I apologize for the long post, but someone might find this helpful. I recently became the owner of my dad's 93 F150 Supercab 4x4 with 302 and E4OD. 168K miles on it, and very well maintained BUT it had that all too common surging under acceleration problem. Besides the surging during acceleration, there was also a surging sometimes at idle- nothing great, but a definite running up and down of the idle. Also, while it seemed to run just fine, I thought there should be more power, even for the 302, and the gas mileage should be higher (I was getting around 12, and my dad said that it should get around 14-15 in town and 18-20 on the hiway). I have been lurking around here getting some ideas of what might be the cause, so last weekend I set out to see if I could fix it.
The first thing I did was pull codes. Both KOEO and KOER codes showed nothing (other than I forgot to hit the overdrive button during the brake/steering wheel turn portion of the test). I then noticed that even when the engine had been running at idle, the water temp sensor didn't seem to register higher than the N on NORMAL. I tested the resistance on the water temp sender with engine fully warm and found higher than expected resistance, so decided to replace it. To make it easier to get to, I removed the throttle body. Upon removal, I noticed the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) all gunked up with soot, and the inside of the throttle body coated with what looked like 1/4" of creosote. As dirty as it was, I decided to replace the TPS and to clean out the throttle body. It took me two cans of TB cleaner and several toothbrushes, but the TB ended up looking like new (NOTE! DON"T LEAVE NEW TPS ON WHEN CLEANING-CLEANER WILL RUIN THE SENSOR!). I also took off the Idle Air Controller (IAC) and cleaned the soot out of it and reinstalled it. I then looked at my upper intake manifold and noticed what looked like soot blow-by marks on several places around the manifold, so I decided to take of the upper intake and replace the gasket. (That middle bolt on the manifold is a booger until you figure you need the Torx bit and 1/4" extension to get it off). I also cleaned out the upper manifold best as I could while I had it off, since it too was gunked up pretty badly. With manifold off I could actually get to the Knock Sensor (KS) (the only way you can even see it!) And since it had never been changed, I decided to go ahead and change it out too. I broke several of the hard vacuum lines getting to the KS, but just used rubber vac lines to put them back together. I double checked all my vac lines at that time for breaks, since those lines get super brittle. Two more broke just when I touched them, but the rubber line fixes them easily. I bolted on the manifold and TB (using all new gaskets), and after confirming with my dad that he had never ever replaced the O2 sensor, went ahead and replaced that also. Topped off the engine coolant, attached the battery and she fired right up. No surge at idle, no surge under accel, a great deal more low end oomph, and I'm still working on a new full tank to see the mileage, but just by looking at how much I've used in the past few days, it seems the mileage is better (I'll know for sure when I refill).
So.. to make a short story long, new temp sensor, TPS, KS, O2, and intake , IAC and TB gaskets, plus a LOT of cleaning and vacuum line repair and somewhere in that mess the problem got fixed. I reckon the cost of the parts (including 3 cans of TB cleaner!) was around $100-120 total and a weekend and a half of my time. She runs like new now.