Running rough

[masterpete]

Well the other day I was driving and when I came to a stop my Explorer just started shaking really bad. Had some loss of power also. No cel or anything. Get it home and a half hour later when I'm checking it all I start it again and now it has a cel (Cyl #1 misfire). Today I checked the cel again and now it (Cyl #1 and #6 misfire). I pulled the wires from the coil and they all get spark. Runs no different when pulling any of them off. The #1 cyl spark plug is somewhat white. Now before I go and spend a bunch of money plugs/wires what else should I be looking for? After searching the forums for a while I know some people have had fuel filter/pump problems. How would I go about checking these? I haven't had a problem with this thing in 2 years. Ran perfect before this and gets taken care of very well then out of no where this happens. Any help would be great because I'm somewhat worried about driving it and its my only vehicle. Thanks in advance. Oh also its a 99 Explorer 4.0 ohv.

 

[masterpete]

Going to work on it tomorrow. Any tips would be great. Maybe even a link I missed that would help me would work.

 

[robertoa1a]

Is the actual electrode white (inside the head) or the part the wire fits the top of the plug? When was the last time the plugs were changed?

 

[robertoa1a]

Without being given much information. I will bet that the real electrode, the platinum tip on the plug is gone by now. They aren't real cheep nor easy to get to, but replace them with the OEM because they are way better than the Bosch in this case.

The little platinum coated tip can wear out after 100,000 miles believe it or not.

 

[robertoa1a]

Wait a minute. If I remember corectly those two plugs are the hardest to remove, and it's posable a former owner gave up and just replaced the others.

One is behind the EGR tube in such a way that it seems near imposable to get to it.

The other requires a contortion artist to it in some odd way.

If you think you may break off one of the plugs trying, you may be better off paying a shop $80 to clean your hands of this problem. Otherwise buy every twisty socket gadget thing known to man. I believe I filled a good part of my tool box doing this project. After 4 hrs, two trips to the tool store, a serious back eache and two pitchers of beer later it was done.

 

[masterpete]

Plugs and wires were done about 2 years ago.

 

[masterpete]

Ok did a lot of checking. There is no way spark is the problem. Fuel pressure is about 60 at idle at the fuel rail. Need to check the injectors now, but dont really know how. Anyway to check the iac? I changed the fuel filter and it seemed like it ran just a tiny bit better, just barely noticeable. Not sure why?

 

[masterpete]

So I broke down and took it to a shop. They checked it over and said there's nothing wrong with it. I think I'm going to have to make an appointment at the local ford dealership to see what's going on with this damn thing.

 

[masterpete]

Ford dealership said Cyl #1 has no compression. They said that it seems to have valves working and seating. So all I can think of now is rings? Would it be easier to just swap motors or tear this one apart? Would a SOHC bolt right up to my Explorer?

 

[RacerX]

The way the problem came on suddenly, it could be a blown head gasket. Depending on where the gasket failed, you might not have other telltales such as oil and coolant mixing.

 

[iwannabamedic]

crack in the head, mine done the same thing same motor. Salvage yard for 75.00
had spark, had fuel injector good, head cracked. right between the valves on #3

good luck