4.0 engine sputter/surge

[mudbug0426]

i now have a new problem and i cant seem to figure out whats causing it.

for the most part on every start up my exhaust will pop a little, and when at idle in park or when engine is not under load, it idles smooth, then every now and then it will have a small surge, feels like a cylinder misfires i guess. when driving down the alley i can listen to my exhaust and hear it sputter as well as feeling the truck kick a little. it also does this around 30 mph on a flat road at around 12 or 1300rpms in whatever gear its in. the check engine light is not on.

here is a list of what ive replaced recently

new egr valve
upper intake gaskets and the gasket right under the fuel rail
plugs and wires
maf sensor
iac valve
tps sensor along with jame's tps modd http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79362
all 3 o2 sensors
most vacuum lines have been replaced, the ones i havent replaced are fine, i checked
new rubber elbow on pcv valve, those tend to dry out, crack and leak


help would be appreciated. if you've had this problem before, throw me some ideas, i wanna get this taken care of asap.

ive been wanting to check my coil and fuel injectors but i dont know what setting to use on my volt meter and what they are suppose to read at normal

 

[mudbug0426]

can anyone help me out here?

 

[marragtop]

Have you pulled to codes? There may be codes stored even if the CEL is out.

 

[mudbug0426]

autozone told me there were no codes showing. i have no idea if their scanners will see pending codes, i would think they would

 

[96eb96]

i now have a new problem and i cant seem to figure out whats causing it.

for the most part on every start up my exhaust will pop a little, and when at idle in park or when engine is not under load, it idles smooth, then every now and then it will have a small surge, feels like a cylinder misfires i guess. when driving down the alley i can listen to my exhaust and hear it sputter as well as feeling the truck kick a little. it also does this around 30 mph on a flat road at around 12 or 1300rpms in whatever gear its in. the check engine light is not on.

here is a list of what ive replaced recently

new egr valve
upper intake gaskets and the gasket right under the fuel rail
plugs and wires
maf sensor
iac valve
tps sensor along with jame's tps modd http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79362
all 3 o2 sensors
most vacuum lines have been replaced, the ones i havent replaced are fine, i checked
new rubber elbow on pcv valve, those tend to dry out, crack and leak


help would be appreciated. if you've had this problem before, throw me some ideas, i wanna get this taken care of asap.

ive been wanting to check my coil and fuel injectors but i dont know what setting to use on my volt meter and what they are suppose to read at normal

Just throwing out ideas...

do you think it could be a base engine problem like a loose chain or a bad valve?

Compression test?

 

[mudbug0426]

i sure hope not. my friend did a compression test for me about six months ago when i was sick while he had the tool from autozone, i cant remember what it read, but he said it was good on all cylinders. as far as a loose chain, it could be.. wouldnt it be making some kind of noise from the front of the motor?

as far as a bad valve, wouldnt i be hearing some noise from the heads? it only has 146,000 and the motors never been abused but there is still alot i dont know.

ive been told by a couple of people now that if the coil is going bad it would cause this problem. is there any way to test it? i was planning on ordering this one on thursday when i get paid. http://store.summitracing.com/partd...839065+4294890813+4294839915+115&autoview=sku

ive also been thinking alot about that timing chain. i do hear some kind of noise from the motor, like a bearing about to fall apart.. only when its about 30 outside and untill the motor warms up a little bit then it goes away. and it texas it doesnt stay that cold too long so ive never worried about it. do you think that might be the timing chain making that noise?

 

[96eb96]

i sure hope not. my friend did a compression test for me about six months ago when i was sick while he had the tool from autozone, i cant remember what it read, but he said it was good on all cylinders. as far as a loose chain, it could be.. wouldnt it be making some kind of noise from the front of the motor?

as far as a bad valve, wouldnt i be hearing some noise from the heads? it only has 146,000 and the motors never been abused but there is still alot i dont know.

ive been told by a couple of people now that if the coil is going bad it would cause this problem. is there any way to test it? i was planning on ordering this one on thursday when i get paid. http://store.summitracing.com/partd...839065+4294890813+4294839915+115&autoview=sku

ive also been thinking alot about that timing chain. i do hear some kind of noise from the motor, like a bearing about to fall apart.. only when its about 30 outside and untill the motor warms up a little bit then it goes away. and it texas it doesnt stay that cold too long so ive never worried about it. do you think that might be the timing chain making that noise?

Sure that noise isn't an idler or tensioner pulley? THey are timebombs.

I guess you will have to change the coil and see from there. Coils can fail in many different ways.

Popping sounds are usually exhaust valve issues or timing from my experience. What if you goose the throttle and let go quickly? Any funny noises?

 

[marragtop]

The easiest way to eliminate the idler and tensioner pulley is to disconnect the serp belt and run it to see if the noise is still there. This would also eliminate the water pump, PS pump, and AC as the source of noise.

 

[mudbug0426]

well im pretty sure i found my problem. i was checking over everything today and decided to take the wires off of the coil to make sure they were not corroded and sure enough they were. on 3 cylinders the plug end of the wires that connect to the coil are bad.

the pins inside the connectors broke off into the coil and when i pulled them out they were pretty nasty.

so i guess now ill replace the wires first, then the coil. since im getting the accel coil ill get accel wires to match, obviously these bosch wires didnt last worth crap.

any thoughts or feedback?

 

[96eb96]

well im pretty sure i found my problem. i was checking over everything today and decided to take the wires off of the coil to make sure they were not corroded and sure enough they were. on 3 cylinders the plug end of the wires that connect to the coil are bad.

the pins inside the connectors broke off into the coil and when i pulled them out they were pretty nasty.

so i guess now ill replace the wires first, then the coil. since im getting the accel coil ill get accel wires to match, obviously these bosch wires didnt last worth crap.

any thoughts or feedback?

MOTORCRAFT WIRES OR NOTHING!!!!!
Everything else is S#$%!!!

Once I bought a cheap distributor cap from autozone, and a lug terminal popped off while driving. Learned to always use motorcraft tune up parts. Get them from online(rockauto), its not that much more than retail.

Clean out the old coil connector with electronic parts cleaner, coat it with dielectric/tune up grease and you may not need a coil.

 

[mudbug0426]

i think im going to go ahead and see how the accel wires do, i wanted to get these wires the first time around, and with there being a chance that ill be replacing the coil in the next 20,000 miles anyways i dont wanna waste money getting factory wires then coming back and getting these so the coil and wires match.

now that i remember, when i first did my exhaust on my truck at about 120,000 wild guess, i noticed that my exhaust still popped like it does now. when i rev it, at high rpms it pops and sounds like crap and is pretty emberrising. so maybe its both the coil and wires causing this..

 

[mudbug0426]

just a little update, i cleaned the coil and wires the best i could and it seemed to run a little better. so i ordered the accel wires today and they should be in in a couple of days..

i also ordered a set of pacesetter headers and a flowmaster super 44 single in dual out muffler as well. when the wires get here ill let everyone know if there is any change.

 

[mudbug0426]

sorry for the long wait until a update, been having problems with the internet here. i got the accel wires yesterday, and it almost completely solved the problem. the headers come in tomorrow and the coil comes in on the 1st.

so far no problems i hope it stays this way!

 

[mudbug0426]

while im waiting for the headers, can anyone help me find a write up for the best way to remove the manifolds? im having trouble finding one

 

[96eb96]

Now you know the value of premium tune up parts! I like motorcraft because I've seen them last 20 years. Accel is a great brand too, but its usually more performance oriented.

Take it easy when you remove exhaust bolts in the head. Can't hurt to spray them down if you are doing the manifold.

The exhaust manifold to cat bolts will most likely require heat. Its good to hammer a socket on the head, heat the manifold flange red hot (not the bolt) and then use an impact or a breaker bar. Kroil or PB can help too.

Sometimes the EGR tube gets destroyed when you take it off, so be careful there.

 

[mudbug0426]

Now you know the value of premium tune up parts! I like motorcraft because I've seen them last 20 years. Accel is a great brand too, but its usually more performance oriented.

Take it easy when you remove exhaust bolts in the head. Can't hurt to spray them down if you are doing the manifold.

The exhaust manifold to cat bolts will most likely require heat. Its good to hammer a socket on the head, heat the manifold flange red hot (not the bolt) and then use an impact or a breaker bar. Kroil or PB can help too.

Sometimes the EGR tube gets destroyed when you take it off, so be careful there.

ive heard that heat will make the bolts come out easier, all i have is pb. i cant break the bolts on the manifolds loose at all! i have 3 of them rounded off so far, so im wondering how im going to get them out. i really dont want to take it to a shop and have someone put these on for me just because i cant break these bolts loose, thats a waste of money. i dont have any source of heat like a torch.

all im worried about are the manifold bolts, if i can get all of them out then i can just cut the down pipe and pull out the manifolds, the new ones come with a new downpipe.

soo im not lookin too good. i havent tried taping on a smaller socket yet, im afraid ill get some out and not be able to get one and then be stuck and not have a way to work.

any more great ideas or tips would be very helpful

 

[mudbug0426]

i might be able to get my air compressor to work, do you think a impact gun would be too much for those bolts if i put the gun on a low speed? maybe it would break it loose just enough for me to back it out with a ratchet?

 

[glued2it]

i might be able to get my air compressor to work, do you think a impact gun would be too much for those bolts if i put the gun on a low speed? maybe it would break it loose just enough for me to back it out with a ratchet?

When I pulled of the cat bolts I just sparayed them with PB Blaster and used a cheater pipe on a wratchet.

I got 2 of them off fairly easy and broke the third.

Hit or miss I guess.

For rounded bolts I use the irwin bolt extractors. They sure have got me out of bind from time to time.

 

[96eb96]

Yeah the irwin bolt extractors like glued said may be your only hope now. A 3/8" impact probably wont break off the bolts.

The other option is a good pair of vice grips, but that will require heat. Maybe vice grips on the bolt body while you impact or use a breaker bar.

I went thru this on a 4.6L Thunderbird to get off the EGR tube for cleaning. I had to drop the cats, this job sucks.

Also, Why don't you have heat? Torches are cheap at home depot. Also, you are supposed to heat it, then spray the PB or whatever. The contracting metal allows the oil to be drawn into the threads.