To be fair, vehicles in this configuration (longitudally mounted front engine rear/four wheel drive) which do NOT require this is a seriously short list…possibly zero today, though there have been a few in the past.
I called AutoZone. They have one with a $140 deposit. So essentially free when I return it. May go get it tomorrow and yet again drain out the oil I just put in there
Drain your oil into a clean (very clean) drain pan and you can reuse it.
Also, in one of the other replies somebody said something about pulling out the distributor and using a drill on the oil pump drive shaft to spend the pump and check for pressure that way.
Have you done that?
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I have not tried that and honestly I have no clue how to go about doing that. I’ve not really delved into the internals of a truck/car engine. If it were a motorcycle it would already be in pieces
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If you’re willing/able to delve into a bike, SBF is a piece of piss.
The cam on SBF drives the distributor from a gear on the front, just behind the timing chain. The oil pump also bolts to the block just behind the timing gears. There is a (hex shaped, if I recall properly) drive shaft that slips into the oil pump, and the bottom of the distributor, driving the oil pump off the distributor. Thus, you can pull the distributor, leaving (or replacing with a substitute - there are “tools” out there for this) the shaft down to the oil pump. Putting a drill on that shaft, and spinning it anti-clockwise will work the pump, pressurizing everything if it’s all working as-desired.
The upside is no dropping pans or lifting engines.
The downside is you GOTTA get that dizzy back in right and know how (have the equipment) to re-time the beast…
Here’s a cutaway of the front end timing stuff:
lifted from this web site
and you can (sort of) see the distributor drive gear meshing with the cam gear with the shaft coming out the bottom…
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this.
That is exactly how I learn how to prime distributor Motors when I was a kid first learning. And if you take a valve cover off, you should be able to see oil flowing into the head through the oil holes.
A quick trick about the distributor and making sure you get it back in right: take a grease pen or a paint pen and put a mark on it (or 2 90° from each other) so when you reinstall the distributor, making sure you line it up correctly is a hell of a lot easier.
I’ve actually seen guys, and done this myself, and had the timing almost dead on to where it originally was.
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Odd, looks like 04+ they got their act together, and now have a bolt in, removable crossmember. So as long as you don’t have a 4x4 front axle in the way, it is just the cross member and sway bar to unbolt. And the 4x4 only requires lowering the axle in place.
I only checked because I’m going to need to replace chain guides, tensioners, phasers, and chains on my 05 before too long, and there is always the risk that part of the chain guide is in the pan. Plus, apparently it is highly recommended to change the oil pump that is coaxial around the crank while doing the rest, and it may make sense to drop the pan for that anyway. Apparently they don’t last as long when running crankshaft RPM instead of half as fast.
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You should have a 4.6L or a 5.4L in yours. I built a lot of those in Mustangs back in the day. (5.4L Navigator swaps were really popular)
Replacing the timing and oil pump is easy just time consuming because of everything you have to remove to get the timing cover off. Most of it should be 10mm, 11mm and 13mm bolts.
The tensioners will have a little pin in them, don’t remove the pins until your ready to put the timing cover back on, it makes things so much easier. (Ask me how I know 
)
Your timing chains will have 2 goldish colored links. Line those links up to the dots on the cam and the crankshaft and your timing is set. If memory serves correctly, the passenger side timing chain will go on the rear sprocket on the crankshaft and the driver side timing chain will go on front sprocket of the camshaft. Unless you have an external Steeda timing adjuster)
The most difficult part about changing out the oil pump is going to be the way the pickup tube is connected to the oil pump. Other than that, everything will clear the pan just fine.
Thanks for the detailed explanation and pic! I had seen the oil pump and shaft from a diff video but wasn’t aware the distributor connected all the way to the pump shaft. Also read that it’s quite easy for the pump shaft to fall out of it’s hole and end up in the pan. Maybe that’s what I’ll find when I bore scope. If that’s the case apparently if you can fish it out it can be reinstalled via the distributor hole.
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Yeah, the infamous 5.4 3 valve. I think it was a couple of years ago that I finally got around to doing the first spark plug change at 120K miles. But slightly warm and air impact managed to get them all out with none broken. But I had the lisle tool on hand just in case. I’m not expecting timing system work to be too difficult, just time consuming. And I’m debating if I want to replace the roller rockers out of an abundance of caution while I’m in there.
Once I get that done, the AC compressor has had an obviously bad/missing wobble plate bushing on one cylinder for years. I’m pleasantly shocked it still works. So once the timing work is done, hello new AC compressor, condenser, and drier.
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To be completely honest, the roller rockers in those Motors were surprisingly Stout.
We did more than a couple 5.4 3 valve Mustangs with turbos and NOS and didn’t have a single problem with the Rockers.
The secret of the Rockers is making sure that the torque spec is exactly right and it’s a pretty low torque spec so it’s easy to over torque and even break off one of the rocker bolts. (Again, ask me how I know )
So, got a chance to borescope the oil pan. First off, don’t bother with renting the Autozone scope. It may be ok for places that already have a ton of light but its utterly useless for anywhere that requires you to see in the dark. It was like looking into the abyss. Bought a relatively higher dollar Depstech one on Amazon that worked perfectly.
Unfortunately I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Oil pickup didn’t appear to be clogged and the oil pump shaft is in place (as far as I could tell)
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