Jasper 5.4 Reman Engine with Cam Phaser Lockout!?

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Apr 15, 2017
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Napa, CA.
Had a customer last night at the parts store. He wanted his check engine light read. P0172 so I printed it for him.

Got talking to him and he mentioned engine and trans had just been replaced with Jasper.

The Jasper trans failed at 6K miles. So that was replaced under warranty. Apparently the pump died?

Of course he mentions how much he hates the 5.4 3v in his truck but he paid Jasper $700 extra for a cam phaser lockout. I asked him how that worked in terms of the PCM. Apparently they send you a programmer to tune the PCM.

Overall I thought this was fascinating. Instead of just rebuilding it right with a quality Ford timing set they offer this ridiculous solution?

Any thoughts on whether this cam phaser lockout thing is as ridiculous as it sounds?
 
It's the tune that costs so much. It's the "Oh goodness, I'm so afraid this is going to happen again, what can I do to eliminate the possibility?"

When you show someone a couple blocks of metal and tell them it'll "inactivate the bad stuff" then many get sold on it.

Truth is the lockouts prevent the symptom from coming back, but do nothing about the oil flow and shoddy tensioners that caused the phasers to clack. They also rob power in the area where timing is normally advanced.

Hope he's got a high volume oil pump and good tensioners in that engine, or it's just as apt to fail as the original, and instead of having clacking phasers to warn him, he'll have nothing to warn him. He probably does, and the engine is probably just fine without the lockouts and its expensive tune.
 
It's kind of a hack way out of doing the right thing. Just use OE timing components, a Melling HV pump, and 5W30 and the engine is going to get many reliable miles. A tuner is needed on the 3V 5.4Ls to fix the awful throttle response issue.

Now lockouts are generally needed when putting in bigger cams that will have PTV contact with the full movement of the phasers. Or else just tune them, but that requires work that people don't want to do.
 
Jesus, people really pay Jasper this much?

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Is Dorman actually doing the tune or is this Livernois? Livernois is all over FTE claiming to be awesome.

I'm personally in favor of reverting to the old metal ratcheting tensioners but I think phaser lockouts are a bridge too far. That's just me.
 
I know a woman locally who paid a shop over $9k to put a reman Jasper in her '05 F150.

I understand that's actually inexpensive for indy labor+supplies+Jasper but I couldn't see dumping that much into a 3V, esp a Jasper which I wouldn't trust

I mean, I’d go OE or bust on these but my buddy’s Expy with the 5.4 3v is a NICE truck and gets excellent MPG (for what it is, a massive 4WD SUV). So $9k beats a new one, have you seen the price of those things!?
 
It's kind of a hack way out of doing the right thing. Just use OE timing components, a Melling HV pump, and 5W30 and the engine is going to get many reliable miles. A tuner is needed on the 3V 5.4Ls to fix the awful throttle response issue.

Now lockouts are generally needed when putting in bigger cams that will have PTV contact with the full movement of the phasers. Or else just tune them, but that requires work that people don't want to do.
Have a '11 Navigator with the 5.4 3V, would a accelerator pedal commander take care of the delay and sluggish response kinda the same as a tune?
 
It's kind of a hack way out of doing the right thing. Just use OE timing components, a Melling HV pump, and 5W30 and the engine is going to get many reliable miles. A tuner is needed on the 3V 5.4Ls to fix the awful throttle response issue.

Now lockouts are generally needed when putting in bigger cams that will have PTV contact with the full movement of the phasers. Or else just tune them, but that requires work that people don't want to do.
Have a '11 Navigator with the 5.4 3V, would a throttle response controller take care of the delay and sluggish response kinda the same as a tune?
 
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Have a '11 Navigator with the 5.4 3V, would a accelerator pedal commander take care of the delay and sluggish response kinda the same as a tune?
Our '08 came with an SCT "power" tune already on it from the PO. This is something I likely never would have done myself but I'm impressed with the results. Throttle response and driveability is very good.

I just did a CHT sensor (oh joy!) on an '06 Expedition with the same motor and on my test drive afterward I was shocked at how sluggish the stock 5.4 3V felt. Throttle response was also very delayed....BUT I had had the battery disconnected all morning so I don't know if it would be any better once it relearned throttle trims??? Zero stored or pending codes after my test drive, FWIW.
 
That customer should have just bought a new truck and parted out the old one.
I'm honestly not sure how Ford is still in business between the mass failures of the 6.0 Powerstroke, 5.4 3V, and the Focus transmissions. With those three it's a matter of when, not if. We have municipalities around here that won't even consider purchasing Fords after their issues with the 6.0 in ambulances.
 
I'm honestly not sure how Ford is still in business between the mass failures of the 6.0 Powerstroke, 5.4 3V, and the Focus transmissions. With those three it's a matter of when, not if. We have municipalities around here that won't even consider purchasing Fords after their issues with the 6.0 in ambulances.
The 6.0L and the 6.4L were of course the reason Ford scrapped their decades long relationship with International and developed the Scorpion 6.7L in-house, which has, by most accounts, been excellent.

The 3V Modular was Ford showing everyone how they could screw-up a previously bulletproof engine family, lol.

I give them a bit more leeway on the transmission issue, as every marque has mated a disaster to one of their engines at one time or another and Ford has produced some excellent automatics as well.
 
The 3V will run and run if maintained well. Which doesn't always happen. The weak link in them was the OE tensioners with horribly inadequate seals on them. The seals were actually between the tensioner body and the block with nothing holding them in place but bolt pressure. They squish out from under the tensioner. It wasn't that they were plastic, it was the bad seal design. Then the oil pump was just enough to be adequate with no loss of pressure. Seal blows, insufficient oil pressure, "it just makes noise on startup but it's fine" for a few years, then phasers wear out, valvetrain wears... The revised Ford tensioners place the seal behind an outer wall. Frankly I don't see how the seals actually do anything. They obviously can't hold pressure if you just look at them. It's the tensioner body that holds pressure on the new ones.

I've got an '05 and when I bought it, the throttle was way too touchy until it warmed up, then it was perfectly normal. After a timing job and memory clear it functions perfectly all the time (knock on wood). I wonder how much of these delayed throttle incidents would be fixed by a relearn.

The 2v's were too perfect to survive. ☹️
 
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