2004 f-150 5.4L engine defects

[hourglass]

my roommate was looking at the afore mentioned truck and our mechanic said he has replaced 4 of those engines and i just read 3 online posts of guys around the country with engine failure. have any of ya'll had any experience with this year or heard anything about that? oh ya, he's not buying that particular one b/c there was not a single drop of oil on the dipstick.

[Nautiquehunter]

I dont know about the 04 but if you have to do any major engine work on newer ford trucks you have to lift the entire cab off the frame to get to the engine.

[AirTool]

The only BIG deal I know of is the plugs pop out. google ford f-150 plug popper. They may have fixed that with the three valve heads....don't know.

Note I just bought a 2010 last week but not yet posted in the pics of tow vehicle thread yet.

I also started a thread on the new 6.2L engine for 2011 if you are interested.

I have a 99 Nav with the 4 valve DOHC and got a sick cylinder and rough idle early in life. Very common problem on 4v engine. Wife unit has been living with the misfire code and rough idle for over 120K miles.

[hourglass]

well my roommate is going from an 02 lincoln ls that is mechanically in the worst shape of any car i have ever seen that runs(the factory battery location is under the floor in the trunk by the way). i swear. he was so excited to be getting a nice, newer ride and then the mechanic that we know sees '04 and says he's done 4 new engine installs. something about the timing getting off and messing up cams and valves? the thing sounds just like a diesel truck. then we see there's no oil at all. i'm trying to get him to buy a chevy/gmc. while the door panels and dash and leather of the ford looked nice i don't think the seats are half as plush as my yukon.

[93nautique0710]

when it comes to trucks buy a chevrolet way easier to work on more reliable better parts and dont blow sparkplugs out i wouldnt even attempt replacing spark plugs in a newer 5.4 they tend to break off in head i guess they tried to make sure they wouldnt blow out anymore and over did it look at the tsb for sparkplug replacement number of steps just to replace a sparkplug the only engine i like from ford is the one in my boat all the others are junk

[east tx skier]

I have an 01 Exped with the 5.4. 105K miles and no major medical yet. It has a strange issue that I suspect is a vacuum leak, but we can't seem to chase it down. It's been a good boat hauler.

[hourglass]

thanks for the help. he ended up buying it anyways and got some warranty for free for a year that will cover the engine totally if anything happens so he says.

[SkiTower]

I have an 01 Exped with the 5.4. 105K miles and no major medical yet. It has a strange issue that I suspect is a vacuum leak, but we can't seem to chase it down. It's been a good boat hauler.

What exactly is the problem? Smell gas fumes? I had an issue right after spark plug replacement and it ended up being the plugs weren't quite tight enough.