Opinions on the 5.4 Litre Ford Triton Engine

[RVTECH]

My daughter admitted to me yesterday she made a mistake in buying her Mitsubishi Montaro and should have bought a pickup like she wanted so now she has her eye on a real nice 2001 F-150 four door short box. Good looking truck. It has a 6" lift with what are probably 35" Toyos (go figure - my daughter is 5'2" - she looked like a midget standing next to it) BUT I have no experience with the Triton engines - please advise!

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[spectra]

I have no experience with the 5.4 I have a 5.0 in mine. My neighbor has one and has had no issues and to be honest have not heard any bad things about them. Might want to look here though I am sure you will find info Ford F150 Forum - Community of Ford Truck Fans - Powered by vBulletin I know that motor has been around for a while so probably no real issues.

 

[2Wheels4Ever]

My next door neighbor has one. He is a mechanic and takes good care of it, and it has taken good care of him. Horrible gas mileage, but a solid engine from what I have seen and heard him say. He has been a mechanic for longer than I have been alive, and I trust what he has to say. As with any used car though, the engine quality or reputation takes back seat to how that individual motor was serviced. If the previous owners pulled heavy loads and changed the oil every 10k miles then it will most likely not be a good engine no matter what others are getting out of their motors.

 

[trainsktg]

I had a 2001 F150 Supercrew (four door shortbox) with the 5.4l Triton until about a year ago (I sold it to buy a Jeep that I could pull behind my motorhome). I got at best about 18mpg on the highway, a little over 15.5 tooling around town. I had no trouble with the engine and would buy another vehicle equipped with one. It was a very powerful and quick truck. My motorhome has the big brother V10 Triton and it is a powerhouse. The only issue I know of is that the heads are aluminum, so you can't indiscriminately torque the spark plugs after you change them, or you could strip the threads. The good news is you don't have to even consider changing them until after 100k. One of my old company's work F150s had over 250k on the original plugs; the engine ran fine and the mileage was still very good.

Keith

 

[ATCclears]

We have a 2000 Expedition 4x4 with the 5.4L engine. We've owned the vehicle since new, 136K miles on it now, and have had no problems with the engine. Gas mileage averages about 11mpg, but the wife is a bit of a lead foot and I've seen 17mpg on the highway.

Peter

 

[Redcap]

Tough but inefficient.

 

[clambo]

It has a good reputation as a reliable, long lived engine. Gas mileage not that great but what full size 4x4 has ever delivered good mileage? Especially not with a 6" lift and 35" off road tires. Heck, the tire cost is some pretty good coin by itself. Im gonna guess $1200 every 30k maybe? Im sometimes glad I got old. Next thing you know shell want lockers and a winch!

 

[Redcap]

In a truck with a 6" lift and 35s (and probably geared wrong), you will be looking at 10-12 mpg tops. For reference, the built 454 in my K25 pulls those numbers through a carburetor making that horrid gas mileage for a fuel injected vehicle.

 

[spectra]

I look at it this way. If purchasing a truck you are not going for mpg they have one use towing and hauling things. My old SD 7.3 with 37s and a 6 inch lift got 13 to 15 on average. Not as good as a Honda... My new F150 is the same 12 to 15 also. I purchased both for one purpose towing and hauling things around. F150 has 33s and no lift.

And as for tires yes they are spendy when you go bigger.

 

[notazombie]

If the truck was stock and had a verifiable maintenance history it'd probably be a safe bet. Since it's lifted and runs big tires, I'd be cautious. All that stuff adds extra strain on everything. Makes a truck get old (and expensive) before it's time. The Modular engine family is pretty hearty. The 3 valve version is known to have spark plug thread issues. All of them are pretty sensitive to oil change intervals. It's still 3000 miles, fellas -- I don't care what the interweb says. Neglecting that cheap service is a recipe for timing chain issues and oil consumption. I see it regularly.

 

[orygun]

The 5.4l engine is nearly bulletproof. Not as efficient as the new 5.0l or Ecotech v6, but will live for a very long time. My dad's has over 180K one it and several of our customers have nearly 300k on them with no engine work except maintenance.
17-18 mpg is about as good as it gets, but it will also tow much more than you would expect. You may pay a little for gas, but you'll save on repairs.

 

[dude young]

The only engine repair I did to my 5.4 ('99 Super Duty) was the coils. I developed a miss fire in one cylinder. I replaced all eight coils at the advice of an old friend that is a Ford master tech. If you have to change the spark plugs, bring it somewhere. If you break a plug off, you are screwed. If someone else does, they pay to remove the motor to get at the busted plug.

 

[RVTECH]

Next thing you know shell want lockers and a winch!

Yes I know - I own her previous Jeep! And now she wants a pink Glock!

 

[1990Turbo]

I have an older 5.4 in my 97 expedition has 175,000 miles and like has been said had a coil go bad but was only 40 bucks for a new one. Plug change was a pita and yes be very carfull when torqueing them in. Stripped holes suck I have fixed some before. Also stated was mileage yup not great but they are plenty powerful. I tow my race car on a flat bed right around 5k pounds and does pretty good.

 

[John Gault]

2005 F150 FX4 with 5.4L Was told that there were issues with original plugs being too tight tolerance and breaking plugs at change. Went to have plugs changed at about 80,000 miles and Ford Quoted me $1,200.00 plus extra labor for any broken plugs they break while doing the job...........because it's not their fault the design was bad???

Took it to another local dealer and they said they hardly ever break plugs any more with lots of experience behind them. Broke like 5 of my plugs but got the job done for less than the Ford Dealer. They also had to replace 4 coils and I had them replace the other 4 coils at about 130,000. ON the bright side.........Once you replace the plugs with updated plugs its supposed to be No problem next time. I'd make sure that the vehicle has plugs changed from original stock prior to owning another.

All total I have 160,000 miles on my rig with that being the only real issue to speak of.

 

[Vanillagerrilla]

I have a 2006 FX4 Super crew with the 5.4L, no issues other than gas mileage. I cant keep my foot out of the pedal , so I pay the Horse power tax...
The spark plugs are an issue if you wait longer than about 90K miles to change them out. And yes, for some reaon they are a 2 piece spark plug...
Solid trucks, easy to work on, very dependable.

 

[trainsktg]

The 2001 F150 has regular plugs. If you have the 2V motor, they are regular plugs. (Its the 3V motors that have the 2-piece plugs.) With the former, you do need to be careful when torquing them down. Its not a cast iron head you're cranking on.

I did run into a fellow once with a truck identical to mine, both all stock, except he had like 36" tires on his. He got somewhere around 9-10mpg to my 17-18 outside of the city.

Keith

 

[01rednavigator]

I have a 2001 Lincoln Navigator with an Intech 5.4L 4V DOHC engine , it is the same engine they put in the 2000 mustang cobra and has 300 HP it is a much better engine than the 5.4 Triton. But this engine only came in the navigators.

However the triton 5.4 is still a very good engine, you should get at the least 300,000 out of it. I know several people with Expeditions with the same engine and they are very happy with it, the only major problems they can have is spark plug blow out. This is usually not a problem if you keep the plugs torqued to the factory spec.

Head over to this forum, it has helped me a lot with my Navigator.

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