5.4L cam phasers lockout kit

Ok, so I've been reading a little about these "cam phaser lockout kits" available for the VVT cam phasers on our 5.4L 3-valves... It requires you to do the following procedure, plus to install (flash) a special tune on your Expedition / F-150 in order to prevent the truck from going into "limp mode" after the installation is complete.

The kit is about $700 USD (plus whatever tax / shipping the company charges) and they claim a "permanent fix" to the noisy stock cam phasers, plus more power and better fuel economy (?). Seems to me like it's a bit of an ambitious claim, else Ford would've never bothered with articulated cam phasers to advance / retard timing in the first place...


Does anyone here have experience with this kit?

762mm said:

Seems to me like it's a bit of an ambitious claim, else Ford would've never bothered with articulated cam phasers to advance / retard timing in the first place...

Click to expand...

Amen, Brother. I'd call it hacking up a good vehicle. If you're going through all that trouble, why not fix the darn things right? The guy who thinks he can avoid pulling the timing cover to replace the tensioner gasket's just going to be replacing his cams in a year.

Blatant lie, locking out the camphasers will DECREASE engine output by 30 horsepower or so. You will also lose about 1-2 average MPG according to those who’ve done it. It’s a useless mod that targets misguided owners that decreases engine power and MPGs. Seriously, going backwards doesn’t net you gains in any way.

Thanks for the replies, it's what I suspected then. If you go to the video's YouTube page and look at the comments, the company clearly states all those bold claims and says that their product "corrects Ford's flawed design" in all ways.

They also claim that if you replace the cam phasers with new ones, you will get the rattle back in as little as 10k miles... but don't talk about oil pressure issues which cause it, of course.

As mentioned above, the oil pump and other components (timing tensioners, guides) should be upgraded at the same time... still, they seem to have quite a following. $700 is not cheap for 2 small pieces of aluminum and a Chinese calculator (their OBD flash tool), lol.

I've installed a lockout kit on my sister's 2007 Limited. At the same time I also replaced the timing stuff (chains, tensioners, guides, oil pump etc) Both tensioners had blown out seals, chain was hitting the timing cover too. No idea on the MPG loss or gain, but it seemed to gain a little power on the low end of the RPM, but lost a little on the top end. SHe didn't care about that, but is happy that its running great now, and no more phaser knock/rattle.
I used a kit from www.wmsracing.com

WEDGE said:

I've installed a lockout kit on my sister's 2007 Limited. At the same time I also replaced the timing stuff (chains, tensioners, guides, oil pump etc) Both tensioners had blown out seals, chain was hitting the timing cover too. No idea on the MPG loss or gain, but it seemed to gain a little power on the low end of the RPM, but lost a little on the top end. SHe didn't care about that, but is happy that its running great now, and no more phaser knock/rattle.
I used a kit from www.wmsracing.com

Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Thanks for sharing, Wedge. Do you know the mileage at which that motor developed these problems?

Trainmaster said:

Thanks for sharing, Wedge. Do you know the mileage at which that motor developed these problems?

Click to expand...

The engine had 225,000 kilometers, or 139,000 miles. It now has 245,000 km's with no problems