The newest tow rig....

Poohbair · Mar 29, 2012

My newest tow rig. Not really a great TOW rig, but I was looking for something that would haul 7+ people, the wife would drive, would get reasonable fuel mileage, was inexpensive to buy, and since I don't tow that much... it didn't need to be a 1 ton diesel... It will mainly tow my car trailer around with **** on it that wont fit inside... some dirt, rocks, yard stuff, mower, lumber, firewood, etc... tow my boat if I can get it fixed...

I picked this up for cheap. Good shape, clean interior, straight body, no rust. Needs some coil packs, and some tires, and some rear shocks...

1997 w/ a 5.4

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Jay W · Mar 29, 2012

Watch the spark plugs on those.

Glenn · Mar 29, 2012

Jay W said:
Watch the spark plugs on those.

I believe they fixed that after '94.

Poohbair · Mar 29, 2012

No, the plugs were a problem clear up into the mid 2000's

This one supposedly just had the plugs done about 2 weeks ago.

Still has a wicked miss, and pulls codes for misfires on cyl 3 and cyl 5.

Really common for the coil packs to give up, or the boot that goes from the coil pack to the plug. I don't want to work on it, so the shop said they would do plugs for $250 and replace the coil packs if I supplied them at the same time for no extra charge. Coil packs are $44 bucks at Napa...

Not sure if I want to just have a full set of plugs put in, and replace the 2 coil packs, or just do the coil packs and see what happens... the 2 cyl w/ bad coils might have fuel fouled plugs now too ??????

Beats me.. If I can get it fixed for less than $500 bucks I will be happy

skinny_pedal · Mar 29, 2012

Make sure you buy a motorcraft plug, nothing else. But majority of the time when we work on them for a misfire. You always have a bad coil. Id just replace all the plugs cause there probably some autolite crap, and replace 2 coils and do all boots. Should be set

How many miles?

boardbysled · Mar 29, 2012

Needs some 22's and lots of chrome vatozone stickies.

Poohbair · Mar 30, 2012

Has 189k miles

ain'tstuckjustresting · Mar 30, 2012

X2 on factory plugs. If it has anything else put in a whole set. We tuned up our 2000 F150 and just had Napa send out plugs. They sent autolite platinums. When we started it there was a wicked miss, pulled the packs 2 times thinking it was a bad connection. After some reading I p/u a set of motorcraps and it was all better.

zukkev · Mar 30, 2012

I can't tell you HOW many of these Triton series engines I have tuned over the yrs, and I agree with NOT using Autolites, BUT I have used NGK's for MANY yrs with absolutely 0 issues on every one I have done using NGK's...you can't go wrong with motorcraft as that's what we use at my current place of employment, but to say only use MC I disagree...
And to add, the coilpacks are a high failure item, HOWEVER--there could be an underlying cause for the #5 to flag a misfire...pull the coilpack off of #5 (it's the one under the power steering resivoir support bracket); if the end of the coil is wet and smells like rotten coolant, you either have a leaking intake gasket or thermostat housing seal---it'll be real obvious once the coilpack is removed. The #3 misfire could just be parasitic loss from #5...Best way to tell would be using Mode06 TID53 for miss history (which one has the most misses stored in history), but unfortunately most of the early Triton OBDII Fords (96-98ish) had their misfire monitors reprogrammed to be nonexistent due to many issues with false misfire monitoring.
I recently just did a 1998 5.4L expedition intake manifold gasket set and plugs/coils/boots as necessary to fix this very misfire concern...it had 245K on it...purrs like a kitten now...on NGK's...

skinny_pedal · Mar 30, 2012

Kev your right on the NGK. I believe you when you say they work fine. I just have it programmed in my head to use NGK's in anything non american. But I know many of the newer Ac Delco plugs are rebaged NGK's. Just dont use a dam autolite

or worse a bosch platinum 4

uke:

skinny_pedal · Mar 30, 2012

O and Pooh are you lucky enough to still have the oil filter in the driver side bumper? Otherwise they are a biatch!

Poohbair · Mar 30, 2012

skinny_pedal said:
O and Pooh are you lucky enough to still have the oil filter in the driver side bumper? Otherwise they are a biatch!

I haven't even touched it yet ... Don't have a clue where the oil filter is?

zukkev · Mar 30, 2012

If it is behind the left corner of the front bumper...I have heard of folks re-routing the lines, and remounting the filter mount to get it in a less vulverable place...That or build a shithousestout of a front bumper! :haha:

Jokenring · Mar 30, 2012

zukkev said:
If it is behind the left corner of the front bumper...I have heard of folks re-routing the lines, and remounting the filter mount to get it in a less vulverable place...That or build a shithousestout of a front bumper! :haha:

Might want to check and possibly move the computer location too. I heard Pooh likes to break those with sticks he runs over. :fawkdancesmiley:

Poohbair · Mar 30, 2012

Jokenring said:
Might want to check and possibly move the computer location too. I heard Pooh likes to break those with sticks he runs over. :fawkdancesmiley:

Shiiiiiitttttt.....

:flipoff:

zukkev · Mar 30, 2012

:haha: :haha: :haha:

Poohbair · Mar 30, 2012

Looks like these came with either an 8.8 or a 9.75, and it looks like I have the 9.75.... or at least it looks nothing like the 8.8 that I have to put in my Cougar... looks just like a Sterling 10.5

Poohbair · Mar 30, 2012

I think I am going to try my hand at fixing it w/o paying a shop to do it. Appears to be a real cock sucker, but oh well, it will save me $250 bucks...

NGK plug are $4 bucks each, new plug boots are $5 bucks each, and coil packs are $45 each. I am going to pull it apart when I have time (maybe this weekend, but if not, then definetly not next week.. have a **** ton of stuff going on) and replace all plugs, all boots, and will test the coil packs before I replace them.

I hope this fixes the problem, or my wife will cut my nuts off....

:eeek:

zukkev · Mar 30, 2012

chances are it will...I'd suggest at least replacing the coilpacks in the holes that flagged misfires...because they may test fine outside the truck, but still cause a problem when under a load; when you pull them, you can look at the body of the coil for obvious overheating/hotspots...also, look on the bottom of the body of the coil, there's a little round casting spot that loooks kinda like a target---if it's all white (arching signs), I'd replace it...
You're gonna ****ing hate the back two holes on the passenger side :redneck:...pull that black plastic electrical cover near the battery, it gives you slighttly more room to shove your fist in & finger **** the plugs outta there...the rest aren't bad...

t1h5ta3 · Mar 31, 2012

we had one of our acts drop off an f150 couple weeks ago to have plugs done, 1 snaped in the head.... glad it wasnt me..... 5 hours to extract the tip.. .lol

couple days later, had another 5.4 in for pass side exhaust manifold leak... made good $ on that one... laughed at how poor the machining was... had to shave .060 off it to get it flat!