How to do a Tune-up yourself for a 97
05-16-2007, 03:32 PM
#1
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How to do a Tune-up yourself for a 97
Hey all, I have a 97/4.6 Engine. It has 180K miles on it and still doing good.
It's been over 25 years since I was playing around under the hood, but thats about to change.
I'm wondering if there's a thread or Checklist on HOW-TO tune up a 4.6
Engine without paying 95 bucks an hour to the dealership.
I basically just need to follow some good directions so as not to F things
up.
I was thinking of these areas:
New Plugs
New Wires
Clean the carb with gumout
New Airfilter
Check fluids.
Any other recomendations are greatly appreciated. Or do you think it's just better to go the dealership.
All replies appreciated.
It's been over 25 years since I was playing around under the hood, but thats about to change.
I'm wondering if there's a thread or Checklist on HOW-TO tune up a 4.6
Engine without paying 95 bucks an hour to the dealership.
I basically just need to follow some good directions so as not to F things
up.
I was thinking of these areas:
New Plugs
New Wires
Clean the carb with gumout
New Airfilter
Check fluids.
Any other recomendations are greatly appreciated. Or do you think it's just better to go the dealership.
All replies appreciated.
05-16-2007, 03:53 PM
#2
Resident A-hole
Hey all, I have a 97/4.6 Engine. It has 180K miles on it and still doing good.
It's been over 25 years since I was playing around under the hood, but thats about to change.
I'm wondering if there's a thread or Checklist on HOW-TO tune up a 4.6
Engine without paying 95 bucks an hour to the dealership.
I basically just need to follow some good directions so as not to F things
up.
I was thinking of these areas:
New Plugs - GREAT Idea. Make sure to torq them to EXACT specification. .052 on the Gap and 14.75 ft lbs on torque.
New Wires - Great idea
Clean the carb with gumout - BAD Idea!! You will play hell finding the carb on this truck. Clean the Throttle Body with Throttle body cleaner. DO NOT USE REGULAR CARB CLEANER!!! 3M makes a GREAT throttle body cleaner.
New Airfilter- GREAT Idea. Remove the silencer on the fender side of the air cleaner too.
Check fluids. - With that many miles I would change as many of them as I could.
Any other recomendations are greatly appreciated. Or do you think it's just better to go the dealership. Not a hard truck to work on. To make it easier to get to the engine if you have an air compressor let the air out of the front tires. We call it kneeling the Elephant here at the shop.
All replies appreciated.
It's been over 25 years since I was playing around under the hood, but thats about to change.
I'm wondering if there's a thread or Checklist on HOW-TO tune up a 4.6
Engine without paying 95 bucks an hour to the dealership.
I basically just need to follow some good directions so as not to F things
up.
I was thinking of these areas:
New Plugs - GREAT Idea. Make sure to torq them to EXACT specification. .052 on the Gap and 14.75 ft lbs on torque.
New Wires - Great idea
Clean the carb with gumout - BAD Idea!! You will play hell finding the carb on this truck. Clean the Throttle Body with Throttle body cleaner. DO NOT USE REGULAR CARB CLEANER!!! 3M makes a GREAT throttle body cleaner.
New Airfilter- GREAT Idea. Remove the silencer on the fender side of the air cleaner too.
Check fluids. - With that many miles I would change as many of them as I could.
Any other recomendations are greatly appreciated. Or do you think it's just better to go the dealership. Not a hard truck to work on. To make it easier to get to the engine if you have an air compressor let the air out of the front tires. We call it kneeling the Elephant here at the shop.
All replies appreciated.
Last edited by NGM; 05-16-2007 at 05:55 PM.
05-16-2007, 05:05 PM
#3
08 February TOTM
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Dumfries, VA Member: #77
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Don't forget about the Fuel filter.
You will want to torque the plugs in to what Ford says (sorry I don't know what that number is). The 4.6 and 5.4 of your era have been known to spit the plugs back out do to only having 3-4 threads in the head. There is a thread or two in here about this if you do a search. You may want to spend 20$ and get a chilton's manual to help guid you through the tune up, well worth the money.
Check fluids. : When was the last time the fuilds were changed?
Welcome to the site
You will want to torque the plugs in to what Ford says (sorry I don't know what that number is). The 4.6 and 5.4 of your era have been known to spit the plugs back out do to only having 3-4 threads in the head. There is a thread or two in here about this if you do a search. You may want to spend 20$ and get a chilton's manual to help guid you through the tune up, well worth the money.
Welcome to the site
05-16-2007, 05:56 PM
#4
Resident A-hole
Don't forget about the Fuel filter.
You will want to torque the plugs in to what Ford says (sorry I don't know what that number is). The 4.6 and 5.4 of your era have been known to spit the plugs back out do to only having 3-4 threads in the head. There is a thread or two in here about this if you do a search. You may want to spend 20$ and get a chilton's manual to help guid you through the tune up, well worth the money.
Check fluids. : When was the last time the fuilds were changed?
Welcome to the site
You will want to torque the plugs in to what Ford says (sorry I don't know what that number is). The 4.6 and 5.4 of your era have been known to spit the plugs back out do to only having 3-4 threads in the head. There is a thread or two in here about this if you do a search. You may want to spend 20$ and get a chilton's manual to help guid you through the tune up, well worth the money.
Check fluids. : When was the last time the fuilds were changed?
Welcome to the site
05-22-2007, 07:33 PM
#7
97F-150XLT
Mine to
I have a 97' 4.6 and I just did an ignition upgrade from Troyer [ Accel Wires, Denso Iridium plugs and MSD coils.] and changed all filters and all fluids, don't forget to blow out or vacuum out the plug ports before pulling plugs you will get trash in the heads if you don't.