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Some progress! So I swapped coils 7-8 and 5-6. When I had the coils off, I looked into the plug hole a bit closer and it looked like it was full of sand? WTH? Probably not sand, but thats what it looks like. See first pic, junk around the intake is from blowing out previous plug holes. The crap was up to the top of the plug nut on a couple. So I cleaned them out, also pulled one plug, number 7. Looks pretty new, are they the recommended plugs? Autolite HT15.
Put it back together and it's running much better! Only been one afternoon, but the cold surging /hesitation seems to be gone. Also I think the gas smell is gone. Early days, but it seems great.
My theory is the junk in the holes wasn't allowing the coils to seat properly, but where did it come from?
Your probably right on the "sand" being the problem with not seating correctly, or shorting the spark to ground........ On the plugs, if they are working I guess that is OK... Most guys will tell you the 5.4 motor is VERY PICKY and wants to have MotorCraft plugs to run without missing... I always used them in my 5.4 ........... if the Autolites are working to your satisfaction, OK... When you do change, go to MotorCraft.
Another update. Truck is definitely improved, but not fixed yet. Eventually did the low speed rough idle again while backing into my driveway. I let it shudder until it threw a code. Just p0305 this time. So, I've swapped that coil with #6 already, that presumably rules that out. Pulled the plug it looks new, (whatever that is worth). So, thinking injector. I'm going to either swap injectors or replace that one if I can get one quickly (I live in the sticks).
I've watched a vid on replacing injectors, but how hard is swapping 2? Does the entire fuel rail have to come off?
Anything specific to #5 that I could be overlooking?
Also still doing the low speed "surge" only when cold. When I first leave my house in the morning, there is a slight hill. Holding the throttle steady at around 1500pms, tach will fluctuate up and down 100 or so. This goes away once warmed up. Any ideas on this? I feel like if this was also the injector it wouldn't go away.
Also, I did a vacuum test all around the engine compartment with a propane torch, no differences blowing propane everywhere.
So it was possible on the 2V's for a coolant leak to fill the #1 plug hole overnight (not necessarily FILL it but deposit some coolant) that could cause odd symptoms and difficult to track 'cause the coolant eventually evaporates.
Now I'm ASSuming the 3V wouldn't be susceptible in the same way 'cause the heads have gotta be different, but something to consider, ie if you keep pulling your hair out then pull all the coils some morning and see if anything weird is happening overnight. Did you notice any signs of wet or "dried-wet" in any of the plug holes?
And yeah, I recently did coils on an '03 and found part of the plastic coil connector clip down in #7 from a previous service. I only got to looking because that coil/boot just would NOT seat properly. You could force it down 'cause the boot just "accordians" but you could also tell it wasn't right if you had half a brain.
The same vehicle also had rusty corrosion at the bottom of the #1 boot which is what got me investigating that, but again it was 2V
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