Fizzman911

Hello everyone I posted a little while on the welcome forum. This is not a request for help but rather my experience fixing my truck. I read a lot on this forum on possible issues but many of posts/threads ended without a solution. So I was left following many leads without may solutions. My hope is to post my detailed experience and maybe someone will find What I did helpful.

I am am writing this on my phone so pardon my grammar.

I purchased a 2001 f150 5.4 triton super crew cab 2 weeks ago. I needed something to tow my boat after trading my wife's car for a sedan.

Anyways, when I looking at this car the previous owner said the car was running rough. He said it was missing on cylinder 1 and he purchased and installed a coil pack so it was fixed. The day I took it for a test ride it was still running rough. He had cleared that codes since he was a stand up guy so I was unable to really know what was going on. He said well I think It's a coil pack on cylinder 2. Long story short I heard a hissing coming from the engine so I figured it was a vacume leak and I got the car for a great price. I figured I would take it home, find the leak and be good to go.

The truck ran pretty rough under load between 1300-1800 rpm. It was shaking and it finally through a code of it missing on cylinder 1. I decided that I would try and find the vacume leak. I saw that when I moved the pcv valve I would get a load hissing noise. I purchased a new valve. A new oring thing for it and the 90 degree elbow that was collapsing. That did not fix the issue.

After thinking and reading on a possible issue I decided to replace spark plug on cylinder 1. This made it a little bit better so I decided to replace all spark plugs and coul packs. Now it ran smoother but i was still getting roughness through the same RPM range.

At at this point the truck would work well one day and then run rough another. Better than before but now I was getting miss on cylinder 7. After a couple of days of driving around I decided to run seafoam in the gas and through the break booster vacume line thinking it might be injectors not running right. That didn't make a difference.

One day I got a code that said bank 1 and 2 too rich so I purchased a scanner with the ability to read and graph live data. When it came in the mail I found that long term fuel trims on bank 1 and 2 were -25%. This was the max that the ECU could do. I was perplexed. The O2 sensors were working and the graphs didn't look bad. I had noticed a fuel smell from the exhaust from the beginning but I thought that was maybe from the fact that the previous owner had removed the cats. I started reading on possible issues and thought maybe it was a fuel pump or a fuel injector issue. So tonight I went to harbor freight and purchased a fuel pressure testing kit.

I hooked up the kit, turned on the car and saw the gauge jump to 45psi then drop down quickly. So I tightened everything up and tried again. Same thing. I then turned the engine on and got 50psi consistent and nothing leaking on the guages or fuel lines or fuel rail. I thought it had to be cylinder 7 injector being stuck open since it was missing. I could hear the injector working but thought I would replace it. I went to the car store and purchased a remanufactured injector. Installed it and turned the truck on. It's now running smooth and for some strange reason not only was bank 2 fuel trim coming back into check but also bank 1. Now I am at -10 on idle and 0 under load. On both. So it's much better. I don't feel any hesitation or roughness. I think I might still have a few other injectors that are leaking slightly. But as of now it completely drivable and I considered it fixed.

I hope this helps other person with similar issues.

Thanks

fizzman911