Hi Tim,
Oh yes the dreaded tick. I just repaired mine, 05 King Ranch. Basically you have a number of problems going on. Oiling problems is at the base of all of them. Here is what I done on mine and now it runs as good as new. And yes as suggested above watch Brian on fordmakuloco videos, he will show you how to repair the problems.
1. The grooves are kind of common on high mileage rigs. By pics they don't look too bad, but hard to tell. No bearings, just piss pore design by Ford, well actually your problems all are.
2. The lifter, actually lash adjusters, are probably ok if they are hard. Basically means they are pumped up because of oil pressure. I would certainly pull each and check for any wear or burrs.
3. The problem more likely is the cam followers. They have needle bearings and lack of oil pressure/supply kills them. Check each one for any rough turn of the follower wheel. Check the ones on the back cylinders passenger side. These are the ones that are normally starved for oil and die. Keep all lash adjusters and followers in order of placement so you can put them back in same place if you reuse them. I didn't want to take a chance so replaced them all, the lash adjusters and followers. Look on line and you can find the set for a 4.6 Mustang GT for about 260.00. They are interchangeable with the 5.4. These are Ford OEM upgrades, according to them. Getting the followers back on is a bit tricky but can be done with a screw driver, I wrapped my screw driver with electrical tape so as not to damage the cams.
4. Because of the follower failure and metal shavings you will more then likely need to replace the cam, or like I did both cams. I choked and bought mine from China, don't like doing that but way, way cheaper then Ford and looked very much original quality. Also remember that the cams are side specific, so don't get them mixed up.
5. So now you have new phasers and timing chain assembly's and that is good as these are problematic with these engines as well, the tensioners can die or plastic guides fail. But you have to go back in and pull all that off again and replace the oil pump. The pump sits under the lower crank gear and is held on by 3 bolts and 2 small ones on the pickup tube. The hardest part is reaching the 2 on the oil pickup. Put a rag in the pan because you will drop them 3-4 times before you get them in. The flexible ratchet wrench works great. Don't use a Ford oil pump or any of the ebay ones. Go with a Mellings M340 or M360. Either will work and thus solving all your oiling problems which created the ticking problems. You can find both on Amazon or ebay. I used the factory replacement Melling M340 and was 80.00. Oil pressure doubled.
6. While you are this deep you might as well replace the phaser solenoids. And remove and clean out the housing they set in. These are the controls for your phasers. Mine had gunk in the passeges, yours may likely be the same seeing all those metal shavings. Also make sure you get those shavings out of the motor.
7. Drain the motor oil and replace with high quality 5-30 motor oil and a motorcraft filter. Ford calls for 5-20 but I feel you get better oiling qualities with a little higher viscosity so most mechanics recommend the 5-30. Don't go el cheapo filters (Fram) on these modular engines as that helps kill them. Stay with motorcraft, Wally World they are under 3.00 so still cheap, but work great. And keep the oil fresh, change at 3000 miles.
Good luck, a big expensive project but the Expedition will run like new when done
