Wow, seems like quite an ordeal. I hope for your sake the missing screen isn't clogging something as well. It sounds like the ATF is helping, so another treatment or so probably won' be a waste of time or money.

Continuing. Yesterday went with the wife to the malls and a bunch of other running around. Finding a parking spot after highway driving is probably one of the best tests. The stopped idle seemed to be the tiniest bit low a couple of times being 500 instead of the usual 550. But never any shaking or code. I'm thinking about doing another cleaning with tranny fluid. I pulled the oil filler extension for the cap out of the valve cover and it still has a far amount of gunk coating. I still worry about that screen and/or whatever might have broken it still floating around. In a diagram I saw it shows that passage feeds straight to the cam phasers and I hope they didn't get any damage. I saw videos of them being replaced and I don't have the time to do that and definitely don't have the money to pay someone else. So, I'm driving it a bit longer before I give it back to my wife and hope it is ok.

Hit limit per post, continuing. There was mentioned that sometimes the P0022 will pop when it really should be a P0021 (left bank), thus replacing both. I didn't know if the screen breaking caused the problem or if something hit the screen and passed through with the screen. Since the solenoids are primarily oil pressure driven (except after startup and until oil gets to a certain temperature), and there was a lot mentioned that because of that the oil needs to be changed often and not allowed to gunk up or use the wrong weight. Plus I was slightly worried the screen was also still in a passage possibly causing a clog. I did the tranny fluid trick Saturday morning. Nasty stuff came out with the oil. Filter was close to clogged (only a couple weeks old). Reset the computer. Drove it the rest of that day.

Last easy step before pulling off front of motor and looking at the cam timing phasers. It was pulling a P0022, VCT drivers side retarded. Cam sensors tested good. Pulled the drivers side VCT solenoid. One of the screens had a big tear in it with most missing. The bottom of that solenoid had a clip, so I took it apart and the internal piston had a knick in it. It slid one way fine, but not the other way. The inside of the valve cover was totally gooped up. I polished the piston and put it back in. Cleared codes. Next day P0022 came back. The P0022 popped up each time in conjunction with slow driving after warm up and a bit of highway driving mixed in. The coming to a stop or very slow turn would make it shake terribly because the timing wasn't switching back to what it should be for slow speeds. (I spent hours learning how the VCT works for the 5.4L 2004/2005) I bought two new solenoids and installed them

So I'm still curious as to why you suspect clogged passages.

Thanks for sharing your experience with this. I think I'll do it tomorrow, jump on the expressway to the next exit 10 miles down. Do a return trip. 20 miles/20 minutes at about 1,700 rpms. I'll drain the oil right away to give it a look and cut open the filter. Also check the outlet at the block to the filter.

My dad had a customer bring their Ford Tempo with the 2.3L in with 30k miles on their oil. When I removed the drain plug nothing came out. I walked across the shop to get Dad and by the time we got back to the car the oil was hanging down about 2 inches. It was about the consistency of recently chewed bubble gum. In that case, we did 3.5 qts of ATF and 1 qt 5W-30, ran the car for 20 minutes or so, and drained it while still hot. We then put in 4.5 qts 5W-30 and a new filter and the car continued to run fine for several more years. Normally though Dad suggested 1 qt ATF in place of 1 qt oil, run the engine for 20 minutes at idle, drain, change the filter and refill with 4.5 or 5 qts oil. In your situation, 2 qts of ATF with a 7 qt system seems reasonable. I doubt you'd need to go 3 days if you drive 120 miles per day. I think if the ATF is going to do the trick, it will do it within 120 miles.

-Rod

Hey Rod, I'd like your opinion. I have a post in Expeditions with no responses. I think the oil passages are clogged from previous owner bad maintenance. I read that putting in some tranny fluid, which has more cleaners than oil, will help that. But it didn't say how much or for how long. I'm thinking of draining the oil and putting in 5 qts oil and 2 qts tranny fluid (7 qt capacity on the 2005 5.4L). Then driving to work (120 miles a day) for 3 days then refilling with new oil and new filter. Thoughts?