Ford 5.4L 3v Triton Engines: Always Check This First Before Performing a Timing Job on this Engine!

Foreign guys, welcome back to the Forge Type Make Your Loco channel. So today we're going to show you the

first

thing I

check

when a vehicle comes into my shop for a

timing

job. This will then help me determine. you need an

engine

or you need a

timing

job it's a very simple

check

and we're going to show you how today let's go over the vehicle and get off to a good start so the problem we're going to talk about today is most common on the 06 to 08 can be any model, but years 06-08 are the absolute worst and of course the 07 is the sweet spot that you want to avoid at all costs, so

this

one here is an Expedition 06 that the customer brought in.

He says you know it's not working so well anymore. You have the check

engine

light on with a timing error code set. Check it to see if it needs a timing job like every other 543 valve out there and if so, go ahead and get it done right. I'm going to go ahead and check it before we commit to a full timing job, so one of the

first

things I do, of course, is going to check the oil level, make sure it's full and make sure it's not cooked because The entire VCT system runs out of oil and the oil pressure is the same here.

I'll pull the oil filler cap, put a good flashlight in there and get a general idea of ​​the inside of the engine, make sure the inside of the engine isn't cooked and then of course I'll layer them so you can see that It's an o6 with about 150,000 miles on it, yes it needs a timing job done but it doesn't need an engine so let's pull some codes. yeah sure, regular sync error codes from being done Advanced, we have lean code efficiency codes and lean codes stuck on the O2s, all codes I ignore until the two sync error codes are fixed because everything else It is affected by the engine running correctly.

Up here with the sync error codes, so okay, I checked all that in

this

one and it looks like it's okay to move on to the next thing I'm going to do because, you know, one of those years that are more common for this concern is what I will do. a quick view of the crankshaft and clearance so what happens is a thrush washer on these they like to get eaten for whatever reason these years and then the crankshaft will start to walk back and forth and when it does , you will lose oil pressure and then you start getting VCT timing error codes because a thrust washer and the crankshaft are done so if you look at this one you get a nice flashlight here all you have to do is look at it and here it is the crankshaft pulley, here you see it. big pulley on the bottom, well it should be almost crushed against the front cover, the timing cover over there, so we try to focus on you here, let me try to keep focus, there we go, so on this one, I know it's hard distinguish it. up here, but I'll show you again down below, it's sticking out from that front cover, probably let me see, probably a quarter of an inch or so, now it's sticking out from there again, like I said, the shock should be as close to the front cover which looks like it's basically touching, so go ahead and we'll show you with a long screwdriver you get in there just to illustrate.

I mean, look it fits perfectly there, that's how much space there was. behind there and this thing should touch the front cover and I can snap that way down, so you'll see it from Below in a second here, where it's sticking out there, so just, for example, this one here is a I think a 06 or an 07 also uh, this one passed the thrust washer check. I did a sync job on it about a year ago, everything is great. It's back for some Driveline stuff, driveshaft stuff like that, so this one is correct. here, like I said, it's okay and it happened and it's a very good example to show you what it should look like, so again I'm going to try to get you down here and focus there, so look at that buffer here again it's a buffer. right there, look how close it is to the cover, it looks like it's almost touching, that's what it should look like, so a spec here is like three thousand versus 14,000, so I'm playing most of the ones I have.

The actual M playback checks with a dial indicator are about seven to eight thousand max moves, so they're usually right up against the front cover, that's what they should look like, so when you look at the other one over there, you take a look fast. and you see it sticking out a quarter of an inch into the Expedition, it immediately raises a red flag, so let's go ahead and go under the vehicle. We're going to show you how to do a final clearance check to check it very easily without any special tools okay this is how I check the crankshaft and clearance to see if that thrust washer actually failed so on this one we know it already failed you probably have 30 thousand of M of gaming there, way beyond the specs, uh, but what I'll show you how I verified it and how bad this one is, but I'll probably also show you at the end what a good one looks like on the other engine there, so what you want to do is just slide. under your vehicle here, you shouldn't need to jack it up or anything, slide under here, get a good flashlight pointed at the crankshaft damper over there, you can see it right there so we can get a good look at it and be able to see it. how much play M is actually there here, so if you look at this one, you can see that it's much easier to see from below how much space there is between the shock and the front cover, uh, you know, for a dent. where it should be touching the front cover, you can see there's a big gap and there's definitely something going on here, so what we're going to do now is a really crude method of checking the crankshaft clearance, basically we need a decent size. crowbar and a little block of wood and that's it here we go we're going to show you exactly how to do this so what you want to do is get the block of wood and you're going to place it right here.

The cross member, initially you're going to take your bar, you're going to put it on the front of the crankshaft damper there and we're going to push the crankshaft into the engine all the way in, just like that, so it doesn't matter. how far or in is it, let's make sure it's all the way in, like this okay, okay and then what you're going to do is take your lever and put it on the back of the shock like this and we're going to take out the steering gear here same and we're going to take the crankshaft out of the engine, you'll see how much movement there was in that one, it's very obvious, let me do it again. so if you're not sure you know how to go in and out a couple of times to make sure this one is very obvious and it failed, I'm going to try to go to the side so I'm out of their way so they can see. this here we go let's take it out and that noise you're hearing right there is actually the crankshaft touching the back of the oil pump inside there that's how much it's moving so I hope you have a good first flat. in contact again all the way, look at that momentum there, so when you have a situation like that, the r indicator is here for me anyway, now I know that valves five, four, three don't I really don't have a problem with the rear main seals leaking, I've probably changed one or two in my entire life, these

engines

and I've been working on them since they came out in o4, look at this one, look at the amount of oil everywhere here, it's actually beading on the sway bar here and it's all over the bellhousing all the way back here and the crankcase if you look at it is completely dry so the common oil pan leak that people misdiagnose all the time is oh it's an oil pan leak, oh it's a rear main seal leak when actually the pan is wet from the front to the back and it just lifts back up here, but in this case you can see that It's dry, both sides are dry like this, but towards the back.

There's just tons of oil concentrated here because the rear main line is leaking because the crankshaft is going in and out in and out of the intake walking so much that it's breaking the rear main seal there, okay, now we're going to do the exact same test. on a good 543 valve engine with zero thrust washer issues, so again we'll start by pushing the crankshaft into the engine, okay, and then we'll try to get it out the exact same way, you see a little bit. of movement there when you're actually levering there, that's the rubber damping part of the pulley that's flexing, it's not actual movement of the crankshaft, uh, so that's just a damper, so come back again, push it towards the engine, this is what it should look like. there's no perceptible movement at all, we're going back and forth and there's no perceptible movement at all, so look, let's try to pull again, get some good leverage right there and you'll see that little movement right there.

I see I'm moving like this, that's just the damper rubber moving and giving away, that's not actual crankshaft play, so this one probably has four or six thousandths of play within spec, that's what they should look like, they should barely. move it anyway, it's pretty obvious which one went wrong here, so you guys saw it was pretty obvious which one was bad even without a dial indicator. Did you learn anything today? It was definitely interesting. They learned something today, I'm sure. one of those pre-checks you want to do, all I really do here is timing the jobs, eventually you'll take over the business here, eventually, yeah, the timing jobs will never end, especially on valve 543, it seems like it's a one of those things you want to check before you go too deep and spend thousands of dollars and then you come out and still have the same problem with tire pressure and volume, that's all for now.

See you next time.