Please Help, Before I Shoot Myself

[2000StreetRod]

Not much left

You have good compression, you have swapped injectors, and you only have a problem with one cylinder. That leaves either no spark or no injector pulse. I suggest that you replace/swap the spark plug and the spark plug wire. If that doesn't help then I would buy a noid light and check the pulse to the injector.

If the one of the ignition coils were bad two cylinders would be impacted. It is unlikely that the PCM would go bad on just one cylinder.

 

[cjmedina]

Using a Noid Light:

http://www.noidlight.com/using-a-noid-light-a-step-by-step-procedure/

 

[mn_vette]

You have good compression, you have swapped injectors, and you only have a problem with one cylinder. That leaves either no spark or no injector pulse. I suggest that you replace/swap the spark plug and the spark plug wire. If that doesn't help then I would buy a noid light and check the pulse to the injector.

If the one of the ignition coils were bad two cylinders would be impacted. It is unlikely that the PCM would go bad on just one cylinder.

Are the coils linked in sets of two? On the bad cylinder I can see on the sparkplug where it is getting spark, its the only place not covered by carbon.

I guess the carbon alone would tell me that I'm getting some kind of combustion, just overly rich. Or I guess it could be blowing out a weak spark with the extra fueling. And the carbon comes when I let off on the gas and it comes back.

Does the noid light just tell me if there's voltage to the injector, or will it kind of flash with the pulsewidth? I would think that it would be too fast for a light to switch on and off with the pulsewidth.


Oh, and I did try swapping plugs and wires with the cylinder next to it yesterday, but there wasn't any difference.

 

[2000StreetRod]

COP or waste spark?

I just noticed that you have a 2002 and I don't know what year COP was implemented. If you don't have COP then you should have a waste spark ignition system. One cylinder fires in compression at the same time a paired cylinder fires on the exhaust stroke. The pairs are 1&5, 6&2, and 4&3. If you have a waste spark system and you swapped the plug & wire with the cylinder next to it and nothing changed then it's probably not an ignition problem.

I believe the noid light only lets you know that voltage has been applied to the injector. The injector pulse width is only a few milliseconds at idle so you couldn't see the difference.

 

[mn_vette]

AAHHH HAA!!! I've got it. Well apparently in ford land you count 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5. Or alteast that's what the coil pack does. I had 5 and 6 swapped on the pack.

I swear that I checked the plug wires and how they were attached before I pulled them off the first time. But I guess I got them crossed somehow.

The thing is running like a champ now.

Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. I'm so glad that this car is out of my garage.

 

[BobWiersema]

Oh my God.

Glad its fixed. That is just funny. I was looking at the diagnostic flow chart yesterday and most of your symptoms lead to timing order. I didn't want to post that because I thought it would be insulting. Funny how the simple things make you nuts.

Print this out and glue it to your tool box.

Bob

 

[zerodevil]

WOW, i didnt even consider that, i forgot that the 4.0's have a single pack instead of COP's. Nice job figuring that out, would have escaped me for a long time. Do you yourself own an explorer or will you be leaving us at this point? Glad we could help a little bit.

 

[Limited02]

Wow that's a bad lobe!

As soon as I saw "Wow", the voice of the guy from the Staples commercial was in my head. You know the one that says, "WOW, that's a low price!"

 

[zerodevil]

No limited, "WOW!!! THATS A BAD CAM LOBE!!!" cmon, you can TOTALY hear it.

 

[2000StreetRod]

Common mistake

AAHHH HAA!!! I've got it. Well apparently in ford land you count 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5. Or alteast that's what the coil pack does. I had 5 and 6 swapped on the pack.

I swear that I checked the plug wires and how they were attached before I pulled them off the first time. But I guess I got them crossed somehow.

The thing is running like a champ now.

Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it. I'm so glad that this car is out of my garage.

That happens fairly frequently after members first spark plug or wire change. Congratulations on finding the problem!

 

[cjmedina]

As soon as I saw "Wow", the voice of the guy from the Staples commercial was in my head. You know the one that says, "WOW, that's a low price!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kExTJ6SLXV4&feature=player_embedded#!

 

[mn_vette]

WOW, i didnt even consider that, i forgot that the 4.0's have a single pack instead of COP's. Nice job figuring that out, would have escaped me for a long time. Do you yourself own an explorer or will you be leaving us at this point? Glad we could help a little bit.

No explorer for me. I'm just trying to help out a friend. My wife works for Mitsubishi so its kind of manditory for me to own one. But if you are looking for a discount on a new one PM me and my wife will hook you up