jerem0621 wrote:
dodge guy wrote:
Funny thing is, today we had an F350 dropped off with a clattering 5.4L!
And i forgot to mention thay my buddy's dad has an 06 or 07 F150 with a clattering 5.4 he had the chains, guides and tensioners done around 50k miles. It now has around 100k and is clattering again. He religiously changes the oil every 3k!
Thats pretty funny!!!
Does the 3 valve V10 have this issue as commonly as the 5.4?
Kinda makes me wish I hadn't let go of my 2 valve V10.
Thanks!
Jeremiah
Jeremiah,
Your buddy's dad needs to look for internal oil leaks or a weak oil pump. Apparently the oil going to the tensioner is marginal.
All the 2 & 3 valves still have chain tensioners that require
sufficient oil pressure to hydraulically extend the piston in the automatic tensioner. In addition, VVT cam timing phasers, used in later V-8's, also require sufficent oil pressure to drive their operation. A problem can develop in the passenger side cylinder head if the oil volume, therefore pressure, can't keep up because of oil pump wear or other thirsty loose clearances anywhere in the engine.
The reason for the passenger side head vulnerability is the
single oil galley feed location. The other head (drivers side), and tensioner/phaser, receives oil straight up from the
front oil pump which is directly below it in the very front of the engine. But the vulnerable passenger side is fed by whatever oil pressure is left after the oil passes all the way to the rear of the long engine, feeding all the dripping crank bearings on the way. Then the oil path goes up through a restricted oriface forward past all the drippy cam bearings, until it again reaches the front of the engine. Finally whatever oil pressure and volume is left, operates the hydraulic tensioner/phaser assemblies. Except for the restricted oriface, the galleys are generously sized to promote this, but there is a limit as to how much oil pressure and volume can be lost on the way.
Everything is fine if the oil pump is in great shape, all bearing clearances are within factory tolerance
and the engine is not over-revved. Otherwise one must imagine a series of water sprinklers where the last sprinkler on the end of the hose just doesn't spray water very far after first thirsty sprinklers next to the faucet drain most of the pressure away. The wear clearance on
each bearing equates to another "oil sprinkler".
The vast majority of these Triton engines are very reliable for many miles, but when they start to go... they go quick, usually the passenger side cam and/or related parts. They also have a two-piece
rear crankshaft thrust washer that can fall off, into the pan, on occasion. This major bearing leak drastically drops oil pressure (like a cut garden hose) right at that single rear port feed that goes to the passenger side head.
Extreme high rpm in
any engine causes the crank to power-sling extra oil from the rod bearings by tremendous centrifugal force, the very reason many oil pumps are over-sized for racing. If I were to mod one of these Triton engines for high rpm performance, I would also find a way to send oil directly up to the front of the passenger side head from the front-mounted oil pump... like the left head already has from the factory.
Remember, you heard this nifty mod here on RV.net first. ;)
Just FYI, I don't believe the V-10 3-valve
ever had the variable-valve phasers. The V-10 drivers side cam, gear-drives the parallel counter-balance shaft and any VVT variation would put it out of balance. A vee engine of 10 cylinders is not naturally balanced like that of a V-8, therefore it requires a counter-balance shaft for smoothness.
In spite of what I know about their failure modus operandi, I believe in the ultimate durability of the Triton engines enough to have
spent $8K for a new V-10 longblock. You can bet your biffy I will be using quality non-drainback Motorcraft filters and the recommended thin 5W20 oil that gets to the far reaches of this work-horse engine quickly on start-up.
Wes
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