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At the tail end of last year I bought a 2007 4x4 Supercrew F-150 to serve as my daily driver. It was a super clean truck powered by a 3v 5.4L but had 128k miles on the clock. I was well aware of the cam phaser issues that Ford's 3v engine can have. At the time, I owned a 2007 Mountaineer with the 3v 4.6L which had 100k trouble free miles on it so I was not too terribly worried about it. 
This truck had the typical start up rattle that is caused by oil drain back out of the phasers. The phasers are spring loaded with a clock spring and rattle back and forth until there is sufficient oil pressure to prevent unwanted movement. There is supposed to be a locking pin that prevents this, but some do not function for whatever reason. This rattle and other issues with the VCT solenoids can lead to broken vanes in the phaser assembly, stuck phasers, loss of power, erratic idle, etc. Last week, I hopped into the truck after work and it was missing and had zero power. When I went to go pick up Jake at tennis, I pulled the codes while I was waiting. It had set several that all were related to the phasers. Left tennis to grab a bite, still running poorly, then as we were approaching a traffic light, it cleared up. Ran fine the rest of the evening until I went to pick up Jake again from a study group and it started acting funny as I was sitting in the parking lot waiting. Parked it, ordered parts and drove a company truck for the next few days.
The hit or miss fix for this problem is to replace pretty much the entire timing system (chains, sliders, adjusters, phasers and VCT solenoids with the latest revisions from Ford. Some guys report that this fixed their truck, while others say their problems persist. The only 100% effective solution is to install phaser lockouts. Phaser lockouts are just a chunk of aluminum designed to fit in one of the spaces inside the phaser thereby locking it in the "at rest", aka "full advanced" position. (These phasers only retard cam timing, they do not advance.) There are several companies that manufacture the lockouts. I chose the ones from an ebay vendor, Forbidden Diesel Performance because they offered the lockouts, new Ford cam phaser bolts (torque to yield) and the timing chain wedge tool for $105.
So, Saturday I pulled the truck part way into the garage and began taking it all apart.
Where I started!
Coils out, harness unplugged, and power steering reservoir moved out of the way. Actually getting the valve covers off is the biggest chore of this whole project.
Cover off. Surprise! Someone has been here before. That is a Dorman brand phaser. They are known to fail. The good news however is that the previous guy replaced the chains and guides so they should be good to go.
I marked a link on the chain by the "R" with a sharpie and loosened the bolt. This bolt was tightened ridiculously tight. I had to clamp the cam journal with vice grips to prevent rotation in order to break it loose with my big 1/2" breaker bar.
Chain wedge was installed tightly and the phaser was removed.
I opened up the phaser and discovered 1 vane was already broken.
The reason is quite evident when you look closely. For whatever reason, 1 vane in the phaser makes contact with the sprocket body before the other 4.
I removed the broken vane and installed the lockout in the phaser. It was a snug fit. Tight enough that I needed to tap it in with a small hammer.
You can see that some of the voids are beat up from the vanes slapping back a forth.
Phaser reinstalled.
This truck had the typical start up rattle that is caused by oil drain back out of the phasers. The phasers are spring loaded with a clock spring and rattle back and forth until there is sufficient oil pressure to prevent unwanted movement. There is supposed to be a locking pin that prevents this, but some do not function for whatever reason. This rattle and other issues with the VCT solenoids can lead to broken vanes in the phaser assembly, stuck phasers, loss of power, erratic idle, etc. Last week, I hopped into the truck after work and it was missing and had zero power. When I went to go pick up Jake at tennis, I pulled the codes while I was waiting. It had set several that all were related to the phasers. Left tennis to grab a bite, still running poorly, then as we were approaching a traffic light, it cleared up. Ran fine the rest of the evening until I went to pick up Jake again from a study group and it started acting funny as I was sitting in the parking lot waiting. Parked it, ordered parts and drove a company truck for the next few days.
The hit or miss fix for this problem is to replace pretty much the entire timing system (chains, sliders, adjusters, phasers and VCT solenoids with the latest revisions from Ford. Some guys report that this fixed their truck, while others say their problems persist. The only 100% effective solution is to install phaser lockouts. Phaser lockouts are just a chunk of aluminum designed to fit in one of the spaces inside the phaser thereby locking it in the "at rest", aka "full advanced" position. (These phasers only retard cam timing, they do not advance.) There are several companies that manufacture the lockouts. I chose the ones from an ebay vendor, Forbidden Diesel Performance because they offered the lockouts, new Ford cam phaser bolts (torque to yield) and the timing chain wedge tool for $105.
So, Saturday I pulled the truck part way into the garage and began taking it all apart.
Where I started!
Coils out, harness unplugged, and power steering reservoir moved out of the way. Actually getting the valve covers off is the biggest chore of this whole project.
Cover off. Surprise! Someone has been here before. That is a Dorman brand phaser. They are known to fail. The good news however is that the previous guy replaced the chains and guides so they should be good to go.
I marked a link on the chain by the "R" with a sharpie and loosened the bolt. This bolt was tightened ridiculously tight. I had to clamp the cam journal with vice grips to prevent rotation in order to break it loose with my big 1/2" breaker bar.
Chain wedge was installed tightly and the phaser was removed.
I opened up the phaser and discovered 1 vane was already broken.
The reason is quite evident when you look closely. For whatever reason, 1 vane in the phaser makes contact with the sprocket body before the other 4.
I removed the broken vane and installed the lockout in the phaser. It was a snug fit. Tight enough that I needed to tap it in with a small hammer.
You can see that some of the voids are beat up from the vanes slapping back a forth.
Phaser reinstalled.
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