Long time lurker, first time post--it's kind of long.
I've learned a lot from posts on this forum and wanted to post about my experience completing cam phaser replacement in my driveway this past weekend to contribute something back. I have a 2018 MaxXLT with HD tow. I have 95k miles.
My symptoms were the typical clatter at startup, and the hot idle knock. Both got worse quickly from when first noticed. It took me about three months from deciding I was going to do it, to ordering parts, and getting most of them in. I put about 2k miles on it during that time. I also never got the driver side valve cover nor the intake gaskets that go between the valve cover and the heads--still on backorder. Ford officially says it's okay to reuse those gaskets, and while I was concerned about having a cracked driver side cover, ultimately it looked good. I was willing to risk it at this point because if I still need these they're at least near the top of the engine and I can just do these later rather than putting this off longer.
I used all Ford/Motorcraft parts. In addition to the phasers I replaced the chains, guides, tensioner arms, tensioners, timing gear on the crankshaft, water pump, thermostat, VCT solenoids, spark plugs, high-pressure fuel tube, and belts. Of these if (and only if) I needed to save costs and now having seen the condition of the parts I would have kept the originals in this order--timing gear sprocket on camshaft--no real wear here, timing chain guides and tensioner arms--not much wear, VCT solenoids--on top of engine at least and I had no reason to think they were bad, just old, tensioners--I've not heard of them going bad, but if they do they're hard to get to, chains--the new ones did seem tighter with less tensioner travel, though. With my miles and age I definitely would replace all the other stuff. My water pump was close to being ready to leak, not from the bearing, but there was about a two inch section of gasket that had pitting and corrosion of the mounting surface under it. Thermostat was original. Spark plugs didn't look bad, but did have a slightly larger gap.
There were a few things that don't really get mentioned that caused a little more temporary grief than the obvious things. Here are the few things I encountered that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. I know they sound dumb, and maybe you have a better idea for dealing with them. I'm not saying any Ford engineer would be happy with how I did it, but it worked.
1. The bracket at the front of the valve cover on the passenger side that has heater hoses and both turbo tubes attached. I didn't disconnect the passenger side tube from the intercooler, and I think I would if I did it again. I wouldn't have had as much trouble fighting with that bracket which didn't seem to have as much play as I needed to get stuff out of the way.
2. The stud at the bottom of the front cover that holds the transmission cooler tubes and an electrical bundle. It's long and requires more movement from the brackets it holds than they're willing to give easily. In the end I ended up cutting about 3/4 of an inch off of this stud so that I didn't need to move the bracket it held as much when putting it back together. I just pried and fought with it taking it off. It didn't need that extra length anyway--at least in my mind.
3. When putting the crankshaft pully back on I didn't have a special tool. I tapped it on a little, got a thinner washer than the one that holds the pully on and was able to get the bolt started. I pressed it in by hand slowly until it went far enough that the engine wanted to turn, then I used an impact to seat it.
4. The front cover. I would not have been able to meet the 35 minute max time from applying the gasket material to having it fully torqued without a power ratchet of some type. You start by torquing 6 bolts, then you torque the other 18 bolts, then you go back and torque all 24 of them, all in a specific order. I used my air ratchet to get the bolts run in, then I went through torquing them. I did it in just under 34 minutes. I also didn't use the special alignment pins. What I did do was try a couple of dry runs of positioning the cover with no sealant, then once I added the sealant I used the two bolts where the guide pins would go to help position it. That was no problem at all. If I had needed to, my plan was to go purchase two similar bolts at the hardware store and cut the heads off to slide the cover over them. Not needed, though.
5. The magnetic grabber was a useful tool and I recommend getting one if you don't have one. Knowing that I have on occasion dropped things I replaced the VCT solenoids while the front cover was off. It would not have been a happy moment if I had dropped one of those bolts down in the front cover.
My phasers were pretty bad, but they were the CB release. When turning the engine over with a wrench three of them appeared bad--would cause the cam to jump and click--both intake and the drivers side exhaust (exhaust wasn't as bad, and maybe I saw the effect of the intake jumping instead). They appeared to fail all around the same time. I wonder if when one goes bad, the strain of it fluttering or its possible change in oil flow causes the other on the same head to fail?
At any rate, I'd definitely do it again if needed. It's a big job but I'm satisfied with the quality of the work and replacing all the parts I did compared to someone rushing through it and doing just the minimum--provided it's not under warranty. I wouldn't do it if someone else would do it at no cost to me. I'm not a professional mechanic, but I've always done a lot of my mechanical work and approach jobs like this with an attitude that I can follow instructions, I can turn nuts and bolts, and at every single step I can make sure I'm satisfied with the result or figure out what I need to do to be satisfied before going on to the next step. Just take it one step at a time. It took me about 20 hours. I'm sure plenty of that was referring back to the manual to get torque settings--every bolt has them. Here's a list of the parts I ordered. Prices are for the quantity ordered, not each.
Engine Timing Chain Tensioner hl3z6l266c 1 $37.65
Guide hl3z6b274a 1 $21.24
Engine Timing Chain Tensioner hl3z6l266a 1 $43.66
Tensioner Arm hl3z6k255b 1 $18.36
Manifold Gasket hl3z9h486a 6 $5.34
Valve Cover Gasket hl3z6584a 1 $7.73
Valve Cover Gasket ml3z6584g 1 $9.44
Fuel Pump Mount Bolt w714498s900 2 $1.20
Fuel Pump Gasket aa5z9e583a 1 $0.93
Engine Coolant Thermostat hl3z8575b 1 $23.72
Thermostat Housing O-Ring hl3z8527b 1 $2.68
Water Pump jl3z8501b 1 $84.24
Sealant Silicone ta357 1 $25.13
Gasket br3z6020a 1 $2.05
Seal xw4z6700aa 1 $8.99
Solenoid hl3z6m280a 4 $135.48
Water Pump Belt br3z8620s 1 $25.25
Serpentine Belt hl3z8620a 1 $15.96
Timing Chain hl3z6268a 2 $76.22
Guide hl3z6b274b 1 $22.68
Tensioner Arm hl3z6k255a 1 $18.00
Engine Timing Camshaft Sprocket hl3z6c525cd 2 $76.00
Engine Timing Camshaft Sprocket ML3Z-6525-A 2 $76.00
Bolt hl3z6279a 4 $4.76
Crankshaft Pulley Bolt hl3z6a340a 1 $1.46
Spark Plug sp550x 6 $34.26
Water Outlet Bolt w503280s437 2 $0.72
Crankshaft Gear hl3z6306a 1 $35.95
Tube Assembly hl3z9j323c 1 $21.48
I've learned a lot from posts on this forum and wanted to post about my experience completing cam phaser replacement in my driveway this past weekend to contribute something back. I have a 2018 MaxXLT with HD tow. I have 95k miles.
My symptoms were the typical clatter at startup, and the hot idle knock. Both got worse quickly from when first noticed. It took me about three months from deciding I was going to do it, to ordering parts, and getting most of them in. I put about 2k miles on it during that time. I also never got the driver side valve cover nor the intake gaskets that go between the valve cover and the heads--still on backorder. Ford officially says it's okay to reuse those gaskets, and while I was concerned about having a cracked driver side cover, ultimately it looked good. I was willing to risk it at this point because if I still need these they're at least near the top of the engine and I can just do these later rather than putting this off longer.
I used all Ford/Motorcraft parts. In addition to the phasers I replaced the chains, guides, tensioner arms, tensioners, timing gear on the crankshaft, water pump, thermostat, VCT solenoids, spark plugs, high-pressure fuel tube, and belts. Of these if (and only if) I needed to save costs and now having seen the condition of the parts I would have kept the originals in this order--timing gear sprocket on camshaft--no real wear here, timing chain guides and tensioner arms--not much wear, VCT solenoids--on top of engine at least and I had no reason to think they were bad, just old, tensioners--I've not heard of them going bad, but if they do they're hard to get to, chains--the new ones did seem tighter with less tensioner travel, though. With my miles and age I definitely would replace all the other stuff. My water pump was close to being ready to leak, not from the bearing, but there was about a two inch section of gasket that had pitting and corrosion of the mounting surface under it. Thermostat was original. Spark plugs didn't look bad, but did have a slightly larger gap.
There were a few things that don't really get mentioned that caused a little more temporary grief than the obvious things. Here are the few things I encountered that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. I know they sound dumb, and maybe you have a better idea for dealing with them. I'm not saying any Ford engineer would be happy with how I did it, but it worked.
1. The bracket at the front of the valve cover on the passenger side that has heater hoses and both turbo tubes attached. I didn't disconnect the passenger side tube from the intercooler, and I think I would if I did it again. I wouldn't have had as much trouble fighting with that bracket which didn't seem to have as much play as I needed to get stuff out of the way.
2. The stud at the bottom of the front cover that holds the transmission cooler tubes and an electrical bundle. It's long and requires more movement from the brackets it holds than they're willing to give easily. In the end I ended up cutting about 3/4 of an inch off of this stud so that I didn't need to move the bracket it held as much when putting it back together. I just pried and fought with it taking it off. It didn't need that extra length anyway--at least in my mind.
3. When putting the crankshaft pully back on I didn't have a special tool. I tapped it on a little, got a thinner washer than the one that holds the pully on and was able to get the bolt started. I pressed it in by hand slowly until it went far enough that the engine wanted to turn, then I used an impact to seat it.
4. The front cover. I would not have been able to meet the 35 minute max time from applying the gasket material to having it fully torqued without a power ratchet of some type. You start by torquing 6 bolts, then you torque the other 18 bolts, then you go back and torque all 24 of them, all in a specific order. I used my air ratchet to get the bolts run in, then I went through torquing them. I did it in just under 34 minutes. I also didn't use the special alignment pins. What I did do was try a couple of dry runs of positioning the cover with no sealant, then once I added the sealant I used the two bolts where the guide pins would go to help position it. That was no problem at all. If I had needed to, my plan was to go purchase two similar bolts at the hardware store and cut the heads off to slide the cover over them. Not needed, though.
5. The magnetic grabber was a useful tool and I recommend getting one if you don't have one. Knowing that I have on occasion dropped things I replaced the VCT solenoids while the front cover was off. It would not have been a happy moment if I had dropped one of those bolts down in the front cover.
My phasers were pretty bad, but they were the CB release. When turning the engine over with a wrench three of them appeared bad--would cause the cam to jump and click--both intake and the drivers side exhaust (exhaust wasn't as bad, and maybe I saw the effect of the intake jumping instead). They appeared to fail all around the same time. I wonder if when one goes bad, the strain of it fluttering or its possible change in oil flow causes the other on the same head to fail?
At any rate, I'd definitely do it again if needed. It's a big job but I'm satisfied with the quality of the work and replacing all the parts I did compared to someone rushing through it and doing just the minimum--provided it's not under warranty. I wouldn't do it if someone else would do it at no cost to me. I'm not a professional mechanic, but I've always done a lot of my mechanical work and approach jobs like this with an attitude that I can follow instructions, I can turn nuts and bolts, and at every single step I can make sure I'm satisfied with the result or figure out what I need to do to be satisfied before going on to the next step. Just take it one step at a time. It took me about 20 hours. I'm sure plenty of that was referring back to the manual to get torque settings--every bolt has them. Here's a list of the parts I ordered. Prices are for the quantity ordered, not each.
Engine Timing Chain Tensioner hl3z6l266c 1 $37.65
Guide hl3z6b274a 1 $21.24
Engine Timing Chain Tensioner hl3z6l266a 1 $43.66
Tensioner Arm hl3z6k255b 1 $18.36
Manifold Gasket hl3z9h486a 6 $5.34
Valve Cover Gasket hl3z6584a 1 $7.73
Valve Cover Gasket ml3z6584g 1 $9.44
Fuel Pump Mount Bolt w714498s900 2 $1.20
Fuel Pump Gasket aa5z9e583a 1 $0.93
Engine Coolant Thermostat hl3z8575b 1 $23.72
Thermostat Housing O-Ring hl3z8527b 1 $2.68
Water Pump jl3z8501b 1 $84.24
Sealant Silicone ta357 1 $25.13
Gasket br3z6020a 1 $2.05
Seal xw4z6700aa 1 $8.99
Solenoid hl3z6m280a 4 $135.48
Water Pump Belt br3z8620s 1 $25.25
Serpentine Belt hl3z8620a 1 $15.96
Timing Chain hl3z6268a 2 $76.22
Guide hl3z6b274b 1 $22.68
Tensioner Arm hl3z6k255a 1 $18.00
Engine Timing Camshaft Sprocket hl3z6c525cd 2 $76.00
Engine Timing Camshaft Sprocket ML3Z-6525-A 2 $76.00
Bolt hl3z6279a 4 $4.76
Crankshaft Pulley Bolt hl3z6a340a 1 $1.46
Spark Plug sp550x 6 $34.26
Water Outlet Bolt w503280s437 2 $0.72
Crankshaft Gear hl3z6306a 1 $35.95
Tube Assembly hl3z9j323c 1 $21.48