with in the past few days i had a #2 misfire code. all my parts ive been replacing have been just duralast brand from the auto parts. i hooked up a timing light to all the wires. and different cylinders have different pulses. like one will pulse slow the others will pulse super fast but it wont be consistent. it will switch cylinders. but currently the wires are not routed the way they should be. i have to buy the plastic clips that hold the wires in place. but i have checked under the hood at night several times and haven't seen any arcing going on.

the dealer did reprogramming of the pcm so im assuming everything was programmed right. but there always is that small possibility...what would the cylinder balance test show me?

 

OK, good that no plug wire electrical break down has been noted after dark.
Have you done an end to end resistance check with your multimeter on the plug wires???? They should measure about 1000 ohms/inch of length, 30,000 ohms max no matter the length.

With the variation in the timing light flashing, we need to know if you still have the P0315 trouble code???? If so, you need to find out whats going on there, put it right, then have another look with the timing light at each plug for which you had a misfire code.

After which part replacement did the P0315 code show up & after which part replacement did the multi-cyl misfire codes begin to show up????

 

the p0315 cam back after i replaced the cam pos sensor. i did some research about that code online and it said that only a dealer can do the relearn procedure. so i called 2 different dealers and both of them didnt even know what i was talking about. the code has not came back since. i have not been driving the truck for im afraid of burning a valve or something stupid. ive had nothing but bad luck with this truck. it is seriously a curse. today when i was doing the check with the timing the heater control valve decided to explode and spew 200 degree coolant all over me. giving me burns all over my hand -_-

 

Why was the engine in need of a rebuild?????

Driving it with a misfire can cause the cat converter to over heat, its matrix to melt down, causing excessive exhaust back pressure & that'll cause the engine to run hot, all a vicious circle.

Since you've used other than OEM parts, it would be wise to test them to make sure they measure up, as our waste spark ignition system puts a double work load on them, so they need to be designed to handle that load without laying down. Just because a part is new doesn't automatically make it good, I've seen plenty of faulty new parts, right out of the box.

Was the engine over heating when the heater control failed????

Sounds like you have numerous problems, make sure your replacement parts say in writing that they meet or exceed Fords specs, then check the replacement parts to make sure they're ok.

On working trouble codes, we're supposed to begin with the Lowest Number trouble code & work our way up the list, so keep us posted on how your trouble shoot goes.

 

the previous owner(my uncle) had seized the engine.(lack of oil) i bought it bc the body was in great shape and the trans and heads were rebuilt less then a year ago. the exhaust sounded weird when i first had it running and looked at the precats and one of them was cherry red. so i disassembled the y pipe and broke out both cats. the truck was only running for about 10 minutes and was not over heating when the heater control blew

 

wow.... is all I can say....

I have been bombarded with work and have not had too many opportunities to check in, but after reading updates, I'm just shaking my head. Wow, Dirtrider, I feel so bad for you and can't believe how much trouble this truck has given you!!! Burned you on top of it all!! Well, it can only get better from here ~truck has to give-up the bad behavior sometime. Thanks to Pawpaw now chiming in too, hoping he may provide some insight you and I overlooked. So far I agree with all he stated as far as the parts are concerned. Stay positive D.R.!

 

If you are going to CA, and plan on licensing your truck there, you'll have to replace the catalytic converters. Check around to see if any vendors sell C.A.R.B. approved replacements. If not, you have to use OEM to pass the SMOG test. C.A.R.B. stands for California Air Resources Board. They do not allow after-market catalytic converters unless they have tested them and approved. Most times, that leaves OEM as your only choice. You might want to consider getting OEM from a boneyard that has them.
I thought of a few things. The rockers are 'tighten to torque' for valve adjustment. With the heads being redone, and the valves ground, you might have taken up all the slack in the valve train, and one or more valves may not be seating fully. That will show more at idle than at speed. You can remove the covers, and loosen the rocker arm nuts a bit with the engine at idle, especially #3, and see if the idle smooths out. If so, you need a shorter pushrod.
You could also take a look at the waveform from the cam and crank position sensors. The P0315 shop manual explanation of the code makes me think that one has a bad output, which the ECM cannot compensate past. The SEFI system, if it doesn't know the correct cylinder, will also produce a 'wobbly' idle. It will run, but not as well as when it injects into the correct port that is opening up. The cam position sensor tells the ECM which cylinder is coming up to its intake stroke, and allows proper injection timing.
The crank position sensor is used to determine which cylinder is misfiring by calculating the rpm drop between power strokes, or after a cylinder fires, the rpm increase. It 'knows' which cylinder just fired using the cam sensor, and outputs its code based on that. If the cam sensor is 'off', the ECM won't know that, and will mis-report a problem.
The Cylinder Balance Test will use the ECM to disable the spark or injector pulse for one cylinder at a time, and then note the rpm drop. If the rpm doesn't drop, that particular cylinder is not contributing much to the engines operation. IOW, that cylinder is not firing and producing torque, or less output than the others.
tom

 

^ + 1, I like tomw's ideas!!!!

 

i am aware that the cats need to be replaced to pass the smog test in cali.

i measured the stem height on each of the exhaust and intake valves and they were all quite a bit different then each other. so i put shims under the rocker arms to compensate for the valve not seating. thus making the push rod a little bit shorter in theory. the truck ran even worse so i took the shims out. but when i pull off the injector wire fore cylinder #3 it doesnt change how it idles. on other cylinders when i pull the injector wire there is a noticeable drop in rpm and it idles even crappier. but nothing changes when i pull off #3 injector wire

EDIT: when at idle and i loosen the BOLTS for exhaust or intake on cylinder #3 it idles really bad and wants to stall

 

how can i look at the waveform from the cam and crank position sensors??? scanner??? what would that tell me the problem is?