2006 Expy dead motor?

[deftone]

Hey folks,

Have a pretty sick 2006 that is displaying some weird symptoms, wondered what y'all thought.

Approx 120k miles, the motor will start pretty easily, however it needs you to give it some gas to stay idling, and even then its super lumpy, like it is down at least one cylinder. Take your foot off the gas and it immediately stalls. No fault codes are indicated. Put it into gear and try and pull away and it will also immediately stall.

Normally I would troubleshoot as normal, however there appears to be a pretty major oil leak. There is TONS of blue smoke from the exhaust, and what appears to be oil leaking from the driver side exhaust manifold. When under the truck I can see the downpipe appears to be covered in oil. I havnt started to pull things apart for access as I have not had time.

I havnt had a chance to work on it yet, that will be this weekends activities, I just wondered where this oil could be coming from? And is this likely to be the cause of the poor running? Does this sound like it may be something pretty major?

Cheers!

 

[1955moose]

Doesn't sound promising! Sounds like either your piston rings have gone south, or something in the valve train. Basically your motors lost oil control, and is dumping into the combustion chamber, hence the blue smoke. Try pulling the pcv valve off first to be sure theirs not oil in those hoses. It is possible also your pcv ventilation isn't working. As far as the rough idle and running, the failed cylinder/cylinders can be your culprit, or you may also have intake leaks as well. How long has this oil leaking, blue smoke issue been going on? It's tear into time!

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[Habbibie]

Do a compression test, is your antifreeze mixed with oil or your oil mixed with antifreeze? Get a couple cans of brake cleaner and clean off the oily spots maybe you can then tell for certain where the oil leak is developing

 

[stamp11127]

Just my two cents here.

It would be better for us if we new the maintenance history on the vehicle, how long have you owned it, what is your knuckle busting experience etc? Similar to the info a doctor would ask about you but in this case the vehicle.

 

[autoarcheologist]

Possible bad head gasket? Could be causing low compression or oil in a few cylinders plus leaking oil out the side.


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[deftone]

Hey folks, thanks for your replies. I guess I could have been a little better with information....but it was 1am, lol.

The truck is new to me. A buddy bought it at auction and I traded him for some 4-wheeler stuff. He doesnt have a mechanical bone in his body and had no intention of looking at it.

So basically I have no idea how or when this issue started. There is a stack of receipts for servicing/oil changes in the glovebox from a local Ford dealership, so I assume that the maintenance has mostly been kept up with. Although that doesnt guarantee anything! There are also fuel receipts in the centre console that show that it was driven up to pretty recently, so it hasnt been sitting parked for too long. I would assume that this was a pretty sudden issue.

As for my knuckle busting experience... well I work on Jet Engines for a living, so I can throw a wrench around, and have done work on my vehicles in the past. My troubleshooting experience isnt the deepest though.

I did note that there was no apparent oil/coolant mixing in the quick poke around I had. If the weather holds out I will get some hours on the truck tomorrow and hopefully find a smoking gun. Fingers crossed for something simple like a head gasket!

 

[deftone]

Do a compression test, is your antifreeze mixed with oil or your oil mixed with antifreeze? Get a couple cans of brake cleaner and clean off the oily spots maybe you can then tell for certain where the oil leak is developing

I have some cleaner but I dont think it will be too hard to locate the true source of the leak. Just a few seconds of running has a constant drip onto my driveway. Maybe a drop every two or three seconds? Updates to come in the morning!

 

[deftone]

Well the weather didnt want to cooperate today, but I got enough time on it to discover the source of the problem.

First of all, the oil leaks were from the valve cover. When I removed it I discovered that there was no gasket. Im assuming this means that someone was in here looking for the source of the smoke before me. Worrying!

I then noticed that I had some damage on one of the cam lobes. Closer inspection shows that the valve itself appears to be missing! WTF? Is it possible it has dropped down into the cylinder? And if so, wouldnt it have done some pretty obvious damage when the motor was running? I have a pretty decent borescope that I use for work, but unfortunately it was slightly too large to fit down into the cylinder. I will pick up a smaller one tomorrow from my shop. Either way I assume the head will be coming off.



Anybody seen anything like this before?

 

[autoarcheologist]

Wow, no!

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[1955moose]

Like I stated earlier its teardown time. I can't tell by your pictures, but are you saying a valve is completely missing? Or did the valve keepers and spring just break off. Theirs no conceivable way somebody would pull a cylinder head, remove a valve, then reinstall head! Your worn cam lobe along with the sunk valve tells me you had a frozen valve actuator, and that valve is bent in that valve guide. Oils pouring through that valve seal/guide which explains the blue smoke. It's up to you, but I'd probably try to find a low mileage engine to replace that one. For giggles tear that top end down to see how bad it is inside.

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[stamp11127]

The magic question now is.........does that cylinder have a piston?

Ya gotcha redneck reepair!!!

 

[1955moose]

I'm amazed it even ran. Only a Ford can run with 23 valves and get you home! Let's see Toyota pull off that one!

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[Habbibie]

Well that just blows, like moose said you're looking for a replacement motor and they ain't cheap sadly, I got lucky last year and found one for $700 from an 04 f150 but everything else I found was in the $2,000-$3000 price range

 

[1955moose]

He's got same year as yours. 2005-06 really had their teething problems. It's going to be interesting what his looks like inside. From what I read, later models like 2010 thru 2014 is the way to go. Apparently they improved oiling, and cam phasers on later model 5.4's.

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[Habbibie]

Different problem from mine, mine was the crankshaft guide bearing shells were worn down to the thickness of a paper and the oil passages were all blocked as the shells shifted around, his is top end problem might be a little less costly to salvage top end parts and retain the original bottom end

 

[1955moose]

It all seems to boil down to some kind of oiling problem on early three valves. Stuck valve lash adjusters, plugged cam phasers, or in your case bottom end bearings. So glad I got a spark plug spitter! I'm not touching my plugs till it won't start, won't pull a hill, or won't leave my driveway. I keep playing those $4.00 in lotto tickets, a 2018 F150 with the 5.0 would sure be nice in my driveway of my new house! 3 garage of course, 1 for my truck, 1 for my 1950's collector car, and 1 for my 2018 Honda Gold Wing! Well I can dream can't I?

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[deftone]

Like I stated earlier its teardown time. I can't tell by your pictures, but are you saying a valve is completely missing? Or did the valve keepers and spring just break off. Theirs no conceivable way somebody would pull a cylinder head, remove a valve, then reinstall head!

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As crazy as it seems,it appears that the valve is completely gone. The last pic is using my borescope shooting down the middle of the valve spring towards the valve guide. No valve to be seen. Is it possible it dropped all the way into the cylinder? With hindsight I realize I could have shoved the scope into the spark plug hole.

I should have time to pull the head tomorrow to answer this puzzle!

 

[deftone]

Ya gotcha redneck reepair!!!

Well this is South Louisiana! Some crazy stuff happens on the Bayou!

 

[deftone]

Well that just blows, like moose said you're looking for a replacement motor and they ain't cheap sadly, I got lucky last year and found one for $700 from an 04 f150 but everything else I found was in the $2,000-$3000 price range

My local pull-a-part has 2 F150s and a Expy with 5.4s. $200 if I pull them myself. Wouldn’t know the history but probably would be the route I would check out first!

 

[1997SCEBFEX]

My local pull-a-part has 2 F150s and a Expy with 5.4s. $200 if I pull them myself. Wouldn’t know the history but probably would be the route I would check out first!

tough call; either way some wrenching is forthcoming.