Teach me about 5.4's please

[mtflat]

I'm modular stupid - now I've got that out of the way, I could use help with a problem.

My daughter, 1500 miles away, has a '97 Expedition 5.4 that recently spit out a plug. She drove it carefully about 2 blocks to home. They had it towed to a repair shop and had the plug/head repaired, but another problem has shown up. (Repair as near as I can tell was heli-coil type repair - head remained on the engine)

It won't run and a compression test apparently has pressure all over the board and varies between tests on same cylinders. Timing? Cam? ??

Any suggestions? It has 220,000 miles on the clock, so I'm thinking swap in a newer engine from a wrecked '01. Is that the best way to go or can you work magic with these mod engines?

Tell me what questions to ask and I'll do my best. Thanks guys - I owe you!

 

[blacksnapon]

Does it not run after they did the plug repair? Compression tests are pretty straightforward, not many ways to screw that up. I suppose that if the chains or cams were destroyed the readings could happen, but back to is it happening immediately after the plug repair?

 

[mtflat]

Yes, right after the plug repair. And it will start, just stumbles so badly they had to have it towed back home.

I have my doubts about the repairman they used. His ad in the phone book proudly proclaims he is a certified AC Delco service guy. I'm biased, but I haven't seen too many chevy repairmen who even want/know how to work on Fords......

He threw up his hands immediately and almost accused my daughter of bringing in a junk vehicle for him to work on. Except for the plug, it was their daily driver and was running ok before this.

 

[d-kuzmen]

They may have drilled into the piston when installing the sleeve or never cleaned out the metal shavings and now there floating around in the valves/intake.

 

[mtflat]

Thanks Dave and Vince - I have since bought a wrecked 01 Expy so I plan to swap engines. I'd say the damaged piston is a good possibility. The mech was supposed to have a high-tech gizmo to vacuum out the shavings, but who knows what actually happened. I know they're out $1,100 including 2 towing bills and it still doesn't run.

I'll pull the 5.4 from the '01 and do a road trip to Tucson one of these days. Anything I should be aware of between their '97 and the '01 as far as doing the swap? Block and heads are the same between the two, right? All I need is a gasket set and I should be good?

The '01 is labeled a Triton, whatever that means. Again, thanks!

 

[d-kuzmen]

Im not 100% but I do beleive there gonna be the same. Good luck....

 

[mtflat]

Thanks again, I'll let you know how things go.