Where all the V10 Mech's at?

I have a 99 F350 Super Crew with the V10, and about a week ago, I went down to the local convence store for some monchies and left my pickup running. When I came back out, a friend of mine had just pulled in so I stopped to chat with him for a second before getting in my truck. While we were talking, I started to smell gas fumes pretty bad, and figure well I am at a gas station so I suppose there might be fumes. So I didnt think anymore about it, got in my pickup and drove home. Well the next day, I jumped in the pickup to go check out a friends camper trailor and I noticed hat while I was at a light, it was idling pretty rough, so when I got home I popped the hood and started looking around and could smell gas. Well anyways. It is leaking fuel out of the exhaust manifold. so I thought I had a bad plug, so I changed it and nothing changed. Called ford and they told me to try and change out all my sparkplugs for MOTORCRAFT pugs because they seem to have trouble with just about every other brand out there. So I went and bought a full set and paid my local repair shop $230 to replace them. And it Still made no diffrence!!
I am thinking it is a sensor somwhere that has just quit, because I had used the pickup earlier that first day to run around and never any issues. Heck, I have NEVER had any problems with this truck since I bought it in 07. It has lkess than 130k on it. It finally gave me a check engine light the other day, and the guy said it reported Multible engine misfires. DUH! The thing runs so bad now that going down the hyway at 55-65 mph, it feels like your driving on a dirt road it runs that rough and it spits out that good old cloud of whitish smoke (not water, checked).

So, what would make it start missing on so many cyclinders all of a sudden like that? I am going to go out this weekend and test the coils one by one with the spark tester (or is there an eaiser way?) Maybe I had a few bad coils and just never noticed till anotherone went bad. I dont know but I live on Disability and have been out of work for over 3 years and barly have enough maney to live every month. I cant afford a million dollar bill from Ford. I am Mechanicly inclined. Sold autoparts for over 10 years, was a chrysler Mechanic in the early 90's. But now with my back and the lack of tools, I am very limited. So if ANYONE has any ideas, PLEASE Throw them my way! I rented a fuel preassure tester kit but you have to have some return line shut off valve to install in the fuel return line in order to test the fuel preasure...
Well anyways.. ANY Ideas or help would be GREATLY Appriciated!
Oh and where is the dang fuel preasure regulator hide on that thing? wanted to check the vacuum line?
Thanx Again!
Bryan
<!-- / message -->

 

I have a Hypertech tuner that I bought 3 years ago and have always had the Truck set at midgrade fuel setting. So I thought that maybe something became currupt in the program (unknown how it would but you never know with computers!), So I set it back to Ford stock setting and my problem was about twice as bad. Fuel was all but squirting out the exhaust manifold. So after contimplating setting the thing on fire, I thought one more try and set the program to Priemum Fuel and what do you know!? NO MORE PROBLEM!!! No Missfires! No Fuel Leaks! Runs just like it always has! The Preimuim fuel setting doesnt bother me because I always run octane booster with E85 gas. Better gas millage big time. But I am not sure what the fuel milage will be like now. So, the preimuim setting is fine.. It just bothers me, why did it get better? I am affraid of trying to reset it to where I had it before that will do the same thing. Could the timming chains be worn? Well, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.. Is Mike from 5-Star Tunning still around?

Thanks Guys! And I leave for a little while and everyone has dissapeared!
Or is it just summer?

 

Hi Bryan,

I'm a bit confused here, you said that fuel is coming out of the exhaust manifold? Where is it coming out? Is it spraying from somewhere?

Secondly, you've been running E85 without an E85 tune? That's a dangerous thing to do even if you don't cause fuel system problems from the E85. Because E85 has 30% less energy per unit volume it takes more fuel to make the same power. Therefore you would be running extremely lean unless your computer could compensate based off of your oxygen sensors. There's a reason your owners guide as well as the E85 fuel pumps say not to put that stuff in your truck.

 

Its not the same E85 that are in the big cities..Its just 85 Octane (cheap gas) Didn't mean to say E85, Sorry. It just replaced the old Leaded Gas. But I also ALWAYS run Octane Booster weather I run 85 or 87 Octane. I can buy Booster at $20 a bottle and make 32 Gals of the cheaper 85 octane 92 octane. Much cheaper than the $4.50 a gal for 91 oct. here! I figured out to I run at around 92 Octane daily.

And Gas Drips from the Exhaust manifold #6 cyl. Just started one night! Right out of the blue! I tried unplugging the #6 injector and it would quit leaking, I plug it back in and drive it, it would start again. And the Check engine light Finally came on the day and It said Muptiple Cylinder Missfires. I had changed the plugs about to months ago to some bosh plat +2's and when I called Ford, they said that in the V10's they have not gotten any other plug to run it them for more than a few miles. So I bought all new Motocraft Plugs which are Platimun/irridium which is cool. But it made No diffrence. So I put the Ford stock tune back in from my Hypertech Max Energy and that made it worse! So after a while I thought I would try one more thing before handing the truck over to the shop, I Pulled out the tunner again and installed the Premium tune and TADA! It runs like a champ!! like nothing was ever wrong with it. I am just affraid there is still something wrong with it. Not sure I want to pull back the tune to the Medium setting where it has been set for the last 2.5 years. But I am curious to know if there was just a glitch somewhere or if the new tune is just compensating for something else..

 

Okay, that makes more sense then.

First of all your tuner has absolutely nothing to do with your fuel leak. And gas leaking on a hot manifold is a major fire hazard, so I strongly suggest parking the truck until the leak gets resolved. If it weren't for the random misfire I would suggest that you have a leaky O-ring which seals your injector to your intake manifold.

But coincidences are rare, and the other explanation would be that you have a bad manifold gasket that's causing a vacuum leak. This would cause the truck to run like crap at idle and part throttle, and because the leak is near the intake port where this injector is located at fuel is allowed to run out of the leak. This is an educated guess and nothing more, but that's where I would start.

 

how many miles on the engine?
it is possible you have a bad injector.

 

That was my first thought.. But I can hear it working with a stethescope. And like l said, after I put that new tune in it, it runs like a tee! Wierdest damn thing I have run into.
I think I am just gonna have to replace the timming chains. But it does have 130k on it. Wouldnt be a bad idea to replace the injectors. And the Fuel preasure Reg.

 

But if it were an injector he'd see a P030X code, with "X" being the affected cylinder. He's getting a P0300 which is random misfire. Most of the time the PCM can identify if it's just one bad cylinder, which is what leads me to believe there's more to the story than just an injector.

Of course anything can happen, but in nearly 9 years here on FTE I have never heard of one single timing chain wearing out at 130,000 miles. I'm not a betting man, but if I were I'd bet my paycheck it's not the timing chains. Likewise injectors and fuel pressure regulators can easily see twice that for mileage. Don't just replace stuff because you think it might be getting worn out without any hard evidence. Modern engines can go a LONG WAY without wearing out.

 

No clue if this is right but did you check the EGR? if you ran your tuner in extreme........it may block the EGR?!?! When my EGR went, it threw a whole host of codes......and smelt like ..............

 

Yes, I know its a fire hazard. But I was armed with a fire exstighusher. anyways, The intake leak makes sence, but the gas was comming out of the EXHAUST manifold #6 cyl. If I unplugged that injector, it quit leaking (if leaking is what you want to call it) The top exhaust manifold stud was loose, so I tightned it, but that was more just to seal it. But everything is fine now that I put the New Race tune in it. No leak, no misfires, no smoke, nothing! Runs like a top! Just like it always has. and I have run a half tank of gas threw it at idle through 100 mph and it is just as smooth as ever. I will still take it in and have a scope put on it, but its the wierdest dang thing. I will go get a can of carb cleaner and test for manifold leaks tomaorrow though. Thanx for that idea! Just too many things went wrong at 1 time. It does need new coils and injectors and that, but for that many to go bad at the same time?
But One thing yet remains, Why did a new tune fix the problem? You say the tune has nothing to do with the leak.. It wasnt a leak per-say, more of an "escape".

 

I didn't think to ask the guy for the codes but I was looking over his shoulder when He read them and one was, yes a P0301 and another I didnt see clearly but ended in an 11 and was a 4 digit code. The Mech just said it was a random misfire. And I never even looked at the odd bank of the engine. I called him back after about 20 mins to see if he remembered what the codes were, but he didn't, and he of course cleared them. That was the ONLY TIME the check engine light came on.

Well I am GLAD too hear that!!! But if you read down one, you will see it was all cured. I dont know why, or how or still what, but I put I new tune in the pcm/ecm and it runs like it was new. Just like it always has. I am gonna check for a intake manifold leak in the A.M. but other than that, $220 and a new set of Motocraft plugs later, No gas comming out of the #6 exhaust, no missing, no smoke. I think its old lady luck comming by my place again... Cause I have the luck of a dead bird..... 000. lol but true.

 

I purchased a 2005 /350/4.7 / 3 valve with 100000 miles. It had aftermarket MGS coils And soon found out it had autolite plugs. I had a miss fire on No.3 My service man changed the coil. all went well for about 500 miles then had a missfire on no 2. I changed coil and plug. 200 miles later missfire No.4 I changed coil and plug. 200 miles later missfire no 5 .My ford man said that the problem was with the wrong plugs. each time I changed plugs and coil I put in OEM parts. I then replaced the final 4 plugs with OEM Motocraft. Hopping to solve any further problems. WRONG 2 days later aprox. 150 miles Another missfire. this time on no. 7. No 7 has a motocraft plug and a mgs coil. At $75.00 a coil and $18.00 a plug. I now have 8 motocraft plugs installed and 4 coils motocraft and still have 4 msg coils to go. I need to know if I should keep going the way I am . Or are my mechanics overlooking something.? The other thing is that I don't know if the coils I'm taking out are bad. Going to the poor house Dan.

 

Aftermarket coils suck for mod motors. Use motocraft