New 5.0L built, low compression and horrible MPG

Stuff

Crunchy Frog, that is a great thing to look for.
TPS's seem to fail often on the 5.0L.

1997XLTRollover,
If your scan tool is accurate, those data readings prove that there is no vacuum leak and the truck is not running lean. Reading spark plugs was a more perfect science on older vehicles(back to carb stuff). With fuel injection, the changing times and government pressuring the manufacturers, vehicles have been running leaner on purpose to lower emissions and get better fuel mileage.

When I first started doing state inspection tests, we used a two gas analyzer. The two gases were HC's and CO. HC's are unburnt gas (raw fuel). CO is the mixture indicator. On some very old cars they were allowed like 9% CO, the cars I was doing inspections on were only allowed 1.2%. Now the last spec I saw was .5%.

Ford has also introduced something called multi strike ignition strategy, or sometimes called repetitive mode. What happens is that the spark for each cylinder is tripled up to about 1250-1300 rpms, then it goes back to one spark. They do that to run leaner mixtures at Idle, leaner mixtures run like crap at Idle because they cause lean misfires. Having three sparks instead of 1 allows the leaner mixtures to be burnt without misfiring. After 1250-1300 the mixture is richened up because we are not at Idle any more, so the multiple sparks are not needed. Thinking that this is where you feel the truck running rough makes you consider that it may be a spark issue. Possibly.

I am a little confused because of this:
"if I didn't tell you the truck was down on power and running lean, you'd never know there was a thing wrong with it. Drivability wise it's fine, no issues. Starts ok, runs ok drives ok and even pulls all the way to redline ok."
and this:
"The engine runs noticeably rough at 1300 rpm in neutral. Every so often I feel like the idle is worse then it normally is, but it still seems off daily, but does not run as rough as the truck does at 1300. Soon as I pass 1300 it smooths out."

So does it only run rough in neutral? It is not normal to run an engine at 1300 in neutral. We normally Idle in neutral, and step on the gas pedal in gear. How does it feel at 1300 in drive going down the road? Fine, no issues, runs and drives ok? Also It Idles rough?

So lets take a step back. The truck was running lean, the high fuel trims showed that. You fixed that problem, no more vacuum leak. Your fuel trims look like a brand new running vehicle, they make me jealous. Fuel trims are good, no lean problem. Don't put anymore concern into what the spark plug reading looked like until you have 5,000 miles on them. Even then, vehicles today run leaner then they ever did.

You still have poor fuel mileage, there are many things that can cause that. here are some.

Anything that causes a running problem.(very broad answer, I know, not helpful)
Stuck open thermostat
Bad fan clutch (viscous fan clutch)
Tire pressure
Added weight
Airflow restrictions like a roof rack or cargo carrier
Binding brakes/parking brake
Non functional lock up torque converter
Dirty air filter
High ethanol content, with E10-15 you could experience a 25% decrease in fuel mileage.

Also, your dashboard is going crazy, fuel gauge, check engine light etc. Maybe your instrument cluster is failing? Isn't the odometer in the instrument cluster? There are posts on here about the odometer intermittently not working, that would cause an appearance of poor fuel mileage.

On the forescan I see misfire monitor = yes, that is supposed to mean that the monitor is ready to test the engine. The other one that says misfire = no, means there is no misfire. I don't know why you said the scan tool says there is a misfire, it doesn't in the pictures.

Vacuum line to brake booster, can you post a picture of this vacuum line where you were testing it and seeing the fluctuations?
Vacuum should be approximately 17-22 inches HG, at Idle, was it on the other vacuum lines?

Vacuum in the crankcase is normal when you plug the fresh air side and the pcv valve is still sucking into the crank case. If you pull the PCV valve out and have the fresh air side blocked off and you then find vacuum in the crankcase then you have a vacuum leak under your intake manifold. It would be a lower intake gasket damaged on the bottom.

Did you fix the vacuum leak? looking the fuel trims I would think you did, they look perfect.

maybe what you are feeling is a vibration from the engine/driveline, not a misfire?

The check engine light coming on and off with no codes is making me think loose connection some where. On older bronco's there was a ground for the PCM that had its own connector near the battery, they would go bad and cause that symptom. I don't think the explorers had that problem or that connector. Maybe check the PCM connector, make sure that 10mm bolt is tight that goes through the PCM connector into the PCM. Don't strip it though, the threads look like brass or something weak.

Sorry again for all this typing. If we focus on one thing at a time it might be easier. In diagnostics you test components in systems to rule them out until you find one that fails its test. For instance you did a compression test and compared it to another known good vehicle with exactly the same results, that rules out compression (as long as the test equipment is good and the proper steps were followed). The Fuel trims are perfect so the A/F is good now. Time to move on to other systems if there is still a problem. Try to fix what you know is bad first, exhaust leak if it is not fixed already. Troubleshoot the gauge/charging system problems too. And by all means take a break and work on something else, if the truck is not in danger of leaving you stuck somewhere.

Crunchy Frog, that is a great thing to look for.
TPS's seem to fail often on the 5.0L.

I've checked this many times and do not see any dead spots.

1997XLTRollover,
If your scan tool is accurate, those data readings prove that there is no vacuum leak and the truck is not running lean. Reading spark plugs was a more perfect science on older vehicles(back to carb stuff). With fuel injection, the changing times and government pressuring the manufacturers, vehicles have been running leaner on purpose to lower emissions and get better fuel mileage.

When I first started doing state inspection tests, we used a two gas analyzer. The two gases were HC's and CO. HC's are unburnt gas (raw fuel). CO is the mixture indicator. On some very old cars they were allowed like 9% CO, the cars I was doing inspections on were only allowed 1.2%. Now the last spec I saw was .5%.

Ford has also introduced something called multi strike ignition strategy, or sometimes called repetitive mode. What happens is that the spark for each cylinder is tripled up to about 1250-1300 rpms, then it goes back to one spark. They do that to run leaner mixtures at Idle, leaner mixtures run like crap at Idle because they cause lean misfires. Having three sparks instead of 1 allows the leaner mixtures to be burnt without misfiring. After 1250-1300 the mixture is richened up because we are not at Idle any more, so the multiple sparks are not needed. Thinking that this is where you feel the truck running rough makes you consider that it may be a spark issue. Possibly.

I am a little confused because of this:
"if I didn't tell you the truck was down on power and running lean, you'd never know there was a thing wrong with it. Drivability wise it's fine, no issues. Starts ok, runs ok drives ok and even pulls all the way to redline ok."
and this:
"The engine runs noticeably rough at 1300 rpm in neutral. Every so often I feel like the idle is worse then it normally is, but it still seems off daily, but does not run as rough as the truck does at 1300. Soon as I pass 1300 it smooths out."

So does it only run rough in neutral? It is not normal to run an engine at 1300 in neutral. We normally Idle in neutral, and step on the gas pedal in gear. How does it feel at 1300 in drive going down the road? Fine, no issues, runs and drives ok? Also It Idles rough?

Yes runs rough in neutral at 1300, idle is rough but not nearly as bad as 1300 rpm. When I pass 1300 rpm you can feel a noticeable vibration and what feels like a miss. Can of course feel it if I hold it at 1300 as well. I'm not sure about drive but I can only assume at this point it will be rough at 1300 in gear too. It's hard to get it to 1300 in gear but it seems ok and doesn't buck or anything at low RPM

So lets take a step back. The truck was running lean, the high fuel trims showed that. You fixed that problem, no more vacuum leak. Your fuel trims look like a brand new running vehicle, they make me jealous. Fuel trims are good, no lean problem. Don't put anymore concern into what the spark plug reading looked like until you have 5,000 miles on them. Even then, vehicles today run leaner then they ever did.

You still have poor fuel mileage, there are many things that can cause that. here are some.

Anything that causes a running problem.(very broad answer, I know, not helpful) - I have TMH and a free flowing catback, would these effect anything? If anything I'd think they would help fuel mileage.
Stuck open thermostat - Truck warms up just fine (thermo is new) and holds around 192 degrees. My temp gauge on my cluster is a bit wacky but based on my ultra gauge my temp comes up just fine using the ECT sensor.
Bad fan clutch (viscous fan clutch) - Far as I know it's fine. I shut the engine off and the fan is still spinning once the engine stops. Now 96 does have a metal engine fan so this probably hurts fuel mileage a bit no?
Tire pressure - Set to I think 35 psi or so, I forget exactly but it's not low.
Added weight - 32x11.50's 6ply, 2 hitches front and rear with a brush guard... Note my fuel mileage was horrid before I had either hitch or the 32's, had the stock 29's and still got 10 mpg
Airflow restrictions like a roof rack or cargo carrier - factory roof rack and brush guard.
Binding brakes/parking brake - brakes do not seem to be binding.
Non functional lock up torque converter - converter seems to lock up just fine.
Dirty air filter - new and clean
High ethanol content, with E10-15 you could experience a 25% decrease in fuel mileage. - I run shell fuels only, should not have more than 10% ethanol.

Also, your dashboard is going crazy, fuel gauge, check engine light etc. Maybe your instrument cluster is failing? Isn't the odometer in the instrument cluster? There are posts on here about the odometer intermittently not working, that would cause an appearance of poor fuel mileage.

CE light is not going crazy, I've checked my odometer against a 2012 Focus and it works fine. It was at one point failing but I replaced it and it's now fine.

On the forescan I see misfire monitor = yes, that is supposed to mean that the monitor is ready to test the engine. The other one that says misfire = no, means there is no misfire. I don't know why you said the scan tool says there is a misfire, it doesn't in the pictures.

I never said the scan tool said there was a miss, must have just been a missunderstanding.

Vacuum line to brake booster, can you post a picture of this vacuum line where you were testing it and seeing the fluctuations?
Vacuum should be approximately 17-22 inches HG, at Idle, was it on the other vacuum lines?

It's the line that connects right to the brake booster fitting, last night I noticed the PCV line also has the same fluctuating reading when I test it right off the manifold, the EVAP line also moves a little bit but not as much. It seems like any line connected to the manifold around the center where all those ports merge have a shaky vacuum. If I test anywhere else it's perfectly steady and holds at 19.

Vacuum in the crankcase is normal when you plug the fresh air side and the pcv valve is still sucking into the crank case. If you pull the PCV valve out and have the fresh air side blocked off and you then find vacuum in the crankcase then you have a vacuum leak under your intake manifold. It would be a lower intake gasket damaged on the bottom.

Tested this last night, plugged PCV and fresh air lines and the crankcase built pressure not vacuum so my intake gaskets must be ok.

Did you fix the vacuum leak? looking the fuel trims I would think you did, they look perfect.

Far as I can tell yes all vacuum leaks are now fixed. I found many.

maybe what you are feeling is a vibration from the engine/driveline, not a misfire?

It's possible, but the engine rocks back and forth when it "misses" so to me it seems like something with combustion.

The check engine light coming on and off with no codes is making me think loose connection some where. On older bronco's there was a ground for the PCM that had its own connector near the battery, they would go bad and cause that symptom. I don't think the explorers had that problem or that connector. Maybe check the PCM connector, make sure that 10mm bolt is tight that goes through the PCM connector into the PCM. Don't strip it though, the threads look like brass or something weak.

The light does not come on and off. It's just off right now. It came on a while back for an EVAP code but that has not come back. I may need more miles on the truck before that will come back.

Sorry again for all this typing. If we focus on one thing at a time it might be easier. In diagnostics you test components in systems to rule them out until you find one that fails its test. For instance you did a compression test and compared it to another known good vehicle with exactly the same results, that rules out compression (as long as the test equipment is good and the proper steps were followed). The Fuel trims are perfect so the A/F is good now. Time to move on to other systems if there is still a problem. Try to fix what you know is bad first, exhaust leak if it is not fixed already. Troubleshoot the gauge/charging system problems too. And by all means take a break and work on something else, if the truck is not in danger of leaving you stuck somewhere.

I almost don't want to fix the exhaust leak because it's actually helping the truck inject a little more fuel. M biggest worry is since it's running lean I'm doing damage to the engine.






Now, something I noticed this morning (it's 20 degrees here) that I noticed last time it was fairly cold was a loud howling noise when I first take off until there's a little heat in the engine. Last time I wrote it off as a whiny power steering pump but it only hums at 2300 rpm or so. If i go above or below that the noise stops. This may be a bit far fetched but could my intake manifold be cracked? Possibly near those lines that have fluctuating vacuum?

Vacuum leak when cold

To test for a vacuum leak when cold, just look at fuel trims when cold.
I had a lower intake gasket on my 4 door 4.0, that was rubber and all crushed and dried out. It only leaked when cold, when warm it expanded and no more leak.
My fuel trims were 15-20% at Idle when cold, and around 4-5% warm.

My stft when cold is around 10 but would that really effect my fuel mileage much? Is 10 normal upon a cold start? Doesn't the pcm inject extra fuel when cold?

Fuel trims

You stated that the vehicle made a noise when cold, and thought it was an intake cracked. If it was cracked it would be a vacuum leak.
When at operating temperature your STFT and LTFT look prefect, that means no indication of a leak at Idle when warm.
So the test you just did was to check for a vacuum leak when cold. The results look like it does have a minor leak when cold.
But I have to ask a question, was it 10 at Idle and did it drop at 2,000?

Vacuum leaks effect Idle more than 2,000 rpm because at idle there is only a little bit of air and fuel going into the cylinders. A small vacuum leak can double the air going in at idle. At 2,000 there is a lot more air and fuel going in so the same sized vacuum leak wont effect it as much.

Also if the tests seem to conclude that there is a vacuum leak when cold, you could do a smoke test on the intake when cold and look for leaks to confirm it, or not.

As far as fuel mileage goes,
How are you computing miles per gallon?
Did you recalibrate the Gem module for the different tire size you have on?(tire revs)
What are you getting now for mpg with the first vacuum leak fixed?
And what is the mpg rating for that vehicle?
Honestly my 4.0 sohc gets 14mpg mostly highway, and that is with 235 75 15's.
With 32 inch tires, I would not expect to even get that.

Idle

Also you mentioned an irregular idle back a ways, we look at the IAC% for that.
What is the % of IAC at Idle when warm? You should be able to access that with your scan tool.
And is it steady or does it fluctuate?

4pointslow said:

You stated that the vehicle made a noise when cold, and thought it was an intake cracked. If it was cracked it would be a vacuum leak.
When at operating temperature your STFT and LTFT look prefect, that means no indication of a leak at Idle when warm.
So the test you just did was to check for a vacuum leak when cold. The results look like it does have a minor leak when cold.
But I have to ask a question, was it 10 at Idle and did it drop at 2,000?

Vacuum leaks effect Idle more than 2,000 rpm because at idle there is only a little bit of air and fuel going into the cylinders. A small vacuum leak can double the air going in at idle. At 2,000 there is a lot more air and fuel going in so the same sized vacuum leak wont effect it as much.

Also if the tests seem to conclude that there is a vacuum leak when cold, you could do a smoke test on the intake when cold and look for leaks to confirm it, or not.

As far as fuel mileage goes,
How are you computing miles per gallon?
Did you recalibrate the Gem module for the different tire size you have on?(tire revs)
What are you getting now for mpg with the first vacuum leak fixed?
And what is the mpg rating for that vehicle?
Honestly my 4.0 sohc gets 14mpg mostly highway, and that is with 235 75 15's.
With 32 inch tires, I would not expect to even get that.

Click to expand...

My fuel trims are 6-7 consistently and I recently saw 9-10 while cruising down the highway with throttle 30-40%. I'm starting to wonder if my mechanical cam timing is in fact off by a few degrees causing a shaky vacuum reading and a false lean condition somehow. Like you said vacuum is high at idle and my idle fuel trims seem ok which makes me shy away from a vacuum leak.

I'm not sure if it drops from 10 when revved to 2000, my guess would be yes. I don't typically rev a cold engine so I don't know. I'll try to remember to check later today when I leave work.


MPG = Miles driven divided by gallons to fill the tank.

This truck has a speedo gear, no I did not change it but I took that into consideration. When I changed my odometer I think the gear in the new one was different. That's why I drove next to a 2012 bone stock Focus. They were doing 70 and my speedo was reading 67. I can do this again but hell even if my speedo was 10% off, that's only a 1 mpg increase or so if I'm getting 9-10 mpg. This truck should be doing better than 11 MPG. My old 99 got 9-10 with 35x12.50's! They were 10 ply too, the 32's on my 96 are only 6 ply.

Last tank yesterday I calculated 9.06 MPG (it's been 0-10 degrees here the past week or so which probably accounts for this drop). Most guys with properly maintained V8 Explorers get probably 13-14 or so city and 19-20 highway. I used to have a lifted 99 V8 AWD just like my 96 and got 16-17 mpg mixed on the exact drive I do with my 96 now. Only difference was the 99 was not maintained at all (literally 160k on the original plugs) and had 30 inch tires at the time instead of 32's. Oh and had a higher lift. It also had a brush guard, hitch and roof rack as my 96 does. I also drove that one like I stole it and still managed decent fuel mileage. I got 19 mph with that truck all highway, damn near 20.

My old 97 4 door SOHC got 17-19 MPG, 14 is pretty low for that truck IMO unless you do a lot of city driving.


EDIT: In all fairness my 99 did have the plastic engine fan as they all did 97-01 (96 had metal) and that MPG was a summer average, so obviously my winter average would be a bit lower. I'll have to wait until it warms up to get a more accurate test as far as comparing it to my 99.

Oh and the actual MPG rating according to fueleconomy.gov for 96 was 12 City and 17 Highway. For 99 it was 13/17. Both 96 and 99 say it should be 14 combined. But all this aside I did better with my 99 than these ratings and that engine had 160, the one in my 96 is brand new.

4pointslow said:

Also you mentioned an irregular idle back a ways, we look at the IAC% for that.
What is the % of IAC at Idle when warm? You should be able to access that with your scan tool.
And is it steady or does it fluctuate?

Click to expand...

I'll have to check. But I set my TB to open as much as I could without raising my idle so my IAC doesn't have to work as hard to hold a steady idle. I think the rule is the IAC should be operating 25% or so? The TB was closed pretty far which I think was contributing to my idle issue.

I also got my P0446 code back. So I took apart my purge valve to clean it. There was some dirt in it and believe it or not it actually works even looking how it does. I put voltage to it and it does move the valve. I have to drive the truck now to see if the code comes back.

I did have power back at the connector so the only thing left if that doesn't fix it (since I already changed the PCM and had the same code) would be a break in the ground wire from the purge valve to the PCM or a huge EVAP leak causing no purge. This wouldn't surprise me actually based on the amount of rust on this truck.

Didn't even have to drop my bracket to get the valve out. Thank you NJ winters.





Yuck. But somehow still works.

An finally the codes in my GEM also came back. I don't know why I have these codes though because all these "failures" seem to work fine. Thoughts?

Gem Codes

B1323 Door Ajar Lamp Circuit Failure
B1398 Power Window LF One Touch Window Relay Circuit Failure
B1822 Wiper Rear Park Sense Input Circuit Failure
B1352 Ignition Key-In Circuit Failure
B1359 Ignition Run/Acc Circuit Failure

For 1323, did you have the door open when you ran the Gem test?
Does your door ajar switch work, the one that turns on the dome light?

P0443

EDIT: Spec is 48-65 ohms on the canister vent valve.


The P0443 is an electrical fault code for the Canister Vent valve.
The problem can be intermittent or not.
It can be caused by
Open VPWR circuit
Open or shorted Canister Vent Valve
Control circuit open, shorted to ground or shorted to power
Or bad PCM
Stretched terminals in the connector or terminal fretting (corrosion) can also cause the code to set.

The above "opens" are electrical opens.
That code can not be set from an evap leak or stuck solenoid.
The solenoid should be 30-38 ohms(wrong spec see edit).

You already checked the VPWR circuit and it had 12 volts.
If the solenoid is between 30-38 ohms then it is not shorted or open electrically(wrong spec see edit).
Let us know what the resistance reading is.

Iac

IAC duty cycle should be 30-34% on a fully warmed up engine at Idle for your 1996 Explorer 5.0L
TPS Voltage should be .53-1.27 Key On Engine Off. That's just the range according to ford specs.
I believe most TPS readings are about .9-1 volt at warm Idle running.

4pointslow said:

B1323 Door Ajar Lamp Circuit Failure
B1398 Power Window LF One Touch Window Relay Circuit Failure
B1822 Wiper Rear Park Sense Input Circuit Failure
B1352 Ignition Key-In Circuit Failure
B1359 Ignition Run/Acc Circuit Failure

For 1323, did you have the door open when you ran the Gem test?
Does your door ajar switch work, the one that turns on the dome light?

Click to expand...

Yes sorry door was open during the test, I forgot to mention that lol.

4pointslow said:

IAC duty cycle should be 30-34% on a fully warmed up engine at Idle for your 1996 Explorer 5.0L
TPS Voltage should be .53-1.27 Key On Engine Off. That's just the range according to ford specs.
I believe most TPS readings are about .9-1 volt at warm Idle running.

Click to expand...

My TPS at idle reads .97 volts.

4pointslow said:

The P0443 is an electrical fault code for the Canister Vent valve.
The problem can be intermittent or not.
It can be caused by
Open VPWR circuit
Open or shorted Canister Vent Valve
Control circuit open, shorted to ground or shorted to power
Or bad PCM
Stretched terminals in the connector or terminal fretting (corrosion) can also cause the code to set.

The above "opens" are electrical opens.
That code can not be set from an evap leak or stuck solenoid.
The solenoid should be 30-38 ohms

You already checked the VPWR circuit and it had 12 volts.
If the solenoid is between 30-38 ohms then it is not shorted or open electrically
Let us know what the resistance reading is.

Click to expand...

I think we can rule out the PCM and although I did not do a voltage drop I think I can rule out the 12V power. I'll check the ohm reading on the valve to see where that's at. Next I'll have to try to get the PCM to activate the valve so I can be sure it's grounding it out the way it's supposed to. I was trying to get Forscan to activate it but I can't figure out how to do it.

I'm starting to think I have some wacked out electrical issue somewhere. Alt gauge drops sometimes, fuel gauge drops and pins to E or halfway and then shoots back up of course triggering the check gauge light. My coolant temp gauge fluctuates a lot while my ECT seems to stay steady. Then I have something saying the purge valve circuit has a problem and at one point I had a code for my rear ABS circuit having a problem but that has not come back, although my ABS does randomly activate every day when I first put it in gear and back out my my driveway. Not activate as much as run the abs pump for a milisecond. I wonder if all of these things can be tied to one ground that maybe I didn't clean or find when I was swapping the engine.


Oh and something I noticed Sunday was with the key on my PCM is making a humming noise. Least it sounds like it's coming from the PCM. Sounds like caps starting to scream maybe, but I had all these other electrical issues with the 97 PCM too so I'm kind of ruling that out too at the moment.

1997XLTRollover said:

I think we can rule out the PCM and although I did not do a voltage drop I think I can rule out the 12V power.

Click to expand...

You don't need to do a voltage drop because high resistance would not set that code.
The PCM monitors the ground circuit for the canister vent solenoid, inside the PCM right before the transistor that provides the ground. It should see battery voltage if the transistor is open, and 0 volts if the transistor is grounded. If it does not, it sets a code.

If you had high resistance in the circuits or component, the PCM would still see battery voltage right before the transistor, if the transistor is open, because when the circuit is open there is no current flow. Voltage builds to the open in a circuit and in this case the open would be the transistor. High resistance only effects the circuit when there is current flow(circuit on/complete).

A short to ground in the vpwr circuit would blow a fuse so you would not have just one code. High resistance would not set the code. A short to power would do nothing since it is a power circuit. So the only thing wrong with the vpwr circuit that could set that code would be an open circuit.

So... checking for voltage on the vpwr wire with the solenoid unplugged is sufficient in this case, and you said you had battery voltage.

Electrical Issue

Sometimes the ignition switches fall apart on certain Ford vehicles.
I don't know if the Explorers were one of these vehicles though.
There was metal crimped around plastic holding the ignition switches together, the plastic would separate from the metal half and it would cause all kinds of weird problems. You could do a visual inspection of the ignition switch inside the steering column.

here is the picture of the switch that falls apart, I don't even know if this is the one in the explorer as I have not had the problem on my Ex's.

4pointslow said:

The P0443 is an electrical fault code for the Canister Vent valve.
The problem can be intermittent or not.
It can be caused by
Open VPWR circuit
Open or shorted Canister Vent Valve
Control circuit open, shorted to ground or shorted to power
Or bad PCM
Stretched terminals in the connector or terminal fretting (corrosion) can also cause the code to set.

The above "opens" are electrical opens.
That code can not be set from an evap leak or stuck solenoid.
The solenoid should be 30-38 ohms

You already checked the VPWR circuit and it had 12 volts.
If the solenoid is between 30-38 ohms then it is not shorted or open electrically
Let us know what the resistance reading is.

Click to expand...

Resistance is around 54 ohms looks like. Is that ok or is the valve bad? It opens and closes when I hook it directly to a battery.

Edit: just measured the valve on my f150 and the ohm reading on that valve is identical. I bet I have a halfway broken ground somewhere causing all these problems.

Furthermore my iac% at idle fully warmed up settles in park at around 8%. Does that mean I should close my throttle plate a little bit to get it up around 25?

specs

If you are getting 54 ohms on both then maybe the specs are bad or maybe you meter or test leads have a little extra resistance.

If IAC is 8% the Idle is too high, close the plate some.