make-shift tool to apply pressure to the ratchet and bolt. I called a friend to help, and after we worked together and finally got it tightened, we both arrived at it was the hardest bolt we ever worked on. That says something.
If you don't see visions prior to messing around with the oil pump during disassembly. Assembly will provide you with a whole new medium of possibilities. Next time (if that ever were to happen) I may try dropping the oil pan.
Anyway I cleaned up the timing cover, and that brings us to now. Tomorrow I start on reassembly the rest of the way. Documentation.
* I have a 2014 XL 5.4l 3 valve with 75k on it that runs perfectly, and I'd like to keep it that way.
* I don't want to wait till I have a worn out engine to start thinking about what types of upgrades I'd like to do to keep a worn out engine still running.
* Many of the worn out 5.4l's arrive that way because of a single detrimental design flaw... the tensioners (there are more design flaws, but this is the biggest from my viewpoint, feel free to rant if you like). Once the ridiculously & idiotic designed gasket on the tensioners wears out, it causes a series failures that start seemingly very mild (oil starvation), and end up being catastrophic to the overall design (cam bearings ground up, stretched timing chains, chunks of plastic from tensioner guides, clogged oil pump, timing cover ground away till there are holes in it, seized pistons, thrown rods, and overall engine failure).
* Why put off repairing mine? I might as well upgrade the oil pump as well.
So I decided I want to keep my engine from wearing out to begin with. I did a lot of research, and I've seen a lot of videos. Some pointed my to use all original parts, others with cheap knock-offs. What I decided to do:
* My sensors and chains are not stretched far enough yet to affect the performance of the vehicle.
* I will never put a ford tensioner back in place of the existing. Ford wants a $75k+ truck to be disposable at somewhere around 100,000 or 150,000 miles. This is unforgivable and ridiculous. I could be wrong, but I highly doubt it. I'm going with Melling ratcheting, BT403 & BT402. If they fail, I will document it, with pictures. We'll learn together. They seem to be the most durable design.
* As for the oil pump, Melling as well, M340HV.
* If I were to find something else wrong, I'll replace it.
I want to get 300,000+ miles out of my expedition, maybe even 400,000. Early maintenance is vital!
So this is the setup and the configuration I went with. I know I was going on this journey when I purchased the truck with around 30,000 miles on it. I accepted it, and now this is the story of me setting the foundation for a long lived truck. Again, we'll see. But as an Engineer, I believe these steps to be the right ones to get me there. I am documenting it to show what goes wrong, so that people don't have incomplete threads about "Oh it broke after 10k miles" with no explanation or pictures of IRON components simply failing. To me that screams a reassembly issue, but I digress.
So I purchase the parts and took a week off of work to get cracking.
Disassembly was not too bad. Hardest thing was the harmonic balancer. I thought mine needed the one with the holes in it, which I rented, but I was wrong, it needed the Chrysler one with the hooks. So a quick trip to the local parts store, and switched it out, though way more pricey.
I marked the timing chain with a paint marker (big mistake, I should have used scratches or a punch). And then I got all the way down to the oil pump. It cannot be stressed enough how difficult the oil pickup tube flange bolts are to get to. Well, the one to the most right (passenger) side of the car is "easy" compared to the sinister 2nd. You'll be questioning why you are doing this yourself, likely be uncomfortable, probably in a lot of pain, hands contorting near the point of dislocation, perhaps even seeing visions from the amount of difficulty you are putting yourself through. It is nearly impossible but not all the way.
I did it! Then I took out the tensioners, and with only 75k, both are blown gaskets but still had working springs. The truck had no noise! Nothing to indicate they were failing, and it still ran well. I'm so very saddened by what is essentially a 10 cent part (the gasket), maybe 25 at tops. Shame on you Ford engineers. You built a very solid engine, and then you designed it to fail silently. I planned for this.
Next I marked the timing chain with a paint marker. Took off the chains, and timing gear, and the timing gear. Then I took off the oil pump, disassembled & primed the new one with oil manually, and started reassembly.
I attached the new oil pump, and tightened the first bolts. Then I erroneously put the timing chains back on, lining everything back up. I confirmed the marks on the chains lined up with gear but it was fairly tight back onto the crank. I had to finesse it on, and I did, without skipping a tooth, but in doing so, the marks wore off on the gear (blimey). So I may have to do a timing job. This is documentation, the good and the bad.
I should have waited on timing chains and gear until I had the pickup tube flange bolts installed. But I didn't. Too, I could have probably remarked the gear, which I just thought of, but I didn't. Aside from being off of work, my excuse is: life doesn't stop, which has occasionally distracted me during this job.
Anyway, I got the first bolt in within 10 minutes. The second?... I'm a large guy, 6' 1", 235lbs. I don't have what I would call thick fingers but in short, I simply couldn't do it. I could get the bolt in the hole, but I couldn't fit the bolt, an 8mm hinged gear ratchet, and a make-shift tool to apply pressure to the ratchet and bolt. I called a friend to help, and after we worked together and finally got it tightened, we both arrived at it was the hardest bolt we ever worked on. That says something.
If you don't see visions prior to messing around with the oil pump during disassembly. Assembly will provide you with a whole new medium of possibilities. Next time (if that ever were to happen) I may try dropping the oil pan.
Anyway I cleaned up the timing cover, and that brings us to now. Tomorrow I start on reassembly the rest of the way. Documentation.
