Do I have the right ECU?
08-08-2009, 02:33 PM
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Do I have the right ECU?
Hi everyone! I am new here and I hope to find an answer that has me and 2 local gargages stumped.
I have an 89' F150 with a 5.0, automatic, standard cab that has never been wrecked. When my neighbor first bought this truck, he was waiting on the previous owner to finish a new engine install. My nieghbor drove it for about a year before it began bellowing white smoke out of the exhaust. He moved and gave it to me and I expected to have a bad head gasket, but instead the top of one cylinder was pretty burned and almost crumbling on the top and the matching valves were shot. I replaced the block and heads out of a 1990 Crown Victoria. It was a low mileage engine and I cleaned and inspected it closely before reinstalling in my truck. Here's the problem: Since day one with the new engine the idle is very erratic when it is started. It goes from 600 to 2000 RPM and down again and it takes some fancy foot work to keep it running. If you can keep it running long enough and get it into gear, it smoothes out and can be driven anywhere. Stop and put it into park and it idles fine. Stop the engine, wait a few minutes and restart and its back to the roller coaster idle, and it burns lean.
I (we) have checked every one of the known sensors and replaced many if not all (probably needlessly) including the ECU...twice. Now I am thinking perhaps the ECU is the wrong one for this truck (given it's history). The Ford dealer says they have no info on which ECU goes with it being it is over 10 years old.
Can anyone tell me how to find out if I have the correct ECU, or can it be reprogrammed, or ??? I don't want to ruin the engine by driving it running lean as I suspect that this is why it burned up the last engine.
Thanks for any help and for reading all of this through the end! Have a great day.
I have an 89' F150 with a 5.0, automatic, standard cab that has never been wrecked. When my neighbor first bought this truck, he was waiting on the previous owner to finish a new engine install. My nieghbor drove it for about a year before it began bellowing white smoke out of the exhaust. He moved and gave it to me and I expected to have a bad head gasket, but instead the top of one cylinder was pretty burned and almost crumbling on the top and the matching valves were shot. I replaced the block and heads out of a 1990 Crown Victoria. It was a low mileage engine and I cleaned and inspected it closely before reinstalling in my truck. Here's the problem: Since day one with the new engine the idle is very erratic when it is started. It goes from 600 to 2000 RPM and down again and it takes some fancy foot work to keep it running. If you can keep it running long enough and get it into gear, it smoothes out and can be driven anywhere. Stop and put it into park and it idles fine. Stop the engine, wait a few minutes and restart and its back to the roller coaster idle, and it burns lean.
I (we) have checked every one of the known sensors and replaced many if not all (probably needlessly) including the ECU...twice. Now I am thinking perhaps the ECU is the wrong one for this truck (given it's history). The Ford dealer says they have no info on which ECU goes with it being it is over 10 years old.
Can anyone tell me how to find out if I have the correct ECU, or can it be reprogrammed, or ??? I don't want to ruin the engine by driving it running lean as I suspect that this is why it burned up the last engine.
Thanks for any help and for reading all of this through the end! Have a great day.
