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Buddy at the shop last week finally admitted the oil pump on his Ford 5.4 was never designed right from the factory

He said it starves the timing chain tensioners around 80k miles and Ford knew about it since 2004. Has anyone else watched a 3V Triton spit out a chain guide and just walked away?
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2 Comments
quinnmitchell
Yeah I read somewhere that the 5.4 3V oil pump was basically a carryover from the 2V design and they never bothered to upsize the gerotor for the extra oil demands of the VCT system. That starvation thing makes total sense because those tensioners rely on oil pressure to keep the chain tight and once that drops even a little at idle you're hearing that famous rattle startup sound. This guy on a Ford tech forum I follow said he tore down a 2006 with 90k miles and the guides were already cracked and one tensioner was completely collapsed. It's crazy that a multi billion dollar company just let that design flaw slide for like a decade while people were buying trucks premised on durability. Now everyone just swaps in a Melling HV pump as a bandaid but the real fix should have been Ford's problem from day one.
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jamie712
jamie7122d ago
Yeah you really gotta watch the oil pressure at idle with these things... I had a 2005 that started rattling around 80k and swapping to a Melling HV pump plus the metal tensioner upgrade quieted it right down.
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