well i bought my 2001 f-150 with a 5.4 at 90,000 miles it now has 115,000 with half of them being with towing a 6,500 lb load. so my question with decent amount of towing (at least a third of the miles) how long should i expect this engine to last? trying to figure out if I am better off driving it to the ground or selling it in a year or so before it goes kaboom.
At the place I worked it was a 2004 ford e250 van with a 5.4L and it had 250K + miles flogged on it and it still ran great. I packed that van on more than one occassion where the rear bumper almost looked to be ass draggin. Im sure the van now has somewhere around 350 to 400 and still with original engine.
My 5.4 Expy(97) has 139k miles on it and hauled my cars no problems. Just be sure to keep up on your 3 main fluids: oil coolant and tranny! I have no reservations about the life of this engine, I personally think its more durable than the 300 I6!
Huh.....yer lucky you have that many miles on it BJB. I have seen lots and lots spin bearings. I have one in the shop right now that has the bearings welded to the crank.
just make sure you put the right oil in it you'll be fine. a lot of problems in the modular engines come from dumbasses that don't pay attention to what the recommended oil is.
yes very important to run the right oil in it i beleive its 5-20, with the elaborate timing chain set-ups it is important to run the right oil, majority of all shops and quick lubes shove what is in their bulk into the motors (generally 5w-30)
Extremely important. I have seen some of these triton motors that will actually knock/tick severely with the wrong weight oil in them. From what I was told by a Ford engineer, the bearing clearance on them is extremely tight which is one of the main reasons 5-20 is needed.
Additionally, I have seen quite a few of these motors with timing chain issues - the guides seem to wear prematurely or the tensioner fails....but I'd say roughly 5% of the motors with this problem were actually maintained.....
Edit::sonicjay: look at the date on the original post
i have 3, 5.4's beat the crap out of them...97, 01, 03. 97 has 180000 ran about 120 bottles of nitrous through it and it still runs good. 01 has 210000 on still runs but is now a parts truck. 03 has 70000. run good..the only problum i have had is the plugs each have there own coil pack and have replaced a few of those..
5.4s are good engines. Maintenance is the key as stated. At our dealership we see these engines go bad because of poor maintenance. Just quoted an engine for an 06 Expedition, it has 36,000 miles on it and still has the original oil filter on it. Guess what? You can't drive that long without a fluid change!!
Bought mine with 35000 miles on it has about 47000 looks like no issues prior to me owning, running amsoil 5w20 and no problems yet. Ford tech I know says shouldn't have many issues as long as I torgue spark plugs and don't wait til recomended chang out time...
I don't recall the 5-20 speck when I had my 99? Maybe that is why it started knocking and they replaced it under warranty Believe that I was using 5W30
I have a 2000 with the 5.4 as well with almost 125,000 on it and I have been wondering on the oil thing as well. NAPA says it should be 5w-20 but the shops all say 5w-30. Anyone have any idea what it should actually be?
Well that's whats been put in it so at least that much is right. Thanks.
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