First off let me just say, truck matches the profile name. I gave 300$ and 3 mtx 10” subs for it (The crappy 2004 road thunders). The only mods done to the ENGINE is a Comp Cams thumpstick and rotating assembly, paid and installed professionally an absolutely love the performance and sound. Almost forgot, 302 EFI.

Starting from the beginning (been fighting it for over a week now)
Truck ran fine, shut it down for the night, get up next day, start the truck, running like it’s only firing off 7 cylinders.. shut it down, think to myself what the actual fu… restart it sounds like it’s down 4 cylinders now.. shut it down… restart it now my foots to the floor and it sounds like it’s running on 1 cylinder… finally dies and won’t fire back off.

Alright so I start my diagnostics.. trucks getting fuel to injectors, pump primes as normal for startup, and also confirmed 37 psi pressure at the rail, and blipped pressure relief valve on rail, face full of gas, can confirm pressure at the rail.

Pulled out the handy dandy lightening checker, battery stable at 12.8v, checked voltage at coil which was 12.6v, checked from coil to top off dizzy cap, 12.6v, even went as far as checking to bottom of cap on the button that makes contact to rotor which was 12.6v. Coil primary and secondary windings all check out, decided to replace coil as it is probably the same age as truck, I’ll keep it for a back up, repeat same tests on new coil and checked out perfect.

I checked the resistance of all the plug wires, which also check out fine. Tried turning motor over… no spark still.. hit up ford forums and found that the Hall effect sensor or pip is a common issue for no spark, as well as the Tfi module, replaced module, still no spark. Researching I gathered that pip sensor acts as a crank position sensor, which makes sense being my dumbass looked for 2 hours before I got on the google and figured out that the Hall effect sensor inside the dizzy is what I’m after..

Tested the plug, the spout, and the sensor inside dizzy, conclusion is bad sensor.. purchased new dizzy, came with the whole deal, cap, rotor, and new Tfi module, threw it in and finally have spark back to plugs. Still won’t fire. checked firing order realized I am an idiot, and followed the first google image I saw when looking up firing order, Not a HO 302....(I never claimed to be the smartest fella) switched them around, confirmed spark again, tried firing, nothing… doesn’t even try to to fire off.. figure alright, timings off, and I don’t have a timing light, so I have tried the pull #1 plug out, pull dizzy, find TDC, reinstall so rotor points to #1 plug and button it up and try starting it, no luck.. I’ve checked everything I could find on the f150 forums and everything tests out.. I’m beyond baffled and ready to ghost ride this truck into the river. I’ve also find that if I rotate dizzy as in advancing or retarding it I can magically cut the ignition and it will come back on re prime pump all the relay clickies and stuff happen again. I’ve checked all my fuseable links, and have a question pertaining to those as well.. how many should be on the starting relay on the fender, and what should the orientation of them be? All to the always hot terminal or…? This truck was tweaker specialized when I purchased it, and I knew that, and pretty sure between the fella bitin’ ears and rippin’ gears, and needing to support his addiction to speed (in more than one way) started scrapping copper.. cause I’ve had to do a lot of wiring, which is cool cause I’m a weird one and enjoy doing it, but the fuseable links seem to be kicking my ***.

Everytime I’ve pulled cylinder 1 plug it’s been soaked with fuel, I’ve check the rest a couple of times making sure they are in useable condition, and they all are dry, but are burning about right actually. Just the cylinder 1 is getting gas soaked. It will throw some nice flames out the exhaust, as well as burp back through intake everyonce in a while cranking as well. Starting Fluid makes no difference in it actually running also.

so far I’ve replaced:
coil
condensor
dizzy (new)
cap
rotor
TFI module
New Battery
all vac lines
new ground(s)
cleaned grounds
new power wire
new battery terminals
new spark plugs
starter relay
new TFI connecter

before i get told to stop throwing parts at it, these are things that needed addressed before the issue started with the truck anyways, most of them we o.e. Parts and older than me anyways.. I’ve yet to change plug wires as they checked out via resistance testing them. I only paid 300$ ish for the whole rig, have like 1600 or so in cam/rotating assembly and don’t mind spending on maintenance and such, I bought it as a project rig, with the goal of building a fun cheap burnout/stoplight to stoplight warrior.. main goal is just to get it going right now.

Thanks for any help/Feedback,
HighClassWhiteTrash (Matt)

 

Spitting flames and backfiring through the intake sounds like bad timing to me. Or plug wires miss matched. And I'd keep an eye on that dizzy. These forums are filled with horror stories of aftermarket distributors failing almost immediately.

 

I had the timing out 180 I believe, now it tries to fire off normally, and if I let it stay on the starter it will pretty well idle till I cut the starter off. It smells like raw gas somethin’ fierce when I stop cranking on it, I’ve not found any leaks though, I’m almost wondering if I have a stuck injector because the number 1 cylinder plug is soaked with gas when I’ve pulled it. The rest looked pretty normal, mad a touch rich that’s it. It’s not backfiring through the intake or exhaust now.

 

sounds like its flooded for some reason on all cylnders

 

I had a dodge truck one time, that had similar issue. Everything seemed to check out.
​​​​I started going thru the wiring diagram and it turned out to be the ballast resistor. I replaced that $10 part and truck fired right up. Apparently, 1990 may have "ignition suppression resistor" instead of ballast resistor.

Disclaimer: I don't really know what I'm talking about. I just read your story and it reminded me of a similar thing that happened to me.

 

I sure would try a flood clear start
Try a fuel pressure gauge on the truck and manually fire a few injectors, watch the pressure drop
See if they are all the same
That is what Fords SBDS machine did to evaluate injectors