retchief

I have a 96 F-150, 4.9, 110,000 on it. I have been fighting problems with fuel/ignition for some time. It has had P0171/P0174 on and off. It all started with a P0411, whish was fixed in a timely manner. Soon after is when I got the lean codes.. Every time I have "fixed" it, codes come back around 6 months later. Fuel filter has been changed, fuel pressure is good, compression is good, checked for vaccum leaks with carb cleaner, then propane, checked good. changed cap, rotor, plugs wires. All was good again for 6 months, then back again. Changed EGR valve, EGR control valve, Fuel control valve (on fuel rail) only because it was suggested. Reset code, same, 3 months later, back. again, checked fuel pressure, and vaccume leaks....nothing abnormal. Reset codes, good for a while. Started having intermittent stumble, and periodic no start. Temp and humidity had no bearing. Changed pick up coil, then got imeadiate missfire (P0307) and P0171 and P0174. Changed cape rotor plugs, wires. Codes gone. Now have Stumble, hesitation, lack of power, ping/knock. I disconnected Maf sensor, ran good for 3000 feet, hooked back up. (Storm in area) same as before disconnecting. Went to work in morning, disconnected MAF sensor at work, no change, reconnected. Disconnected SPOUT terminal. All symptoms gone, except no power. Reconnected went back to way it was. Disconnected later, all symptoms gone except no power. LT fuel trim holds at 10.9 on 1, and 7.0 on 2. ST fuel trim at 0 on both. O2 sensors redeaing .770 on all 3. All 3 sensors have been changed at some point, and continuity has been read since, all good. Timing seems to scatter from 12.0 - 19.5 on scanner. Timing was good at balancer. Coolant is good. At a loss, Maybe pick up coil was bad when I got it??

retchief

Looking for someone that has a clue about ignition systems

retchief

Come on, this has to be more than a truck face book forum???

Kickprivate

Post it in the right forum?

https://www.f150forum.com/f10/

retchief

Sure did. I really dont think there are too many people here that know too much about anything. This was a last resort, found nothing. However, doing more troubleshooting, I have found a path for myself. I guess this is more of a high school thing, or a young adult facebook deal. Most people on here I have read and replied to, shouldnt be working on their own cars/trucks or anything else. They can delete me from here, since most of this stubid crap should have been figured out before they posted, or have maybe bought a simple shop manual. Common sense is nowhere to be found in these blogs. I need to find a ford forum that has older people than I. If some of these KIDS would seek out an elder, they might learn something.

Kickprivate

Yeah, sorry...maybe

Frank_Ford

With the ford V8 engines it becomes a big time missing problem if you get any water or engine oil that leaks into the spark plug sockets. On my 1998 I had water seeping from the heater hoses at the quick disconnect point. It wasn't a lot of water just a tiny bit but it was enough to short out the plug in the number 8 cylinder. You can also get oil leaking into these plug sockets from the valve covers. To test if this is the problem, clean the plug wire and put some electrical grease at the contact point. Also clean the plug contact. If you have an oil or water leak it will run good for a while and then start misfiring again.

Those heater hoses are not too hard to replace. there is a good picture elsewhere in the forum that shows how to disconnect them. at the non quick disconnect end, I used a Dremmel to cut the old hose clamp and hose to take them off. After this, installing the new ones is easy. Fixing the leak in the valve covers is harder because they are hard to work on. Try tightening the bolts first if the leaks are not real bad. This might work.

My water leak was not enough to even cause a drop in the water level but it did accumulate enough water and anti freeze to short out the plug wire.

Good luck

Frank_Ford

I have owned my Ford F150 for 5 years now and when I bought it it had 125000 miles on it. I gave it a tune up after I bought it and it has run reasonably good most of the time but never run really great. I attributed this to being an old truck. When I replace the plugs on it last week I used Permatex Dielectric grease on all the plug wires at the plugs and also at the coils. I also put this grease at the electrical connections at the sensors, coils, and computer. I am sure the new plugs helped but I think this grease has worked wonders because it runs better than ever before. The difference between the way it ran 5 years ago is significantly better now. The grease cost only about $4 at Autozone and it is well worth the expense. I also used it for my other cars and they also run a lot better.