My 2000 5.4L F150 uses a lot of oil. Doesn't burn it, or drop it on the ground. Did some looking around the motor and found oil in the valley in between the heads. Tried new valve cover gaskets and still looses oil. Any suggestions as to what would be leaking the oil. Thanks.

 

head gasket? whats the mileage? how much is it leaking?

 

It has 130000, been doing this for some time. I would say a quart or so a month.

 

i got a '97 with the 5.4L, and mine does that too. It doesn't burn or drip oil, it just kinda eats it. And I too have to feed it about a quart a month. Im not sure what the problem is, im just saying your not the only one.

 

from what I'm gathering is its a blown head gasket. I always thought that the tell tale sign of a head gasket failure is antifreeze in the oil. Which I don't have. But I don have oil on top of the motor in the valley under the intake in between the heads. I guess I'm hoping for something else then a head gasket..........

 

My '03 5.4 7700 work truck got the head gasket leak at 125K. I never noticed oil on the ground, but noticed oil all over the underside of the truck, even spotting the tailgate if I didn't wash it often.

My understanding is that, during production, a chip of metal sometimes fell across a gasket for the high pressure oil feed to the head causing an oil leak after some period of time. If this is the case I would think it would only leak when the truck was running, where the wind from driving would smear it under the truck rather than drip to the ground.

BTW the mechanic at work had a real good time fixing it (it took him 2 tries)

 

Did you ever find out what is causing the oil in the intake valley? I have a 01 5.4 that is doing the same thing. No oil anywhere else to be found. The truck has 145K. Have the opportunity to purchase an aftermarket warranty and trying to decide whether to do it or not. Thanks for any light you can shed on the cause of your oil problem.

 

It's not uncommon for the 5.4 to burn or use a little oil. I would check around the pcv system. My last truck didnt collect oil in the valley, but it did eat a quart every oil change. If I took the throttle body off and looked down inside the intake, the bottom of the silencer always had oil in it, never figured out where or how it got there (cant think of any other place other than the pcv system) but the truck had 160k on it and ran like a champ when I sold it.

 

Thanks. I'll do some more checking. I started a new thread "5.4L oil collecting in intake valley" as I didn't realize this one would "bump" to the top. I'll post anything I find out there.