I took off for the airport today and got about 1/2 mile from my house and the truck just felt like it broke apart. It lost all power and almost felt like the motor mounts had broken. I pulled over, popped the hood and didn't see anything wrong, nothing leaking, just running terrible. I turned around and limped it home - I could barely get to 30 mph. When I got back to the house I looked under the truck and the catalytic converter on the driver's side was glowing red. I had no engine codes, there was no sound like a blown plug, and nothing in the engine itself that sounded off.

This is a 2001 F150 Screw with the 5.4 and 4WD and 202k miles. Any advice appreciated as I had to jump on the motorcycle and ride to the airport in the pouring rain. Made my flight, though.

 

One other thing - I am running the Accel COPs and they have been on the truck for about 90k. The plugs are likely due to be changed as well, but the suddenness of this makes me think it is in the exhaust and not the plugs. It has been running fine with no missing at all and then, absolutely suddenly went all to crap with the glowing cat. It really feels like 3 or more cylinders would have to have given out all at the same time - seems unlikely that many COPs would all spontaneously fail at the same moment. My truck had the light bucking at minimal throttle before so I know what that feels like and this is very different.

 

Fix your misfire. Misfires or incomplete combustion are about the only thing that can get the cat that hot. If you run rich it will cool the cat, and if you run lean, it will get hot but not that hot. In order to generate that much heat you need both fuel and air in the exhaust, and that typically comes from a misfire.

For the record I learned the hard way, stay away from Accel. They make cheap junk and it gives up on you at random. The quality is terrible, and they are probably the source of your problem. You only need one of them to give out on you. The best coils are the Motorcraft ones.

 

This is all very sound advice.

The only non-OEM company I trust with ignition is MSD. Everybody and their mother wants a part of MSD's market, but MSD is the one.

 

Interesting. I have almost 100k on the Accels and didn't have a single problem until this sudden disaster. I still have some of my old ones I took off so I can go through and see if it makes any difference.

 

To add to this, the cat would need fuel and air forced into it and combust in it to raise the temperature to a visable red color that would be close to 1000 degrees to be seen in the daytime.
A cylinder lacking ignition will pass raw fuel to the cat.
The cat already operates at more than 600 degrees so can begin combustion.
Usually at least one code is set from this action and a flashing CEL lamp if ignition is missing from just one cylinder.
There are alway rare exceptions.
Time to change plugs, boots and coils, then hope the cat is not damaged from over heating.
Remember there are two OX sensors each side that monitors cat performance.
The cat could also be broken up and blocking/restricting the exhaust flow. This would make the motor low on power as well.
One way to check for a cylinder causing this would be measure the tempersture of the exhaust manifold at the cylinder exit port with a IR gun. The cooler one would be suspect.
Good luck.