Running very rich - running out of options

[kblackav8or]

I changed out the upper gasket but still have some reassembly to finish. Was too dark to finish last night. The gasket wasn't too bad. I think I may have found another source of a vacuum leak. I think there might have been a broken plastic vacuum T but I can't be sure I didn't do it yanking around on things. Irregardless the old PCV was bad. I should be able to fire it up after a couple more hours of buttoning things up. The vacuum hoses and the throttle body elbow are about all that is left to put back on. I will report the results.
Kevin

 

[kblackav8or]

What are the charactoristics of a failing coil pack? I got it back together, fired it up and ran like crap. After a minute or 2 it ran a little better but still the same. So then I start wiggling the coil pack connectors around and low and behold it smooths out when I wiggle the drivers side. I am wondering if this could be the cause of it all. Maybe the pack itself gets weak or starts failing when hot. That seems to be when most of the problems occur. PCV was definitely bad. Gasket probably was OK. 4 hours of work. The bolts weren't very tight which is why I continued to fix it once I dug into it. Had they been firmly tight I would have dealt with the other stuff first.

 

[Turdle]

I have a couple of good coil packs in garage,
If you pay ship, i'll send them
If it works we'll work it out later

 

[kblackav8or]

Can you PM or e-mail me? I might want them irregardless. I am suspicious of the connector right now. In the morning I might take a look in the light and see how things look in there. A random missfire or weak signal to the coil might be contributing to my problem I would think.

 

[410Fortune]

wait there may have been a broken tee connector? Did you remove it?
How can you not tell if its broken?
SDont leave it isntalled and broken hahaha


I have never had a Ford DIS coil pack fail personally, but I have heard about others who have

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

Sure sounds like a loose or corroded coil pack connector. Maybe try a shot of WD-40 in the connector, and a zip-tie....?

If that works, I'd replace the connector for a permanent fix.

 

[kblackav8or]

Ran OK today for 3 short trips. The connector looked OK. I might get something better then brakeclean for the terminals this weekend. The problem has cost me a week worth of work on my other project. .

 

[n0xdw]

What are the charactoristics of a failing coil pack? I got it back together, fired it up and ran like crap.

Generally when you have a coil pack fail it will only be one or two of the coils at most. What happens is you often will have a misfire on one or both cylinders it runs. I.E. if the front coil dies you will lose 1 and 5, the middle one will lose 2 and 4 and the end one will lose 3 and 6. From on top it looks like one unit, but it really is 3 coils potted together. Easy test is normally to verify if you have proper spark from both ends. It is possible for a coil to short to ground on one tower, or at least leak to ground and it may still fire the other plug well. Invest in a spart tester (looks like a spark plug with a clamp and no center electrod. The voltage must reach around 35K to go up and to the side to ground. Check for even spark one at a time on all cylinders. If you still have a possible rich issure, yes the fuel rail damper can go bad, and when it does it will leak fuel into the vacuum hose. Simply pull the vacuum hose off the fuel damper and see if there is any sign of fuel there, if so replace damper.
Good luck.

 

[kblackav8or]

It seems to be partially heat related at times. Though the fact if I wiggled that one coil connector it definitely affected it. I am thinking it was more like a intermittent poor signal to the coil rather then failed because it can and did run well at times. As I stated the PCV was throughly stuck when I pulled it. The broken vacuum T could have been me reefing on it and not seeing what I was doing. The bugger was hard to get off the hose I know that. Replaced with a new one and some newer not hard as a rock hose. I am getting a software driven OBD II setup for my laptop which should help in the future with both my 2000 model vehicles.

 

[n0xdw]

It seems to be partially heat related at times. Though the fact if I wiggled that one coil connector it definitely affected it.

Well if wiggling the harness effected it, then you need check the terminal tension. If you do not have drag on each of the terminals in the harness then you either need to tighten the terminals or replace them.

 

[ma96782]

I'm confused........If it were the coil pack and/or misfireing spark plug......shouldn't simple things like that show w/ the computer diagnostic codes?

Aloha, Mark

 

[kblackav8or]

Still seems heat related. Runs fine for the first trip of the day then grows worse. Threw the CEL again today so whatever it is isn't fixed yet. So far 1 PCV, 1 O2 (drivers side as indicated by the CEL), 1 upper manifold gasket (Ford mech friend said he'd seen that before more then once), 1 vacuum T that might have been leaking or I busted it dealing with the PCV, cleaned maf. Today I swapped on another coil pack after I made sure the pins on both ends were clean and that I had a tight connection, also swapped another O2 sensor on the drivers side. The O2 I took out was only a month old and looked pretty sooty and black. I have saved it for a spare if it isn't bad. I haven't driven it since the latest bit of work but it did sound nice when it started, not that that indicates much. We will see. In a day or 2 I will have a PC based OBD II scanner setup to see what is going on if it continues. My wife has been pretty adament that we should work through it vice taking it to a shop.
Kevin

 

[kblackav8or]

Here is an update. After my last post I had replaced the suspect coil pack and I had disassembled the coil pack connector and cleaned tightened up the connectors. So what I think fixed it was that and another O2 sensor. I am wondering if the sensor was just a dud but honestly I think it was randomly failing to fire the coil on a couple cylinders along with a weak new sensor. It has gone a couple weeks, the power is back the gas milage is up and it seems to be running like new. Hoping that it is all fixed and that I won't have any additional problems. I don't think they are using as good of an alloy in the connectors as they used to because the contacts were not nearly as clean or bright as I have been used to dealing with on older Fords.

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

I don't think they are using as good of an alloy in the connectors as they used to because the contacts were not nearly as clean or bright as I have been used to dealing with on older Fords.

That's entirely possible. With the price of silver and copper going through the roof, electronics suppliers are probably cutting back on use of the precious metals in their products. This would lead to easier corroding of terminals, etc.

Sounds like you fixed it though.