CrisAnderson27

So, I recently had to take a spur of the moment trip from Phoenix AZ to northwest Tennessee. I'd considered renting a car, but the rental price plus fuel was far more than the price of fuel alone on my truck (I was averaging 11-13mpg city). My truck is an 03 F-150 Supercrew with the 5.4, a 6" lift, General Grabber 35's, and at the time 243k miles.

I should have rented a car.

Anyway, I was making a pass on a semi on the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas, when I suddenly lost power and had a nasty engine knock. From the cab it sounded bottom end related. I slowed down enough to get over on the shoulder and the sound went away. I could drive normally up to about 60mph. So I got to the next rest stop (about a mile), called AAA, and got towed into town to a local shop. Diagnosis after power braking and forcing the noise to escalate was rod knock...and a $6000 bill for the new Ford warranted replacement. This is where it gets REALLY crappy. They got the replacement installed in 4 business days (including the day I ordered it). Once it was all buttoned up and paid for, I left to put in fuel, got to the gas station, turned around...and drove back to tell them my truck was NOT right. It had literally no power, and had developed a subtle but very speed dependent vibration. At low speed, coasting...it literally sounds like a Subaru WRX is running behind me (insert choppy turbo 4cyl sound). Power wise the truck felt like I was driving with the emergency brake on. The shop took a look, drove it a bit, and told me...I quote "It's a big, heavy truck with a lift and 35's...it's gonna be a pig man, that's just how it is". When I told him I'd driven the truck for literally 2.5 years, and know how it should run...he came back with "Well, the motor has to break in, too...it's going to have decreased power and mileage for a bit".

Umm, what?

Anyway, needless to say I left, there wasn't anything else I could do. On the return trip, the truck got literally 7-9mpg. It had NO power, and wouldn't shift properly. I made the shop a video to show them what it was doing while on the trip:


So, I think we can all agree that that isn't right.

Next, I made another video for the shop, and a couple Ford tech friends...again showing the lack of power (pretty clearly illustrated when I got cut off by a little blue econosomething, and couldn't accelerate hard enough under full throttle to catch it).


The next morning I climbed under the truck. I dropped the exhaust from the manifolds to see if maybe the cats were plugged (I wish!!), and took a video showing the condition under the truck, including the newly developed transmission leak:


So then I spent the day doing some testing...trying to see under what conditions things could be replicated etc. I reset the computer and did a proper relearn cycle (idle at running temp 1 minute, ac on 1 minute, in drive against the brakes 1 minute, drive 10 miles under varying conditions). This helped the shifting issues a TON...but there's still no power, and while it upshifts much more easily compared to before, it still holds gears on the freeway because of it. I did a couple 1/4 mile runs with my GPS to see if it really was down on power compared to other trucks like mine, and netted a best 0-60 time of 20.44 seconds, and a quarter mile time of 20.36 seconds (yes, it took OVER a quarter mile to get to 60mph...before the swap, going uphill on a mid length onramp...I could hit 60mph before the lanes merged into one). When I got home, I shut the truck down, went inside and got a drink, came out and started it up again. As I walked around the back I saw a large cloud of white smoke dispersing, and the last of it leaving the tail pipe. Also present was a bottom end tapping sound much like the one I initially brought the truck into the repair center for:


I got up and got into the truck to load the drivetrain against the brakes...and the sound got quieter...and actually began to sound like it was coming out of the top end:


So, a couple things. I don't want to name the shop, for various reasons. First...neither I nor the shop were in the best position here. They were trying to do me a solid by getting me back home (I had my two young sons with me) for as little cost as they could (they told me after my truck was back together that they 'rebuilt' the motor mounts with urethane rather than charging me to replace them for example), and I was obviously not in a good position period. I also don't believe in trashing people before they've actually earned it...and the cause of all this is yet to be determined. Finally though, I'm not the kind of guy who takes their truck into a shop for headlight replacement, then claims the engine that blows on the way home is the shop's responsibility (actually I do all my own work to be honest...this was an emergency situation). I'm hard on my truck, it's a truck. I know it's older and has a lot of miles. That's not their fault.

On a final note, I took it in to a dealership today to have it looked over. They literally had no solution to the power issues, other than the PCV hose needing replaced. The trans leak is the dipstick tube o-ring as I suspected. Mileage to and from the dealership (47 miles one way, all freeway) was 8.9mpg. That's a drop of over 4mpg compared to what I would have gotten on the same trip with the 250k original engine that came out of it.

So, with all of this said...help me out guys. If you need anything clarified please let me know. Any and all ideas based on the videos and what I've said here will be appreciated.

CrisAnderson27

Bump.

I did some data logging on my SCT today. Idle timing in drive is 13-15°. Timing at 55mph, steady state...hovered around 20-24°, only occasionally spiking up to 32°. This seems excessively low to me. I also show only 18° at 70mph under full throttle. It will not pass 80mph under full throttle acceleration on a flat stretch of freeway, as it simply doesn't have the power to push the rpm high enough to hit the shift point. It will literally sit there screaming at 4000rpm or so, and 80mph. Indefinitely. Letting off the throttle for long enough to let it upshift will allow continued acceleration, albeit slow.

I'm going to unplug the knock sensor once the truck cools down (if I can reach it lol). I'm wondering if the weird vibration sound is causing the knock sensor to pull massive timing.

white89gt

The way that is acting looks to me like you've got a torque converter issue. Torque converters can also make some funky noises. Did that get checked when you had it apart? Might also have a busted flex plate.....

CrisAnderson27

I highly doubt it did. I was really at the mercy of the shop in this whole situation...being 1000 miles from home with a blown up truck and my two young sons. And while I don't think they purposely screwed me over...they also didn't do things the way I would have preferred in a number of ways, which I very openly told them.

For example, I asked repeatedly to see the damage to the old engine, or to at minimum be present while the oil was drained so I could look for signs of bearing/rod/whatever material. They had already pulled it (on my approval), and when I finally demanded to see it (when work was finished), they had supposedly already sent it back for the core (they were quite apologetic etc, of course).

In the end though, if there's damage to the converter, it was done by them. The thing ran perfectly right up to the point where I went to pass. It downshifted, and bam...no power, and a bad bottom end knock.

I did some data logging on my SCT, but I don't know how to download it (need to look it up). I ordered a wifi OBD2 adapter and bought Forscan as well so I can get a more solid bank of information on what's going on. For now, I took this video both for the shop (the manager is a 15yr Ford tech), and for a few of my Ford tech buddies to look at:


rom what they tell me, the spark is being substantially retarded per this video. In the morning I'm going to unplug the knock sensor (if I can find/reach the damn thing), and hopefully solve the problem. My current/best guess is that the vibration/noise that I think is being induced by the rebuilt motor mounts is resonating at the right frequency to cause the knock sensor to trigger spark retard. The few people I've talked to think this is a viable thing to look into. I've got motor mounts on order as well (since they'll need replaced anyhow...I really wish the shop had given me the option of a quoted price...this would have been a hell of a lot easier with the freaking motor out).

It'll be a story and a half if motor mounts are the cause of my truck being down 50-100hp, and getting 7-9mpg lol.

CrisAnderson27

In this last video, what you're hearing that sounds like exhaust drone at medium to higher speeds, or huge knobby mud tires at lower speeds...is actually the weird sound/vibration the truck is making.

Jbrew

Well, not going to read through again lol, but why were you getting a CEL or what was the CEL for in your first vid ? O2 DTC's maybe, which ones ?

CrisAnderson27

I know it's long...sorry. There were no CEL. From the first noise being made, through engine replacement, and to this day...per my SCT X4. Only code even is the P1000 from resetting things

Driving around today after getting some ranges for MAF, spark, etc...everything seems mostly normal. MAF counts were at 820, WOT in third gear at 4800rpm, spark mostly in range at various speeds, ST fuel trims in the .9-1.2 range.

On flat ground the truck still won't climb higher without MILES of free road to do so, or me lifting to allow an upshift into OD (which oddly let's it accelerate again, though not quickly). It took 2 minutes after the 2-3 upshift to get to 4800rpm in 3rd as it was.

Sooo, I'm at a complete loss here

Jbrew

Okay I see, ABS light...my mistake. I wouldn't suspect the torque converter unless you were having these problems before hand. I think you know a tuner for these engines does nothing other than change the trans table (shift points). But tuners can become buggy and have in the past. But you've defaulted back to the original tune correct, -no change. So, -it's running constipated like, plugged up. I'd have to go through it, check the upstream cats at the very front of the brick first. Then start at compression checking ignition components as I go.

But hell, you had it at the dealer. Seems to me one of the first things to do would be to flow check the exhaust, and check the AF's. Ford should be able to pin-point this one fairly easily.

Jbrew

Also, did you check the brakes ? Guess I'd want to make sure they aren't dragging.

CrisAnderson27

It definitely *FEELS* constipated. My only way to check the cats was to drop the exhaust from the manifolds. No change. Motor sounds great (other than a knock sound from under the truck which I believe is a "light off" cat noise). It revs free and clean. There's no miss, no hesitation, no anything negative it just flat won't get out of it's own way...and costs me 8-9mpg for the privelege. It rained today...and it wouldn't break the tires from a light. Used to be a light stab would lose me traction on wet pavement

So I'd have thought. I got a response of "PCV is causing a vacuum leak...$99 diag fee please!". I raised hell and the tech decided not to charge me.

In the end, if the motor were choked, via intake or exhaust...my MAF, SPARK, or fuel trim numbers would show it right? All that's left is the transmission in my head.

Which bites because I've spent the vast majority of my life hating anything to do with working on automatic transmissions. Any vehicle I could convert to a stick...I did.