Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Pro_Marinero
Member
I recently had knee surgery and had to trade my beloved '98 4.0 5-speed with my father-in-law's '00 3.0 auto for a little while. I noticed the oil gauge was flickering a little when I got it. Not knowing about the cam synch issue, I figured it was a sender problem and thought I would change it for him before I gave it back.
Fast forward to last week. The gauge is getting worse. I notice that pressure steadies at about 1800 rpm but flips out when it goes down. As I'm testing this in the truck, the needle flips all the way around to under the stop peg.
Now I have a truck with no way to tell oil pressure.
I do some research and find the cam synch issue. I get a Motorcraft version to replace during the weekend.
I take the truck out for one trip to my knee doctor (didn't want to have him see me riding my motorcycle
). On the way home I see the Check Gage light on. With no way to tell what the oil pressure is doing I fear the worst and get the truck over.
I parked the truck until I could get to it last weekend. I replaced the oil pressure sender first and give the motor a quick 3-second start to check. No pressure. I then replaced the cam synch and started it. Needle in the middle with no flickering.
Now here's the issue. As I wasn't sure what the gear had done since I had no oil pressure, I chose to use the alignment tool rather than the mark-and-replace method as I wasn't sure if the gear may have jumped time due to damage. I set the motor at TDC and noticed that the sensor was at the left side of the gap (possibly a little more than the tool setting, but not much). I've seen a couple tech articles showing that the sensor pickup should be "right in the middle" of the gap. I used a Rockport cam synch tool for this model year of 3.0. It had the pickup to the very left of the window also. Since I got the truck back together I noticed the idle was crappy with the brake on in drive, almost as if it was near stalling. There is also a hesitation when I give it gas. I'm wondering if the tool I used was incorrect. It was a five-tool Ford set I got for $20. One of the tools has it in the middle of the gap, but the blue one I used shows it to the left. Am I out of time? It hasn't thrown any codes yet. I pulled the negative cable to reset the ECU and see what happens.
The truck did have the Check Engine light on when my FIL was driving it. I ran the codes and it showed Left Bank O2 sensors. I cleaned the MAF and changed the filthy air filter and told him to try that. Since then it had come back on and he asked me to take a look at it while I had it. It had been on for a little while with me and then went off. Could this be related?
I'm so sick of this truck. I want my 4.0 back.
Fast forward to last week. The gauge is getting worse. I notice that pressure steadies at about 1800 rpm but flips out when it goes down. As I'm testing this in the truck, the needle flips all the way around to under the stop peg.
Now I have a truck with no way to tell oil pressure. I do some research and find the cam synch issue. I get a Motorcraft version to replace during the weekend.
I take the truck out for one trip to my knee doctor (didn't want to have him see me riding my motorcycle
). On the way home I see the Check Gage light on. With no way to tell what the oil pressure is doing I fear the worst and get the truck over. I parked the truck until I could get to it last weekend. I replaced the oil pressure sender first and give the motor a quick 3-second start to check. No pressure. I then replaced the cam synch and started it. Needle in the middle with no flickering.
Now here's the issue. As I wasn't sure what the gear had done since I had no oil pressure, I chose to use the alignment tool rather than the mark-and-replace method as I wasn't sure if the gear may have jumped time due to damage. I set the motor at TDC and noticed that the sensor was at the left side of the gap (possibly a little more than the tool setting, but not much). I've seen a couple tech articles showing that the sensor pickup should be "right in the middle" of the gap. I used a Rockport cam synch tool for this model year of 3.0. It had the pickup to the very left of the window also. Since I got the truck back together I noticed the idle was crappy with the brake on in drive, almost as if it was near stalling. There is also a hesitation when I give it gas. I'm wondering if the tool I used was incorrect. It was a five-tool Ford set I got for $20. One of the tools has it in the middle of the gap, but the blue one I used shows it to the left. Am I out of time? It hasn't thrown any codes yet. I pulled the negative cable to reset the ECU and see what happens.
The truck did have the Check Engine light on when my FIL was driving it. I ran the codes and it showed Left Bank O2 sensors. I cleaned the MAF and changed the filthy air filter and told him to try that. Since then it had come back on and he asked me to take a look at it while I had it. It had been on for a little while with me and then went off. Could this be related?
I'm so sick of this truck. I want my 4.0 back.
Last edited:
I checked online to make sure I had the right Autolite plugs. Yep. Basically these things were stuck 1/4" higher in the head. No wonder this thing was sucking wind so bad. The wires were the same Mighty brand too. I guess somebody stuck the junk in the last time he paid for a tuneup. Anyway, the truck runs better now than it has in a long time so he's much happier. 
