Inspect and if no apparent damage, reusable.

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That's weird how some have the insulation , and some don't ( I cant imagine why it's needed ) I last had my intake off at 135,000 the flaps were clean , I don't know why they would get gunked up , since all that ever touches them is air that has gone through the air cleaner ,...just like the throttle body . ( but we know the butterfly gets gunked up ,...)

 

It's the PCV system. A small amount of oil gets sucked through it and bakes onto the flaps. An oil separator will eliminate this. I'm considering buying one.

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Well about the cam phaser noise. How long is too long to run the engine with bad phasers? I apologize for the hijack. Just trying to learn as much as I can before hand.

 

Some people run a hundred thousand with it. Some have major damage soon after it starts. No way to tell.

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The information in this thread was invaluable, both in confirming the suspected issue and in helping me devise a fix for it.

Like so many here, I really did NOT feel the need to remove the intake (nor the engine, transmission, or cab...) to get at that darnned CMCV hose that worked its way off. Every vacuum fitting on the whole vehicle has redundant barbs, clips, retainers, clip retainers, retainer clips, retainer clip retainers, clamps or what-have-you. Except... this one tapered little plastic nipple that is 8 inches down behind the line of sight, where the intake is mashed into the firewall insulation. I could hear it whistling Dixie down there, and, sure enough, the little rubber elbow (with two plastic hoses and a cap to nowhere) was loose.

It took me a couple days of staring a hole through the intake, but I found a reasonably direct way to get the hose/elbow back onto the manifold protuberance.

Just like the one in the pictures, mine was oily and dirty, and maybe a little bit swollen from the oil and heat. From verifying the vacuum leak location, I had gotten enough starting ether in that vicinity that some of it must have cleaned up the nipple a bit. Maybe. I pulled both of the accessible plastic line ends loose and removed the assembly with the elbow so I could clean it well. Using a new one might be good advise if your rubber elbow is really soft - mine wasn't too bad.

What is needed is a 8 or 9 inch piece of really stiff metal dowel - or some decent facsimile. Round wasn't ideal, but I didn't have a piece of 1/4" Titanium T-rail, so I used some scrap of 3/16" round spring steel I found. As best you can, jam the end of the dowel down in between where the two tubes and the capped third one are sealed into the rubber elbow. Using some Right-Stuff to glue it there would help, but I didn't. Use about 10 zip-ties to bundle the two tubes and the dowel together so you have a way to guide and control the elbow way down there where you can't see it.

Leave the two small ribbed tube-ends loose until last, since they are easy to route and connect. With the elbow clean, I used a Q-Tip to coat the inside of it with Right-Stuff, so that once it's on the nipple, it will STAY there. Throw a moving blanket or your favorite kind of padding down over the passenger side of the engine bay, and pad the top of the bumper where the knife-edge wants to remove your knee-caps while you're kneeling on it. A brick wall to plant your feet against might help if you have it handy. Lay down on the (hopefully cool) engine so you have good access to the crevice where the two tubes have to go.

My '04 F150 SCrew HAS the rubber flap insulator (or general hand and tool impediment) like the pre-mid-'05s seem to. The tubes go behind (relative to the truck's construction, where toward the bug-covered end is the front) the rubber flap. Way down there, at the very limit of where my long skinny fingers could reach, is the passenger-side intake gate control rod, and the tubes go in FRONT of that, between it and the intake. You'll have to twist the elbow sideways to get it through there.

The tube coming from the driver's side is below the line of sight, but the part number flag sticks up in view. The tube from the passenger side sticks up higher, just like in the pics earlier in this thread. Using those rough dimensions, place the elbow in your 'best-guess' location near the offending nipple.

HERE'S THE GOOD PART:
Since you're all comfy in this face-down, butt-in-the-air, knees on the bumper-cover knife-edge-so-they-can't-slip-off position; have your helper START THE ENGINE. Yes, you'll want to assure that your blanket or pad isn't near any of the whirling parts, but they are actually pretty safely tucked away under the intake duct, upper radiator hose, and fan shroud. My blanket didn't get even close to dangerous moving things.

With the engine running like spit - that's how you knew the hose was off, remember? - it might stall, so just restart if it does. Listen to the hissing sound of the vacuum leak as you use the dowel to move the rubber elbow around down in the abyss. Hopefully, you found a way to clock it aiming forward - this was why the round dowel wasn't great. But even with the round dowel, as I heard the vacuum leak stop-up, I could tell by the feel when the open side of the elbow was trying to catch on the nipple. It took me three or four tries, but I quite easily got the elbow onto the nipple, and was then able to push the elbow all the way onto the nipple, using the back of my hand on the firewall and my finger tips on the dowel and tube bundle.

It was REALLY OBVIOUS when the elbow closed the vacuum leak. The idle dropped and smoothed out immediately, and the hissing noise cut-out. The first few tries it came loose too easily, so was either pointed off to the side or missed high or low. I had to slide it from (the truck's) left to right to get the elbow opening to catch the nipple, because with the round dowel, the rubber elbow was trying to point to the right instead of forward. Once it hit the nipple, though, it rotated into the proper position and slid on smoothly with the Right-Stuff lubricating it. My hope, and I am NOT going to test it, is that it is now glued in place for life.

I left the dowel there. I wasn't about to risk pulling the elbow loose again trying to free it, and if it ever comes loose again I'll have the way to fix it 'at my fingertips'... Pun intended.

So, if you are reading this thread trying to find a short-cut, here's mine. If you know of a way to get this information better placed on the forum, please do, with my blessings. Best of luck.

 

subscribing to this for future reference

 

Horseheaven, First I want to thank you for you input. First of all it gave me hope. Second using the 8"-9" really helped manipulate the vacumm lines. 1st I used a camera Phone to see what was going on and it worked very well. 2nd of all it was all most impossible to get to that area. 3rd I had to move 2 sets of wires that were tabbed in the way to even know where the tube was . After getting the wires out of the way I could see the tube. I zipped tied the rod to the vacuum lines like you said and moved it into place using the camera i could manipulate the rubber elbo into position. the rod helped push it on by sliding my finnger tips down it to push it on all the way. these photos should help anyone trying to fix thin porblem.

 

Jim Burgess: Fantastic! Your use of technology like the phone with a light and everything really is a sort of cheating. But, seriously, the motion picture images will really be of help to the next guy. I did it all by Braille and audio-cues, but your video looks just like my mental picture did. Isn't it ironic that every other hose connection on the entire truck has some sort of latching mechanism, but the one that would require pulling the engine simply slides on (and off)? I'm happy to report that, as of 2018.12.22, the hose on my truck remains in place, so I'm going to call this operation from a couple years ago a success. I'm glad you were able to use this method, and I appreciate that you've done such a great job of documenting it for others.

 

CAN I ASK WHERE YOU GOT THE PROGAMER AND WHAT MODEL OF PROGAMER ?? LOVE MY FORD 5.4. 252 THOUSAND MILES AND DID THE TIMING JOB AT ABOUT 200 THOUSAND. ]The 5.4 is a good engine. It has its problem areas, just like virtually every other engine. A friend at work has a 2005 F150 with the 5.4 and ~140K miles and zero cam phaser noise. The only "major" problem she has ever had with it was one of the screens for the VCT solenoid broke and jammed the solenoid. The truck would barely run because the driver side camshaft was jammed in the full retard position. She took it to a shop and they told her the engine was seized and it would be $6500 for a new one. I asked to take a look at it and discovered the real problem. It was a $50 part and a $13 seal. The passenger side was getting ready to break too, so we replaced that one as well. For less than $150 in parts, her truck was fixed. I also changed all her original spark plugs at 136K miles (same time the solenoid jammed). Six of them broke but I got them all out with the Lisle tool. I charged her $360 in labor. It took me about 8 hours. Also cleaned her throttle body and mass air meter. The truck runs like it just came off the assembly line now. These engines do need routine maintenance and proper oil change intervals with the correct oil and filter, but if you take care of them they will run for a very long time. I put an Edge tuner on my 05 Lariat SCrew 4x4. It has 88K miles. After cleaning the CMCV flaps and running two bottles of Gumout with Regane in a single tank and on setting 2 of the programmer, it will absolutely destroy the rear tires if you floor it from a standing start on dry pavement. Even before the programmer it would break the rear tires loose starting from a stop with more than 3/4 throttle. 3.73 rear gears. This engine has great power and I'm very happy with it. I do have the cam phaser noise. I will fix that this Fall. I know where I can get all new Ford parts to do a complete job for less than $600.

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Todd --please look at ford tech malukoco videos on you tube about aftermarket phasors . You can't do a timing job for 600 - and not going to the melling hv oil pump is foolish . I would also use the melling steel ratcheting tensioners . It is a real pain getting in here and replacing one time use bolts among other stuff it doesn't pay to do it cheap .

 

sorry i must have posted my reply over or on top of the other post i did my timing job about 200,000 miles on the truck i always nothing but Ford Factory Parts or better (like the newest melling high volume / high pressure oil pump ) went through and replaced everything i could while it was open pulled oil pan and cleaned it just whatever i could . truck has been running great for last 52,000 miles so quiet all you can hear is the injectors lol had to replace both hub actuators last weekend one was acting up and with winter coming didnt want to do when cold out !! my question was on the tuner for the 5.4 3 valve and did it help that much ?? THANKS TODD