ford 5.4 3v

Diablos

Diablos

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need the skinny on this engine as im thinking of picking up a 2006 expedition for the wife. seems to be a real strong running engine, and i never had any trouble out of my old 4.6, but im sure ford made a bunch of "improvements" to the mod motors over the years.

anyway, if its a nightmare, i can still run.
 
Bought a 04 new and O real issues in 185k. May be my best vehical purchase ever from dependability.
 
Good engine. Crappy plug design but there's tools out now that make it possible to pull broken plugs without pulling the heads. If equipped with vvt there's lockout/delete kits available to keep the cam phasers from rattling. Intake manifolds prone to leaking antifreeze at the heads about every 100k. Otherwise pretty stout and reliable motors.
 
The one we had a work (08) went 170k on nothing but oil changes till it was sold after a deer collision.
 
I have had 3 Fords with this motor. 2 Expeditions and a Mustang 2011 GT 500. That one was all aluminum, supercharged and had 550 HP. Not one seconds trouble with any 5.4 I've ever had. Just as a side note the 5.4 iron block is what Ford chose for their reintroduction of the Ford GT a few years back.
 
Bad mileage, nothing impressive about the power, change the plugs fairly often, phasers make a little ruckus for literally a second on start up.

120k on the '07 Stuperduty: plugs, t-stat, idler pulley bearing, one serp belt, oil changes. No leaks, no oil consumption.
 
its got 98k on it and i didn't hear anything out of the ordinary under the hood, purred like a kitten.
 
I loved DirtySCREW which had a 5.4 Triton V8. She did spit a plug, as is common on the 5.4L; but @Mike Overlay fixed it at his shop. I loved that truck so much, it's the reason I have DirtySCREW 2. Gas mileage absolutely sucked with the 5.4. I got 13 city and 13 highway.. didn't matter.
Great motor I think...had great power. It towed better than anything I've owned. I haven't towed anything in DS2 yet which has 5.0L coyote.

DS

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 
Checked out some videos on the cam phasers and plugs, don't seem too bad (shouldn't have been issues in the first place imo), I think this should be a decent purchase.
 
I put 155,000 miles on a 3v 5.4l F-150. Only problem I ever had was a code for the throttle body/TPS at around 85k miles. I fixed it in the driveway with a can of throttle body cleaner and a new gasket in about 20 minutes. The plug change was an all-day affair but I didn't have to pull the heads and replaced them with a 1-piece design. Only sold the truck because I wanted something else more.

I see confusion about 2v vs 3v 5.4L's here. 2v's spit plugs, 3v's just have a bad plug design.

In a pickup I always average 15-17 mpg but in a Superduty I'm sure the MPG is not so great
 
muskrat said:
I put 155,000 miles on a 3v 5.4l F-150. Only problem I ever had was a code for the throttle body/TPS at around 85k miles. I fixed it in the driveway with a can of throttle body cleaner and a new gasket in about 20 minutes. The plug change was an all-day affair but I didn't have to pull the heads and replaced them with a 1-piece design. Only sold the truck because I wanted something else more.

I see confusion about 2v vs 3v 5.4L's here. 2v's spit plugs, 3v's just have a bad plug design.

In a pickup I always average 15-17 mpg but in a Superduty I'm sure the MPG is not so great
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Since I don't know if the plugs have been changed, I'll probably pick up the extraction tool and change them out once it warms up.

That's not bad mpg, I'm sure driving the way my wife does it'll be fine. It'll take me driving it on the weekend to clean the carbon out of it.
 
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fuelpiper said:
Are we allowed to hate members? :)

I drooled all over a gt500 at capital ford a few years ago.

What was it like?
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It was red with white stripes. I sold it and replaced it with a Ford Racing 5.0 Mustang, sold that and bought a 2013 Boss 302. The Boss was the best Mustang I ever owned. I have had a buncha them. The GT 500 was a handful, the Boss was just right.
 
Diablos said:
Since I don't know if the plugs have been changed, I'll probably pick up the extraction tool and change them out once it warms up.

That's not bad mpg, I'm sure driving the way my wife does it'll be fine. It'll take me driving it on the weekend to clean the carbon out of it.
Click to expand...

At 76k I bought the extractor, from the guys at work with experience with many broken ones get the Lisle.
Then I fed it a big dose of Techron cleaner a week before I planned to do them, dunno if this actually helped.
Got up in the morning and ran it hard for a half hour or so, popped the hood, yanked the coil packs, then zipped all eight plugs out in one piece with an impact wrench (the ones under the cowl are tricky), anti-seized the new ones, torqued to spec, installed coils, slammed the hood and was on my way to the beach within 2 hours of walking out the door that morning.
Best mileage it ever got, 15.9mpg that trip.
I hope round two goes as easy.
 
Impacts the way to go.....slow and careful with a ratchet equals a broken plug most of the time. The only one piece replacement plug I know of are the Autolites, and thats the crappiest brand of plug out there.....its a shame really. I'd just toss another set of oem motorcraft plugs in it and change them every 50k
 
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I just replaced the plugs on the wife's Explorer. They were seized & I pulled an old marine winterizing trick. Picked up a bottle of SeaFoam, warmed the engine up, sucked it out of the bottle via large vacuum hose until it stalled the engine. Let it sit overnight, next morning backed the plugs out 1/4-1/2 turn, sprayed carburetor/carbon cleaner at the base of each plug. An hour later they all backed out without a problem.
Change the oil as well, the solvent will leak past the rings into your oil.
 
^ Different animal on the 5.4's...its not the threads that seize, its the crimped on end that serves as the ground electrode. it gets carbon built up around it and its shrouded from the cylinder so the chances of anything getting through the built up mess is slim to none. when you try to back the plug out 80% of the plug comes out and the crimp lets go and leaves the ground electrode stuck in the head. easy enough to get out with a kit, but it can be fun on on cylinders #4 and 8.

ford-spark-plugs-breaking.jpg
 
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