Megaspl

I'm having a similar issue in a 99 e150 with a 5.4 triton. I parked it for the day after pulling my boat home when a friend of mine suggested we run some cleaner through the brake booster hose ( trying to get all the power I can when towing a 5800 pound boat/ trailer). He had some sort of special can with a gate valve for metering the cleaner in and a sight glass to see it. After running the cleaner through it ( unknown as of now what it was) he has unimpressed of the amount of smoke and lack of the ses light coming on he started it back up revved it a few good times and that was all that day. The next morning we got up early to pull the boat to the lake for memorial day but when I started it it was running rough and just having the #7 cop go out I thought one was on it's way out again and after getting a code 301 thought this should be a easy change compared to 307. Later the next day I changed the cop and started it and same thing rough idle but now with a hint of smoke kinda white ish smoke. So back to the store got plugs changed all but #3 7 8 gapped to 52 ths started it and same thing 301 now with a new plug and cop so now i swapped #1 cop with #5 and guess what. SAME-THING code 301 and still smoking at idle and running rough at ldle. Next day take it to a ford mech with a fancy code scanner/ computer did a cylinder contribution test on it and it showed #1 was almost dead at idle but kinda perked up under light revs. Then he sheet the truck off turned the spark and fuel off and cranked it to check for compression still with the computer attached only ( and not quite sure how the computer calculated compression like that ) however it showed #1 was very low and 3 was kinda low as well he said for a long shot try some injector cleaner and a long drive did that and noticed it ran better not 100% but better at highway speed with od off if od was on it would kinda buck. Ok get home and pretty much same thing still running rough at idle and smoking kinda at idle so i pulled the injector cleaned it moved it to #2 cylinder started it and same thing #1 missfire so then i get the noid light out check the harness it's pulsing as it should so i get the compression tester i got from harbor freight with multiple ends and tried for like an hour to get that sob in there and finally gave up but It looked like there was oil maybe on the plug when i pulled it I'm hoping its not rings or a hole in the piston but when i pulled the dipstick and started it I did not notice anything wrong.. At this point I'm at a loss is it a head gasket is there any way of finding out the head on this van looks like a royal pain in the azz if I have to pull it and I do not want to miss diagnose this. Thanks in advance.

Megaspl

So any ways. After messing around I got fed up and decided to pull the valve cover and found this. I did not touch it before I took these.

Austin97

Woooooow. Your follower just flew off by itself. That's ridiculous. All you should need though is a lifter as long as the follower looks ok. I imagine the lifter collapsed and let the follower bounce around from the extra play and it shifted over there. The valve spring compressor tools are pretty easy to come by and you should be able to get it in there no problem.

Megaspl

Is there a picture of what this is suppose to look like. I'm new to the over head cam deal. I thought this was Lashed in place by the cam.

Austin97

It's supposed to look just like the rest of them.Basically the lifter, which is that cylinder looking thing opposite the valve spring is the pivot point of the roller follower and the cam lobe pushes down on the follower which compressed the valve spring. You can get a new lifter from the dealer, it should just pull right out and drop the other one in, then you have to compress the valve spring to make enough room to slide the follower into place so it looks just like the other ones.

Megaspl

I pulled the rocker/ follower out and checked it. It looks like the roller in the middle is ok I'm thinking when he put the cleaner in he did not meter it good enough and possible hydo lock. I'm praying that my valves are not bent. I will know more later today when I mess with it again.

Austin97

Yeah I never use the brake booster hose for running air induction cleaners, I use smaller red or black ones that have vacuum at idle. And if his set up is like the one I've used it's just supposed to drip into the clear sight glass part and takes about a half hour to run through completely. You might be better off replacing the follower just becauuse it's already out but that depends on the price. If it's like $20 I'd do it if it's much more forget it, just make sure the roller doesn't hang up, but definitely replace the lifter just in case, I've never seen a follower fall out so my guess is the lifter collapsed and the running like dog doo caused enough turbulance to knock the follower out.