re: F150 code question from check engine light

I have a good friend who is a mechanic. I worked at his shop in the body side of it all through high school and college. He's worked on countless Fords from 04-10 with the 5.4 and 4.6. In his experiences with these motors it's not even close in comparison the number of 5.4 3 valves that had the issue with the loud tick and cam phaser failure issues as the 4.6. From 04-08 before they updated the 5.4, almost every engine from that range that he worked on had some sort of issues pertaining to the cam phasers. In 09 the problem was fixed for the most part, as was the issue with the spark plugs that always broke off in the heads.

If I had to put a number on it from what I've seen over the years with those two engines, I would say that 4/5 of the 5.4's from 04-08 would have those issues, where only 1/5 of the 4.6's would have the same issues.

From my personal experience the 4.6 was far less likely to suffer the same issues as the 5.4.