2001 with 5.4 160K.
This past weekend I started having a missfire. A quick look under the hood and spotted a heater hose leaking onto the #1. Repaired the hose, removed coils 1,2,3 and blew out all the coolant in the recesses. The truck runs great until it gets hot and then the tipical miss under load. Normally giving it more gas will power it out but not always. I'm thinking a coil is finally going bad (it would be the forth one). Before I go swaping parts, does anyone have any alternate suggestions. Also, I've seen those coil sets on Ebay for about $70 from Araparts and AIP. Any experience with those? At that price you could change them out every other year.

Thanks in advance with any help.

 

COP is normally the problem with miss fire. YEs, i bought a set on e-bay for about $80. and use 1 or 2 a year. May not be the same quality as factory, but they are cheap and you can change one when needed. If you dont have a code, your guessing, but you have a good idea of where to start. Get a set and change out 1 &2 and see if it runs o.k. Keep the other 6 for spares, or change all and keep several old ones for spares.

 

After finding what you did, you likely need to change the boots, grease up the tips and be sure the springs are setting down on the plug tips and make sure the plug wells have no moisture.
I have extensive experience 'nit picking' these engines to clear misfire 'counts' not yet to the point of causing drivability issues or setting any codes or CEL just to learn what it takes to clear them up and be able to tell the difference between a faulty boot, a plug and a coil..
The thing you would need to do this with is a good Scanner to look into the program at the missfire counts for each cylinder and address those that are high.
The Scanner needs to be able to select non contunious Mode 6, test 53.
If you have a source that could do that, you will be way ahead of the game rather than trying to feel the problems out one by one or doing a mass change of parts.
This is how far one can go if the desire is there to do it.
Imagine if one was running Drag car?
One would certainly want to check now and then for early signs ignition failures.
Good luck.