1997 aero 4.0l ohv

I recently rebuilt the intake and replaced most sensors on the plenum, replaced all of the vacuum lines and the cam position sensor. I did a moronic thing and left my coil pack outside in the rain, I didn't think it would effect the coil. But after I assembled everything, my van would miss a couple times after 30 seconds, then completely shut off after a minute. It idles perfectly, better than it ever has in fact. Could the rain have made this coil completely useless?

 

Have you tried drying it out by leaving it in a hot dry environment? Like maybe in the engine compartment of another car in the stream of its fan, no boots, as you drive around in dry weather?

 

No, I left it to dry in the sun for an hour or so then wiped it down. Bolted it back on with the little noise filter.

 

Okay, so I've at least narrowed down the possibilities of my issue. To see if any sensors were acting up, I unplugged the tps, iac, and maf. With the IAC unplugged, the engine acted properly, it would not fire up. I had similar results with the TPS, it would barely run, if at all. However, when I unplugged the MAF sensor and cranked the engine, the motor ran. It didn't run perfectly, but it ran without a major issue. So, that means that either the MAF is bad, something is going on in the wiring, or something is wrong with the PCM.

 

Problem solved. It was the maf, the new one didn't work. Swapped the old one on and got a refund, runs like a champ! Only issue now is air trapped in the coolant system.

 

I heave read that a lot of the aftermarket MAF replacements just aren't made as well as Ford's originals. Glad you found the problem, and your ignition coil is OK.

Getting all the air out of the cooling system is always a trick. I think a common trick is to park the vehicle pointing up on a steep uphill. Then carefully open the radiator cap after the engine has cooled, and run the engine with the cap off for 10-15 minutes to allow the thermostat to open again and circulate coolant. That's worked to varying degrees for me.