Ok eveyone. sorry it took me so long to respond. i started a new job this week and haven't had much time. i also didn't have time before to elaborate on everything before but now i do so i will give you the whole scoop....here we go....
Bought a 2007 F150 Supercab that originally came with a 5.4L in it. For some reason, the original motor was in the bed of the truck in many pieces. no idea why. I went over the engine and could not find any problems with it at all but instead of rebuilding it and putting it back in, i got my hands on another engine out of a wrecked 06 F150 crew cab (4x4 i think) pickup. This motor obviously ran fine when it was wrecked. I took the motor out of that truck, took the wiring harness, and the computer all with me.
The driver side head on the front had some damage from the wreck along with the front V shaped crank cover. I had the old cover and the old heads in perfect condition off the 07 motor so i bought a gasket kit from ford (just to be safe) and replaced both heads and both sets of gaskets and everything else that could have been replaced as well. The timing chain on the drivers side had taken a small lick from the wreck and messed up one of the links so just to be safe, i bought a whole new set of timing chains as well from ford.
Before you question the timing and the positioning of the chains and the cam gears, i went to the local dealer and had them print me out an instruction pamplet on how to install the chains and the gears properly. It was a ford instruction sheet. and it had very clear and plain pictures and i guarantee it was done like the booklet showed.
I reassembled the entire engine, put new spark plugs in it (stupid exspensive plugs - 18 bucks a piece) and checked everything and them reinstalled the 06 <<<<< yes the 06 wiring harness. (yes this is wrong but just keep reading)
After i got the engine back in the truck, i began putting everything else on the outside of the motor and this is when i found out that the 06 harness wasn't going to work. the 06 had a manual fan and the 07 had an electric fan. since the wrecked truck destroyed the original fan i decided to use the 07 electric fan. I then spent about 30 minutes fighting with the harnesses trying to get one off and the other on. BOTH harnesses are in execellent shape. no signs of damage or crushed areas or anything.
after reassembly was complete in my garage, i decided to see if it would fire up. Of course it wouldn't because i forgot about the key and the different computer. No biggie. took it to the dealer and they programmed the keys and it fired right up but with a few minor problems. the engine wouldn't run very well and was rough idle. and it got rougher after it warmed up too. the tech said i needed a new Mass air flow and cam sensors. I told him to leave it be and i would take care of it. A friend who had a tow truck owed me a free tow so i took the truck back home, pulled out my brothers aftermarket OBDII reader and read the codes to see what i could find out.
The MAF and the cam sensors were giving giving DTC's so i dug a little into those sensors. Turns out my 08 V6 work truck used the same part number MAF that my truck did. so i swapped them. The work truck would give the same exact readings on both sensors and my truck would give absolutely nothing. No voltage, no air readings, nothing. I traced the wiring harness back to the computer pin by pin and ohm'd out the wires. there were no shorts, and no open wires. all was good. so i put it back together.
Then i next addressed the Cam sensors. Went and bought a new one since it was fairly cheap and tried it on one side. No change. tried it on the other side, no change. swapped the old ones around with the new one trying to move the problem or make it show its face any way i could, no change anywhere. I fought this for a few days off and on doing searches on google trying to figure out what was happening.
I found several postings like this that had lists of trouble codes and i looked at them all and they were all the same. unfortunately at this very moment i do not remember the codes it showed but that might not matter in a second after i tell you some more.
When i finally felt I had hit a wall, i took the truck to the only mechanic in the area that knows more about these trucks than the dealer guys do. Of course the dealer usually has access to more than a local mechanic does but those guys at the dealer are not very intelligent and dont want to take the time to do the research. As a matter of fact, i had to show the tech there how to program my PATS system for my keys and i had never even seen the dealer software before. thats not saying much for those guys.
My mechanic has had the truck for a few months now, and he's doing be a favor basically and working on it in his spare time. however at this point he probably has about 40 hours in it trying to figure it out. I doubt i get billed for that much, but he's determined to figure it out. and he's a really good guy who cares about what he does. so that helps.
After all this time of tracing wires, swapping sensors, and checking codes with a much more advanced computer than what i had, he can't say for certain but he believes the problem to be in the computer. Now since i have an 06 computer in my 07 truck, and dont have the original for some unknown reason, we do not have the original calibration code off the original computer to allow us to order a new one. and there are 6 different options for that VIN says the dealer. I made some other calls and got a friend of mine at another dealer out of state to do some digging and he managed to trace that VIN backwards to the manufacture's warehouse and found out what the original calibration code was. So now he has it and is waiting for me to make a decision on whether or not i want to order a $539.00 computer. and thats Dealer cost...still Ugh.
my original question on this site was how to figure out the original cali code but my NEW question now is, does anyone know if it is possible to program a 06 computer to work on an 07 truck. The instrument cluster is the original 07 cluster as well. If i order a new computer, the dealer will have to program it anyways so i would like to know if programming the 06 is a possibility. if not, then i will order a new computer and pray that it fixes the problem. although at this point, no one, including the dealer, my mechanic, or any tech lines he can call, seem to know what the deal is. This will be a great truck if i can ever get it running right. but if not, then i got a very expensive front yard ornament.
Any help or advise i can get i will take. also please give me at least 24 hours to respond if you ask me any questions. if you email me personally i might get back sooner. but i cant promise anything.
thanks in advance for all help.
Isaac
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