Ford F-150 (2004-2008) :: Rough Idle / P0012 - Misfire Codes Associated With Bank 1 And Cylinder 3

5.4 3v. my last few weeks have not made me a fan. Here are the details:

I bought a 2008 F150 XL 5.4 3v with a cam phaser knock. Have done other timing jobs in past with no trouble so I was not too afraid to tackle this one. famous last words...opened the motor (shout out to the passenger side valve cover and its designer here) and found semi damaged roller follower on driver side. Worn cam lobe on the corresponding lobe and a loose chain on passenger side. proceeded to :

Change all timing components: phasers, chains, tensioners crank sprocket, all applicable bolts and BOTH cams as well as all lash adjusters and roller followers. most looked fine in fact all really did with a bit of wear on a few roller followers but only one bad one. engine didn't look to bad pretty clean.

Double and triple checked my timing chains and it was spot on. dark link on spot on crank, two dark links on the L and R dead on. put it back together. oh yes, changed all plugs with motorcraft ones, didn't even break one. did not change vct solenoids because I falsely assumed I could change the later easily if needed. they looked ok. screens intact etc... silly me for not realizing how kind Ford was in 2007 and later to necessitate removal of valve cover. I was reading a previous one on the how tos and assumed later models would be the same since it was the same sensor...

Cranked truck ran great. I mean perfect. sounded perfect. ran like a scalded cat. till it got to hot idle then it started doing its thing. rattle shake till you revved it. ran fine just wouldn't hot idle fine especially in reverse or under slight load. replaced driver side vct since ford only had one and I started on the easy side ordered the other one waiting for it. seemed to improve dramatically meanwhile I am driving this truck to test it. I drove it to work 50 miles each way and it ran great.

After a few trips it popped the P0420 light, seemed to run ok, cleared it watched it wouldn't come back. O2 sensor did seem to imply a bad cat on bank 1 since it seemed sensor two was mimicking sensor one and not staying stead like the other bank. still ran fine,

So I decided to check back pressure on the cat. I pulled sensor one out of bank one (really a joyously tight squeeze in there) hooked up my gauge and got 0 back pressure. revved it and all nothing. hooked sensor back up pulled truck out of shop and it commenced to running like crap. I mean bad. running worse than before I got it. Popping P0012 code continuously, and tons of misfire codes associated with bank 1 ..cyl 3 etc.. I tried swapping coils, pulled coils and checked spark with a tester and firing away looks like tons of good spark.

Now the weird part is : looks like bank one is dead. I can unhook any coil pack and/or injector and it runs the same and sounds like it is missing. if I unhook one off of bank 2 it almost dies or does. so bank 2 seems to be running fine. it will start and run but sounds like it missing sets flashing check engine light and backfires and stalls like crazy. I even second guessed my pressure gauge and unhooked exhaust manifold from pipe and it sounds even prettier when it backfires out of there but no change. I pulled cam sensors and cleaned it again and even tried swapping them since they looked identical but no change so I put them back.

Now I can only surmise that I am out of time somehow? or I have a gremlin perhaps? I like working on cars (usually) but this one is getting old. how do I verify what is wrong. if it is timing related how do I verify that now definitively once my marks moved I really cant figure out how to tell if it is in time? Since it has all new parts and they all ran beautifully till now. could it possibly be the vct solenoid doing all this? I plan on changing it when it comes in but surely it cant cause this many problems.. I unhooked it no change, and it does it at a cold idle and any rpm. really runs worse at idle but bad at any rpm.