Today while attempting to leave a stop light, I did not give it enough gas, so I almost killed the motor, (manual trans). RPMs dropped a bit, I gave it more gas, let out the clutch a bit, again did not give it enough gas and almost killed the motor. Pushed in the clutch gave it some gas, let out the clutch and slowly pulled away. But the stick was vibrating wildly as I put it into each gear.

The engine was running real rough, and within a mile or so, the check engine light began to flash. Turned around and headed home. Lots and lots of smoke out the tailpipe.

Got it home amid a cloud of unburned gas, and listened to the motor. Heard what sounded like a cylinder that was not getting a spark (passengers side). Not a thrown rod, or any other type of metalic sounding damage. Truck would not idle very well at all.

Shut down the motor, checked the dipstick, and no metal shavings, just clean oil. Fired up the V10 and she runs smooth as silk. No smoke out of the tailpipe. Took it down the road for a few miles and no problems, ran like a champ.

Going to be taking it to the Ford dealership in the morning. Any ideas?

I thought maybe I lost a coil, or a wire came loose from a coil. Also thought maybe something to do with the timing, but in all honesty it just sounded like I lost a cylinder due to a bad coil. Cam position sensor? Odd that it 'fixed' itself though, possiby a coil on the way out? dunno...

Truck has 70,500 miles on it.

Thanks in advance,
RustyFuryIII

 

Color of smoke?

 

Hi BareBone,

Girl friend and I believe the smoke was white, maybe a touch of grey. Did not smell burning oil. Definately lots of unburned gas odor though.

RustyFuryIII

 

Completely unrelated vehicle, but I've had this happen a few times on a 4.0 jeep, less the smoke.

Took off too quick at a stoplight. It would get up to speed but ran like crap. Stopping and turning it off and starting it back up made it run fine again. Maybe the computer got confused?

 

This happened to me once - manual shift tranny. The only thing I could think of at the time was that too much fuel was dumped in the cylinders.

 

One of the fuel injectors had a senior moment or else your V10 was duplicating a 6.4l it saw...

I'd check for codes to start with.

 

I was on an incline. I had just scarfed down about 2 pounds of Chinese food and was ready to get back home. Traffic was bad. To make matters worse, I had about 2400 LB of firewood in my truck. I had in 2nd gear, not 1st (granny) as usual so that I could get on the road. I gave it the gas without considering the load of the wood and it wasn't quite enough. It almost died, but I got out on the road, poking along like an old lady. Smelled gasoline - truck running rough - so I just went a little further to the next gas station. Pulled in, shut off the engine, checked fuel lines, etc. and started it back up. Ran like a champ. Must have fooled the PCM and dumped fuel.

 

Sounds like getting too rich fouled a plug. Might be time to do the plugs?

 

I agree. If those plugs have not been changed yet-he needs to do them NOW.
JL

 

Both of you are right. I've not yet replaced the plugs. And I know I should've done it some time ago. That will be done this spring.

On a side note, when I took the truck to the dealership, it started up w/o a problem, idled smoothly, and acclerated just as strong as it always has.

I requested a fuel filter change, and will pick up the spark plugs before leaving.

I'll post when I get it back.

Enjoy,
RustyFuryIII

 

Because your truck has the fly-by-wire, maybe you should do that throttle recalibration?


Anyone have a link to that procedure that someone posted? I'll put it in the tech folder if anyone can find it.

 

OK the computer told them the #6 cylinder missfired 362 times in the last 10 start cycles. They want to replace the #6 coil, and the plugs. Coil at $64.81, plugs at $14.25ea. If they break off a spark plug there will be a $85 to $135 fee to remove the busted plug and re-thread. The cylinder the plug breaks off in determins cost to pull and rethread.

To pull the codes $130, (wow, I'm in the wrong business!)

They also told me there are 2 software updates for the V10 w/ 6spd manual of my model year. The latest update would cover all of the updates, cost $85.

I'm having them replace the fuel filter at $17.46.

So I'm looking at $439.77 in parts, software, and code lookup. Labor costs will bring the total up to $785.55

Yeah, I know it would be cheaper to do the work myself, but seriously, right now, I don't have the time.

It could be possible the coil caused my problem, but I doubt it. More than likely it sounds like what some of you have said happened to your truck in the past. But the maintenance is needed, not so sure about the software updates, but we'll see.

I'm open for any input, just don't bust my ***** about them doing the work! I do know how to change spark plugs, just real busy these days.

Enjoy,
RustyFuryIII

 

There's no reason whatsoever to rethread anything when the plugs detach the ground shell in the cylinder head. All they do is literally "glue" an extractor onto the ceramic insulator if it stays with the shell,or use a type of an "ease-out" if it's just the shell that stays.
JL

 

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
Basic tune up is all that was done…
<o></o>
10 platinum plugs - $14.25ea
None of the plugs broke, all came out w/o a problem after 70k+ miles
<o></o>
Coil for the #6 cylinder - $64.81
<o></o>
Labor to change coil and plugs - $296.00
<o></o>
1ea fuel filter - $17.46
Labor to change the filter - $51.80
<o></o>
EEC (Quick test) – Diagnosis - $92.00
EEC System – Diagnostic Pin Point Test - $138.00
<o></o>
Update PCM to latest calibration available - $92.00
They said there were 4 updates available, but that two were for the V10 w/ an automatic, so only 2 pertained to my truck.
<o></o>
Total $824.17
<o></o>
It runs smoother cause of the new plugs, I’m happy. Wallet’s lighter though..

Funny, the noise I heard coming from the engine was in the middle of the block on the passengers side. The problem coil they replaced was #6 and it was closest to the firewall on the drivers side. Hope it doesn't happen again, but if it does, hopefully the fix will be the same as it was last time.

Enjoy,
RustyFuryIII