Common Issues with The Ford 5.4L Triton 3Valve V8 - 2004-2013

ford 5.4 liter triton v8 engine has been around a long time and in all honesty it's not a bad motor however if you have one or thinking about getting one manufactured between the years of 2004 to 2013 then this video is for you [Music] hey hey hey i am so glad i caught you guys and that you're tuned into today's video because if you're thinking about buying a 5.4 liter triton v8 3 valve simply don't and i'm going to explain why in the video today but first please subscribe to the channel if you have not already done so we're a brand new channel and we would love to continue to create content for you guys subscribing to the channel and smashing like on this video helps us do that thanks all right so let's go ahead and get into it the 5.4 liter v8 was a brand new engine back in 1997. it was kind of like an upgrade from the four or something leader that ford had at the time and this was a two valve version which actually ended up being a very very good motor i personally have seen in person have witnessed these 5.4 liter two valve engines with over 430 some thousand miles on them very good motor now ford started to use a three valve variant of this 5.4 liter triton in 2004 they wanted to make it a little bit more efficient a little bit more powerful and peppy and unfortunately that come at a cost because these three valve variants were not as reliable as their predecessor the two valve 5.4 liter triton while they can still achieve mileage of over 240 000 miles before they typically experience catastrophic guaranteed catastrophic failure this is still not a motor that you want because it is riddled with problems that will leave you pretty much bankrupt because the only fix the guaranteed fix is a new motor in short do not under any circumstance buy a 5.4 liter three valve v8 but if you do own one of these it is important to understand these five most common issues i own two of these and i can tell you i can promise you that without fail your truck or whatever this motor is in will have these five most common issues oh man so the first most common issue with the 5.4 really the 5.4 in general has to deal with their ignition systems the first version of the 5.4 triton the 2 valve had a lot of trouble with the spark plugs getting blown right out of the head which obviously is not something that you want happening and so with the three valve ford over corrected the issue and actually the spark plugs in the three valve are like impossible to remove they added a little bit longer threads tighter threads more of them and they changed the design of the plug and actually because of that the plugs were getting frozen into the heads and when you tried to remove them they would break apart often falling down into the cylinder head and causing a whole another nightmare that you do not want to deal with i do a lot of work on all of my own vehicles i do practically everything but when i had the spark plugs replaced on the truck behind me i took it into a shop they broke only three of the plugs they had a special tool to remove them and it cost me over five hundred dollars to get eight spark plugs removed that is not a job that you want to do yourself guys take in if you own a 5.43 valve get your spark plugs replaced by a professional take it into the shop and you need to have it done every 60 000 miles to prevent that from happening because if you don't another common problem with the ignition systems is that that coil on plug boot is so efficient but it also gets really hot in there and it'll break the boots apart and then pretty soon you get spark jumping from the plug to the side of the head there the valve cover that it's seated in and you don't want that because that causes a ton of misfires and a very unhappy truck it can almost seem like transmission issues but of course you'll probably get like a misfire code that shows up so uh i have had that problem with this truck and you don't want that problem especially when you're on a long road trip up through the mountains and you're out of cell coverage and away from everything and you have to drive your truck another 200 miles before you get into it so please i am begging you if you own one of these trucks understand the issues with the spark plugs i'll put a link down below so that you can read up on it get them replaced every 50 to 75 000 miles without fail use anti-seize on the plugs and get a professional to do it because you do not want to deal with that while they do the plugs replace the coil boots as well another common issue on these where the valve cover gaskets would often leak and they would get coolant and oil into the spark plug well and the boots and that would cause everything to deteriorate and corrode there also so just keep in mind that if your valve cover gasket starts to leak at all on these trucks swap them it's not super hard i would probably take that into a shop to do as well i'm not entirely certain if that involves removing the plugs but if it does shop definitely a shop another super common issue with these trucks happens right here at the rear of the truck or at least underneath everything and that's with the fuel pump driver module the fuel pump driver module is a little circuit board or computer that tells your truck when it needs fuel how much fuel it needs at any given moment while you're driving and then when your truck no longer needs fuel this little circuit board is encased in aluminum and then it has an aluminum back and is bolted with two bolts right to the steel frame of the truck if you know chemistry steel and aluminum do not mix very well and then being under the truck doesn't help at all when this module gets dirt and grime and grease in between the aluminum and the steel over time the aluminum backing begins to corrode and break apart and there will be a hole worn in it which will allow of course in water and pretty soon it'll toast that circuit board super common issue guaranteed issue to happen on your truck unless of course you've parked it in the garage its whole life and then even then that could still happen when this circuit board goes dead of course the truck will stop running it will not start the fuel pump will not run it'll die on you while you're driving something terrible like that so the best thing that you can do is get a new fpm from ford they made an updated aftermarket model that actually holds that module out away from the frame so that it's harder for stuff to get caught in between and so that the steel and the aluminum don't react and cause excessive wear and tear and corrosion the best thing that you can do is to get that replaced right away so that you're not out you know driving or on a road trip or have somewhere important to go when that module does break down i am on the original module with my 04 f-150 so if you guys want to see that in an upcoming video because i am planning on at least checking it out go ahead and subscribe to the channel below because that will be an important one especially if you own one of these trucks and we are down to the final three most common issues and these three issues are the reason that you do not under any circumstance want to own a 5.4 3 valve triton and the first one is with the timing chain guide and tensioner systems yes luckily this v8 is on a timing chain setup and not a timing belt however the timing chain guides and the timing chain tensioners were made out of plastic on this motor and over time tend to wear out and break when they break they kind of blow up and break apart and fall down into the crank case on this engine and cause of course a lot of slack in the timing chain and things begin to rattle and slap around and not sound very good i'll start up my truck here in a minute so that you guys can hear what this issue sounds like but pretty much if you ever hear a 5.4 liter three valve with a ticking noise or rattling more like it then you really want to stay away from it because it has to deal with the timing chain setup when those guides and the tensioners break because they're made of plastic and they fall apart the chain loses tension and it becomes a little bit sloppy this engine is a variable valve timed engine which means that chain has to be perfectly tight or at the right tension at any given moment or something is off everything has to be precisely timed on that motor and when that chain loses tension and you hear that rattle it begins to slop around things aren't timed quite right which of course causes excessive wear to the valves into the cam lobe and it could in the end grenade your motor especially when that chain breaks because it will eventually break because it's slapping the case or it's not being guided right or one of the cam lobes will fire wrong and you'll you'll be in big big trouble so that is a huge common issue and it will happen on your 543 valve because of those plastic guides and plastic tensioners and another common issue the fourth has to do with the vvts the variable valve timing and the cam phasers if you are familiar with the 5.4 triton and you hear that rattle everyone calls it the cam phaser tick all of the motors have it it's true and it is the cam phaser tick or at least it's part of it rattling comes from the timing chain and from the cam phasers and that's due to a lack of oil and due to a lack of tension in the timing chain system the vtc valves the variable timing control valves and the cam phasers start to tick and start to rattle and this issue will actually eventually leave you stranded if not addressed because those cam phasers and valves get clogged up due to a lack of oil which is actually the fifth and the biggest issue with this motor is that it has an underperforming oil pump and clogged oil jets or jets that are too small to get oil up to the top half of the motor those vct valves or the vvts the cam phasers because they don't have enough oil will wear out rapidly they'll eventually stop opening and closing right which means when you go to rev up or rev down if they stick at all your engine will sound terrible it'll clatter and eventually it could blow up or cease running at all super huge issue and like i said it's all due all of this is due that and the timing chain guides and timing chain failure is all due to an underperforming oil pump and the jets simply being too small in the engine block to get enough oil flow through the whole motor if you own one of these motors i am begging you for your sake change the oil every 3000 miles use full synthetic don't use anything else use your 520 that ford spec keep the oil clean because that will help it will not prevent this failure but it will help these motors are great motors if you do that they'll last you an awful lot longer before they have these failures but if you're someone that does not like maintenance if these motors are not maintained they sludge up extremely quickly it can cause the timing chain guides and tensioners to fill quickly because as more sludge is in the system obviously less oil flows there same with the cam phaser it'll cause the cam phasers to fail prematurely even though they already fell prematurely but it'll cause them to fail a lot sooner because they wear out quicker and they get clogged and sludged up and pretty soon the oil doesn't flow and they operate on oil to open and close it's just this motor is a disaster i wish i could explain it a little bit better to you guys but that's what the car wizard has done in his video on this motor link down below so that you guys can go and understand a little bit more the mechanics behind the whole thing here but overall this lack of lubrication in the system causes the timing chain system to fail it causes the cam phasers the vvt system to fail and overall in the end the crank case will get metal shavings in it or plastic bits and the whole motor will fail and unfortunately i have talked to several mechanics and done a ton of research online and in online forms and the only guaranteed fix for this is a new motor i have been told by three reputable mechanics in my area that obviously i trust to work on anything any of my stuff i've asked them about the timing chain guide rattle and the ticking that i have on my truck right now and they've all told me just wait until it dies and you're better off putting a new motor in it than us trying to open it up and and repair it when you start opening these engines up to repair them then it just causes like a cascade effect and everything starts to fail so i've been told by multiple mechanics now and online forums and a ton of research that the only way to fix this issue is wait until it dies and get a new motor and of course that's why i highly recommend that you do not buy these trucks because a new motor for this thing is like six to eight thousand dollars it is not cheap and uh it's not worth it it's not something you want to deal with especially for a truck that's only worth six to eight thousand dollars so if you're thinking about buying a 5.4 liter triton 3 valve do not do it try to find the two valve if you love these trucks i love these trucks obviously i've got two three valves in the garage against better judgment and a bonus issue for you that did not make the list for some reason but is still super common with the three valve has to deal with the exhaust manifold the way the manifolds set up it gets super rusty as most exhaust manifolds do but for some reason the bolts like to break on these and then they cause exhaust manifold gasket or exhaust manifold leaks which is not a good thing because you can end up with burnt valves or it can affect the way that the truck runs depending on how big that leak is but also if your truck is clattery because like mine the vct valves are screwed up or the timing chain guides are broken and the tensioners are falling apart and all that and it's already rattly and clattery that manifold exhaust leak will amplify that and make this thing sound like a diesel i i've actually had someone ask me if i did a diesel conversion on my truck because it is so loud and so clattery and uh a little bit embarrassing it does not sound good at all and i've driven this around that way for like 20 000 miles the manifold leak or the bolts are really hard to fix because it's a ton of labor to get in there and get them out but more than likely you'll break more than one of those bolts and they are a pain in the butt to have to drill out and to retap so i don't know if i'd recommend fixing that problem either if your truck has it i'd have to talk to a more experienced mechanic on that one but my guess is they would tell you just to wait until you have more major failures so that was startup it's probably kind of here hard to hear on camera but it starts up with a hard rattle revs up obviously so you don't bend any rods and stuff sits there for a bit and then it revs back down and once it revs back down it sounds like this from bank one and two you can hear a light rattle and then overall you can hear a harder deeper tapping noise that's actually caused by the timing chain slapping the casing which is not good and it's all amplified by an exhaust manifold leak so this motor has 197 000 miles it may run another 50 60 000 miles like this it might die tomorrow i don't know it's on its last leg and this these are the common issues with this truck if you hear one that sounds like this don't buy it walk away stay away from it mine has sounded like this for 45 000 miles and it's only been getting worse eventually it will leave me stranded and the only guaranteed fix is a new motor and that's it for today's video thank you guys so much for watching i hope you enjoyed it and i hope that these five most common issues has helped you decide that you do not want a 543 valve in your life and maybe they've helped you decide that there's something that you can live with i don't know maybe to you these trucks are nice enough and are worth putting the six seven eight thousand dollars into them to get them back up and running when everything finally grenades and has catastrophic failure of course these trucks tend to be pretty cheap on the market cheaper than any of the other trucks out there but there is a reason for that please don't buy a 5.4 liter triton 3 valve they're just not something that you want to deal with in the long term especially being 2021 where these are already old trucks with a lot of miles please don't buy a vehicle with this motor in it but please do subscribe to the channel below hit the big red button right now if you like the style of content or if you like truck content in general because we have plenty of that coming smash the thumbs up button on this video if it helped you and subscribe to my instagram link down below with all that said i'll catch you guys in the next video [Music]

Channel: Nate's Trucks

Views: 34,907

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Id: jJ0gGjVRWPM

Length: 20min 30sec (1230 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021