Hi everyone,

I'm looking at buying a BF Fairmont Ghia Mkii. with the 5.4L V8 in it. (How many of these were there, by the way? Because I don't see many). Anyway, the main thing bothering me is what I think is a lifter noise. Was it common on that engine? The seller tells me his mechanic says its fine and you can just ignore it and live with it. An independent inspector tells me to steer clear of it because one way or another I'm going to end up pulling the engine out to replace valves, or cam phasers or whatever.

Any thoughts here? Known issue? Something to be worried about?

Daniel, how did you go with the BF

Check out FordTechMakuloco, he has a youtube channel that's seems to revolve around fixing the 5.4 3V in the states. He shows how to diagnose with a scan tool etc.

From memory he has one video talking about lifters and saying it was common on cylinder 7 for it to throw one (fingers cross it throws it up and out of the way).

If you haven't bought it yet, as Im finding out the big issue is mechanics here seem too struggle diagnosing issues. I have major issues with mine and spent a small fortune and everyone is arms up going that's strange, no idea, ask about the 4V sure they have the answer, but its rare beast in Au. I'm looking at timing chains etc now so the engine can be a hand grenade, especially if not looked after. The bonus however is how many there are in the US so you can see what issues they have.

That said, I still love the LTD and don't intend on selling, and thinking of dumping the 5.4 in the future if I ever get the funds (be aware that's not money you'll ever get back).

Tootall what problems are you having with yours.

Start of the year (it may just be related to that fact its the year 2020) I have a to get one of the drive shafts replace and at the same-time I've been chasing a misfire issues, surging, high fuel consumption and some-other vibration and timing chain slapping.

I'm not sure if the BA ECU has a mode 6 as FORScan reports a malfunction when I try to access, would have helped a lot.

The misfire looks like it was just an ignition coil, the other issues Im still trying to resolve and Im hoping replacing the timing chain, phases etc will resolve that. It was like this year decided to ambush me with issues and a redundancy so funds are limited.

All that said, before these issues it was a beautiful drive and I plan to get it back to that (better than new ), but I won't lie, I had thought about it more than once whether I should cut my losses. But also for a car that's 15 years old, its done well and I expected some cost.

I've had the failed phasor issue with my BA Fairmont Ghia V8. Failed due to a blown gasket under the Drivers side tensioner. Slow leak at the time which caused the same side phasor to fail.
I did both Phasors and Tensioners back in 2014 and put 30K's on the car which I recently sold, still running fine.
My current project is a BF Fairmont Ghia V8 with slight chain rattle at hot idle and misses which I am about to attack. All plugs have been changed. The phasors are quiet so my problem may be low old pressure. I have a new pump. Will attack the miss first and let you know how I go.

I've found Forscan very handy.

Thanks, be good to hear how it works out.