You may want to rethink that approach. If that wire comes undone and finds its way to your valve springs or valve stems i dont think the :bang head: emoji will accurately describe your reaction. The 50 cent mod however cannot loose the quarter anywhere

 

FYI -- A zip tie also works. Mine are snug by default, but I zip tied them anyway just in case they somehow came loose.

 

I didn't do it but mine are RTV'd together. I just didn't touch them when I was in there.

 

So to thicken the plot...

As I drove it over to my buddies house after work yesterday (because he has a shop) it would do it intermittently. Truck ran fine for 5 mins, then started acting up for 2 mins, then ran fine for 2, the acted up BUT...when it acted up on the last one it threw a CEL, first time for that. The code was 1316, as it was the other times but the other times it did not throw a CEL.

So as it was acting up I cleared the code and it went back to normal for about 2 seconds and then started acting up again. I cleared it again and (no CEL this time) it ran fine for about 2 mins and then it started acting up again and I was unable to get it running normal again by clearing the code. It did go back and forth though between normal and acting up a couple more times before I arrived and shut the truck off.

Now when I went back under the valve cover on last Sunday, I would like to note that I didn't see anything amiss, the plug looked as it should in my opinion and didn't look any different after I took it apart and clipped it back together. It was tightly together but it ran better when I was done for 4 days.

After doing a search for the 50 cent mod I came across a picture that Tugly had posted with some potential causes for this issue, the burnt center pins of the connectors AND the 42 pin connector on the outside of the valve cover.

My thoughts at this point are that I'm starting to lean more toward the 42 pin connector. The reason being is that the valve cover gasket and UVCH are both brand new and have any problems or need the 50 cent mod.

I wasn't able to work on it last night and won't likely be able to until Friday but I wanted to bounce these thoughts off of you guys and see what you were thinking. Could I be on the right track?

Thank you for all your time and help.

 

The UVCH has some zip ties bundling the wires together. When I pulled mine out after 306K miles of use several of the zip ties were missing. I found a few pieces of them laying around under the valve covers but nowhere near equal the amount that was missing.

Here's where it rubs...

 

Thank you Brian for the pic. Based on the pic that Tugly posted I was thinking that it was on the inside of the plug and hadn't really considered the outside. Now I'll be checking the cable on both sides of the plug and the pins on the inside.

 

I think I figured it out!
There was a bare wire exactly where Brian's picture shows wear on the valve cover. One wire, black with a green stripe I think, was worn bare for about an inch.
I wrapped it in tape (for now) then I wrapped the whole loom in tape several times and so far, so good.


I just want to thank everybody for their help and feedback on solving this, it saved me a lot of time and money and headaches!