Check Eng Light looks fixed (Long)

[Grateful11]

Well it looks like it's fixed for now. Some of you may remember that I had check engine problems a few weeks ago.
I made a few observations in the process. I knew the fan was cracked, so I wanted to replace it while I was working on it and had the time. I got the fan off and notice that the clutch was crudded up with dust and dirt. It was leaking oil and I replaced it with one from Autozone, $30 for the clutch and the fan from Ford $38. That took about 45 minutes. I had to make a wrench to fit the nut on the fan clutch out of a piece of 1/8" x 3" x 16" flat aluminum. I slotted it 1 7/16" and it worked great for removing and installing the fan. I didn't have anything else that would go in there. I used an old piece of serpentine belt and vise grips for holding the water pump pulley. I also replaced the plugs and wires with Bosch wires and regular Super Plugs from Autozone. I put a small amount of Anti-seize on the threads of the plugs. One of the wires clips cracked at the coil pack and had to go back. I also noticed that one of the old plugs looked like a poster child for the Haynes manual. It had ash deposits and carbon on it bigtime. The rest looked pretty good. I hope I'm not losing a valve guide or something. The fuel pressure regulator was pretty easy once I got rid of a bunch of junk around it and used the swivel extension that PhxExplorer suggested that I use. Luckily had bunch of those that I ordered from Harbor Freight years ago. It's the kind that lets your socket swivel about 20 degrees. As I posted somewhere else, I only cleaned the O2 sensor and put it back, it had alot of black build up on it. I cleaned the Throttle Body very good with cleaner and soft towels. When I got through I noticed that there was a bunch of cleaner puddled up way back in the manifold. So I got my flexible three prong pickup tool and put pieces of towel in the pinchers and soaked it up and kept doing so until it was dry. I didn't want to have all that sucked into the engine when I started up. I changed the oil because it was a little high and I read about fuel contamination into the crankcase because of the FPR. So it was changed twice in a three weeks period. All in all I spent about 4 hours doing all this and pretty much took it easy and didn't get in a rush. My mileage is back up to 23mpg from 13 and no more Check Engine light. I also put new Uniroyal Tiger Paw AWP's on it Monday. I only got 91k out of the other set, hehe. Here's a link to the page were I got some good in depth directions: Dead Link Removed

I want to thank everyone for the excellent help that I got here and plan on coming back often if not daily.

 

[Ira]

Glad you got it straightened out (fingers crossed). They can be a pain when you think you solved your problem, and then your check engine light comes back on to let you know it is working.

I hope the one plug you had that was ashed and carboned up was not #5. If so, you will probably be changing an intake gasket before long. The earlier models have had problems with the gasket leaking and getting oil into that cyl. This can also cause a problem with pinging. It would not be a bad idea to check and even retorque the intake bolts to prevent the problem...if it is not too late. There is a post at the same place you referred to in your link that tells you more detail about it.

Good luck.

 

[Grateful11]

#5 is alive! Yeah that's the one. I marked it so I would know which one it was. I guess I better check it out this weekend. I'll try retorquing first. If I retorque, how long should I go before I check the plug to see if it done any good? There was also some crud baked onto the threads of the plug above were it's threaded in. I thought that was odd and figured it may be blowing by the threads. I looked closely around the #5 hole and didn't see any visible cracks or dampness from oil. I screwed it in and took it back out and it appeared that the taper on the plug was was seating by the looks of the line on the taper. I sure appreciate you telling me about this. The plugs that were in there had 64,010 miles on them and when I changed them the last ime there wasn't any crud on it. I'm going to print the info on the other page. I suppose there are some bolts that are going to be a b#$#h. Thanks again

 

[Ira]

I would run at least 4-5 tanks of fuel before rechecking. It will take at least a tank to burn any excess carbon from the cylinder and then you should start seeing a difference. You may feel the difference sooner than that.

I like to use a thread lubricant (anti-sieze compound) on the spark plug threads. This stuff is grey and heat resistant. It will prevent the plugs from sticking to the heads when you try to remove them down the road, and it will also prevent any leakage by the plug.