(SOLVED)Trouble In Tuned Paradise (blinking check engine light) | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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(SOLVED)Trouble In Tuned Paradise (blinking check engine light)

gadgetball

Active Member
Joined
May 12, 2016
Messages
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Location
Kennesaw Georgia
City, State
Kennesaw GA
Year, Model & Trim Level
2013 Ford Explorer Sport
I am experiencing sputtering/lagging when at higher gears and punching it. Happens around 50mph and even up in the 70mph range, when I'm in 5th and 6th gears and then go to punch it, where it has to drop down to lower gears for the hp, what happens is it just bogs out and sputters and then the blinking check engine light flashes until I lay off the pedal.
Bad spark plugs?
Bad transfer case?
Bad transmission?
Bad torque converter?

2013 Xsport with Livernois 93 tune, 3-bar map, 160 thermostat, and their .030 gapped plugs
 



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A flashing check engine light is a Class A misfire. Enough fuel is being sent into the catalyst that is causing damage to the converter. Pull the codes and we can go from there, be easy on the throttle or park the car until you are able to perform a repair or you WILL lose the cat. At the very least there is a misfire code, but any others will help our diagnosis.
 






The only DTCs the livernois tuner pulled were residuals I already knew about from a prior accident - U3003 (battery voltage) and C1B00 (steering angle sensor)
 






loosing a cat would be the least of your worries if you continue to beat on the car with a misfire under load.
 












And which Motorcraft spark plugs come factory set at .030? I remember seeing this in my hours upon hours of research, but don't remember...
 






Did you contact LMS yet? This could be a tune specific issue. Does the CEL completely turn off once you're off the throttle?
 






Haven't contacted LMS yet. Blinking CEL completely turns off immediately after I'm off the throttle, and only happened once, but I've noticed the issue (without any blinking or static CEL warning) 4 other times over the course of 3 weeks
 






And which Motorcraft spark plugs come factory set at .030? I remember seeing this in my hours upon hours of research, but don't remember...
A SHO Forum mentioned the following as being pre gapped at .030
MotorCraft SP-534
 






Motorcraft SP534 is the pregapped .030 plug- found it on amazon
EDIT- you beat me to it by 5 seconds peterk9!
 






irUOTE="gadgetball, post: 3569444, member: 305745"]I am experiencing sputtering/lagging when at higher gears and punching it. Happens around 50mph and even up in the 70mph range, when I'm in 5th and 6th gears and then go to punch it, where it has to drop down to lower gears for the hp, what happens is it just bogs out and sputters and then the blinking check engine light flashes until I lay off the pedal.
Bad spark plugs?
Bad transfer case?
Bad transmission?
Bad torque converter?

2013 Xsport with Livernois 93 tune, 3-bar map, 160 thermostat, and their .030 gapped plugs[/QUOTE]

Return to stock, see if it still persist's, and contact Livernois. They are the expert's on their tune and have probably already delt with this issue. Report back after all is settled and list your findings.
 












Sounds like a plan. I did email LMS earlier too.

I can guarantee you that it won't be the tune causing it to run like that because it does not change, so you have other issues and I am sure they will set you straight.
 












I went back to stock last night, and drove it all day today, and not once did the issue happen without the tune. I tried and tried and tried by coasting between 50-75mph and jamming the pedal to make it drop into lower gear; not once did it lag.
I too had a large cloud of black smoke like the guy in that other thread! I have been using BP 93 octane gas exclusively.
 






LMS sent me some new v5 tunes to try. I have loaded the 93 3Bar tune and will test drive over the next few days.
Next step they say is to replace the spark plugs: "The stock tune does not increase timing and boost pressure like the custom tunes would. So if the plugs are having issues when the truck reached that higher boost level and things of that nature, the stock tune wouldn't necessarily repeat the identical scenario. This is because the stock tune is not as demanding on spark like the performance tunes are. This is why we suggest to gap the plugs tighter than stock to .030" because the added boost pressure needs a tighter gap than the stock tuning would."
 






At the very least pull the plugs have a look. I'm not an expert that's why I come here. Just my 2 1/2 cents worth
 






@gadgetball if you get in touch with your salesman I will give them the OK to shoot you some plugs!
 






I went back to stock last night, and drove it all day today, and not once did the issue happen without the tune. I tried and tried and tried by coasting between 50-75mph and jamming the pedal to make it drop into lower gear; not once did it lag.
I too had a large cloud of black smoke like the guy in that other thread! I have been using BP 93 octane gas exclusively.

Premium gasoline is specifically formulated to be compatible with specific types of engine designs and most vehicles cannot take advantage of the higher octane rating.
 



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Most all modern vehicles can and do measure for KR, and when that value can have additional timing added it will be. The EB's are especially tuned into this, no pun intended. They are very sensitive to KR, and will always and immediately pull out timing and/or boost when there is KR present. Utilizing a higher octane fuel will fight against detonation, thus lowering your potential for knock and detonation. If you were to monitor this using the correct software and hardware you would see instances where there are:
Negative numbers - Adding timing
Positive numbers - Pulling timing
Negative numbers are good, positive numbers are bad

This will show a direct correlation between the KR and octane.
 






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