Monday after the testing tool problem, I removed the right-side exhaust manifold to get it a loose from the downpipe that was stuck to.
I decided to put a straight edge across the manifold surface that had soot marks indicating that the manifold was still leaking. The manifold
was arced over an eighth of an inch. While was on the phone with a truck mechanic friend about borrowing his MATCO fuel pressure test
kit, I asked him if there was a machine shop that might have a large belt sander to surface the right side formerly Mustang II exhaust
manifold. His shop and the machine shop were both the same direction so by the time that I got back from the trip to drop of the manifold
and borrow the test kit, I had driven over 60 miles. Then a holiday was upon us. I waited and waited for the machine shop to call and by
Tuesday the 7th, I decided to call them. They said it was ready. I still wonder how many days it had been sitting, ready. So the 8th of
January made the trip again this time to pick up the manifold and return the test kit.
Thursday the 9th, I went north 18 miles to the next small town up from us to an exhaust shop. The guy looked like he has been doing exhaust work since the late 1960s. He made me a new rh downpipe out of 2" pipe.
The same afternoon after I got back from that trip, I went south to the big city to Lowe's. I needed some lamp hardware to fix the smoke
machine I believe the lamp hardware will work as well as any.
(pic of lamp hardware) (I haven't made a pic or fixed the smoke machine quite yet).
Sometime in between all of that, I replaced the Chinese fuel pump cartridge with a new Bosch fp cartridge. I also had the time to check the
fuel pressure with the
Marshall fuel pressure gauge and with the Matco. Both are reading exactly 40.5 max and are bleeding down after the pump shuts off. I'm definitely losing fuel pressure. I already had the 4 rh spark plugs out and they were all oily, sooty looking. Before I
quit for the day I removed the lh set of plugs. #7 looks washed compared to the other 7.
There must be an injector sticking open. I'm taking the upper plenum off for the third time.
I've got my trusty injector cleaner tool near ready. I checked all 4 driver's side injectors. After spraying cleaner, none are sticking open and my fuel pressure seems to be holding. It must have been a piece of trash in the #7 injector.
I have it running now with no dribbling injector. It starts and runs reliable, but the AFR gauge quickly pegs to the lean side. This is a 4.6 Crown Vic pcm that I'm using to run the 5.0. I have been communicating with a Master Ford Tuner and he says the reason that it runs the way that it does is because the modular engines run leaner than the 5.0s do in cold, Open Loop mode, so some adjustments have to be made in the related tuning tables to fix this issue. For two years, I have been studying up on how to do the tuning, what tools do I need, hardware, software. All of the tools are purchased and at the point of adding the Moates QH device to the J-3 port of the pcm, route the Moates cable through the dash behind the glove box, attach the cable to the laptop. Turn on the laptop, start the tunerPro RT software and start the engine up. Then if all of this stuff is working correctly, I should see Real Time feedback from the different sensors etc including having the Wide band O2 sensor reading its info on the TunerPro dashboard screen (image) on the laptop.
This coming week, I will be at home during the "2025 freeze in". My job at home will to be keeping the home warm and the water running.
The cost of the extra water is a lot less than fixing frozen busted pipes. Also, during this time, I will get all of the adjustments made to the bin file, the tune, for the 5.0. I'm ready to be back in "Mo the 5.0" Mercury Mountaineer.
