Thanks for the in depth details of the problem. I will see if I can get a new set of coils from my buddies at Ford. They're my customer, so hopefully they have some engineering samples laying around. I agree that all components are engineered to work together. I would like to use Motorcraft plugs when I replace mine, but champion has a one piece plug instead of the 2 piece produced by Ford. It amazes me that this plug design ever got approved after the extensive testing that Ford does. It is a terrible design. I think Ford has the highest quality in the industry, but it does drive me nuts when they try to save a nickel and it makes for a poor design. They just did this with their Sync system which is horrible. They farmed out the design to India and it sucks. They have tons of warranty issues and lots of ticked off customers. Where was the savings. They had to crawl back to Microsoft to fix all the problems with the Sync.
I am a true blue Ford fan. I still own my 66 Fairlane 390 GT that I bought in 1970. I've owned Fords all my life, but get frustrated with some of the poor decisions they make in engineering / design sometimes. I'll let you know if it solves the problems once I get the new plugs and coils in it.
Can you still drain the convertor on these transmissions or did Ford remove the drain plug. They were the only ones that had a drain plug for the last 40 years. Hopefully they still have it.

Again, thanks for the help.

 

About 02 +/- they took the converter drain plug off.
Good to hear your diehard FORD.
Yes they do make blunders as often as any other makes and models.
I have been total Ford since 73 with cars, trucks and hot rods and before that with Ford Y blocks and old Flatheads.
Have a 73 Mercury Comet GT with fuel injection 5L conversion, cammed and header equipped, a 90 Lincoln Mark 7 with an 02 5L and Supercharger, special Ford heads and Headers, a Ranger and Bronco II.
Also of possible interest, had an open wheel winged sprint car with a high deck race block 351 running as a Super Sportsman 4 barrel on alky.
Can you believe this rig would lift the front off the track coming off the turns on a 1/2 mile dirt track?
I've had my day in the sun with a lot of different cars and types of racing over the years.
The most fun was building single cylinder race motors and dynoing them on a home built dyno and finding HP in porting, exhaust, camshafts, ring pak fit and various other findings that I later read about in the race mags well after I had found the ways and means. Surface fire spark plugs was one of them.
Can you believe I used to hand file cam profies just for testing to find the little power improvements for Go Kart race engines and turning a little Briggs modifieds to 10k RPM.
Using a degree wheel to profile valve lift, opening and closing points hundreds of times on all kinds of engines.

Good luck.

 

Sounds like your a true gearhead. I have a bunch of classics too. My 66 Fairlane GT, 1969 Shelby GT350, 1967 Shelby GT350 clone, 1967 Ranchero XL 390 4V, 1967 Mustang "S" code with a super rare 427 high riser in it. It was set up for drag racing in the 70"s. It's a 700HP beast. 31" x 14" Mickey Thompson tires on the rear, 456 gear, 4 speed, 13:1 compression, high riser heads and intake, big solid lifter cam. It looks just like a 70"s drag car.
Keep buying Fords. They have the best quality and spend a lot of money on customer satisfaction. They also have some of the quietest cars with no squeaks and rattles. They spend a lot of money to make sure no squeaks or rattles exist. It does tick me off when they try to cut corners sometimes. It always comes back to bite them. Now and then you have some manager that's going to save the world and submits a large cost save. If they don't investigate it fully, quite often it turns out to be a bad decision. Good talking to you and Happy Easter.

 

Thank you and the best to you and family.
73 KM3F.

 

The coil boots coated interior with dielectric grease is what fixed my similar issue!

 

I have read the threads and wanted to share my adventures of my Bucking 5.4. The truck is a 2002 5.4, gas, currently with 95K miles. I bought it used with about 80K a couple of years ago. At just under 90k it started "bucking" when cruising at about 50 to 60 MPH with little or no power applied. (flat ground, no load). It would miss violently for a couple of cylinders then run OK. Sometimes this would happen every few seconds or it might run fine for many minutes without bucking. If i backed off or accelerated it would not "Buck". This gradually got worse and eventually I got a Cam Position Sensor error (P0340) I went through all of what I have already read, new fuel filter, clean the injectors, had a complete Tune-up with new COPs, EGR's, the whole list, and it was still happening. Following up on the Cam Position Sensor idea, I ended up pulling the timing chain cover and replaced all of the chains, tensioners, etc. This seemed to have resolved the issue until just last week. It now has 95k. and it is doing it again. I had the crankcase flushed thinking a previous owner might have run some heavy oil through it and it plugged up the supply to the tensioners (they are operated via oil pressure). That didn't help. So, I had the timing chain cover pulled again thinking there was a failed part. Nope. Everything looked fine. The parts supplier agreed to warranty all of the parts so now I have all new timing chain parts installed, again. Took it out for a test drive and it's doing it again. I have spent thousands on this issue with no success.
Someone suggested water in the fuel tank. I haven't actually drained the tank to see if there is pool of water in the bottom and, I can't remember what time of year this happened before and if it was during the cold months creating condensation in the tank. Will be checking into that.
Your ideas are welcome!

 

I had a coil that would always go out every two years or so (a book said dripping rainwater ) and the engine would buck under load and it would set a light and code and it did not take a great deal of bucking to set the code. But now I have missing under low RPM overdrive load (you can let up or push the pedal down to stop it) and I had a code for both upstream oxygen sensors. After changing them it is some missing to good. (Maybe I should change the two downstream sensors). The current missing problem is not setting a code and I don't know why. The check engine light bulb is now burned out also. The parts store meter said that the engine did not have enough drive cycles. But in the cooler weather last night it did not miss at all under low RPM overdrive load. (for the first time). Engine cold works better too (closed loop mixture).

 

Might run a can of Seafoam through half full tank of gas.
I do this in my 2007 F 350 with the 5.4
Maybe also consider Mass airflow sensor?

 

This is a 6+ year old thread, but Bluegrass7 is correct. 99% of bucking issues with the 5.4L cruising or towing, is bad Coil On Plugs (COP). I bought mine off of Amazon from someone who said, and provided pictures, of his coils cut in half.......all Copper wound. Last time I looked, he was still selling. 3+ years and no issues on my May 1998 built, F150 Extended Cab, 4X4, 5.4L, E4OD trans., truck.

P.S. Truck now has 174,000+ miles. Is a spare truck, my son moved on to a 1998 12V Dodge.

P.S.S. Here is the link to the seller, still on Amazon:
I have about 25,000 in the Texas heat (and teenage driver at the time) with no issues.

 

Thanks to all of you. I poured a full bottle of Heet into a 1/4 tank and drove it many miles. Bucking still an issue. Drove it to a local dealer and traded it in. Tired of chasing this gremlin. Really liked that truck.