My 1992 Ford F350 4X4 460, stick has been running poorly lately. Downloaded the procedure for getting codes from the truck from the Ford fuel injection website. Anyhoo, Since I don't have a dash light, I rigged a DVM to the appropriate points as described in the website, turn the key and I get a steady beeping, 3/4 second long, 1/4 second pause and repeat. The beat is perfect and unchanging for the 20 minutes I stood there listening to it. What does it all mean?!? I double checked the wiring diagram and made sure the connections were correct, but still the same incessant beep, beep, beep. I didn't know what else to do so I disconnected the battery and came back to work. Any ideas?

Johnny

 

An analog volt meter would be best for reading codes. The '92 should have a check engine light in the dash - it might just be burned out, but anyway, it should work fine with the volt meter. Jump from the STI (the plug with a single wire) to the SIGRTN (black wire in the big harness, I think in the upper right position), then the volt meter should go between the positive battery terminal and the STO (I think bottom left of the big plug). I'm not sure what is happening with the beeps, I've never heard of that happening before.

 

The instructions from ford fuel injection said to feed ST1 from negative ground. My Chilton's manual says what you said exactly. I think I will do that. I do believe the light is burned out. The website said to run DVM in ground detect (beep) mode, I will try again when I get home.

 

Have you counted the long and short beeps? The long beeps will be the first digit and the short beeps will be the second digit. I don't have my book, but 11 or 21 is the standard tone when running a key on engine off test and just means that no engine speed has been detected. By disconnecting the battery, you just erased all the codes in the comp so all you will get is the standard code for no engine speed.

Yes, pulling the codes is the first step, but just because it runs badly, doesn't mean there are codes in the comp.

When you say it is running poorly, what do you mean? No power, horrible fuel economy(they are bad when running well)??? Things like a clogged fuel filter, bad plugs, a shorted plug wire will not show up in the codes.

Keep us posted and let us know what you find.

 

Mostly it runs fine, but at times, it feels like it is starved for fuel. It chugs and lurches (I called the truck LURCH) You can see no smoke from the pipe, and I want to say that the fuel doesn't go when I depress the pedal, but when I let off it seems to want to run just a little better. If you know what I mean, in older carbureted engines, it was a sign of little/no fuel coming out.

EPNCSU2006 was totally correct in the wiring for reading codes. I only have a DVM, but the beeps are long enough to read, and the bottom of my DVM has a "sweep" feature that shows when voltage is applied. Once I got it hooked up right, everything was ok.

I pulled the codes, KOEO was 31 and 32, found the EGR valve disconnected and the line plugged. Reconnected it, was going to troubleshoot. KOER was odd. I got 177, always rich mixture, that could be traced to clogged exhaust system which I will be fixing today. I also got a 423 code that I cannot find anywhere in my paperwork. Since the few 400 codes I see are RPM control, I am not gonna worry bout that one. Once I get these things fixed, I will see what else comes up. I will keep this post informed...Johnny

 

Ok, does the chugging happen on both tanks? My truck will do that on the rear tank at times, but if you switch to the front it runs fine. My truck almost won't pull itself over an anthill when it does this. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that there is something in my tank. There also could be a problem with the selector valve on the tanks. I think there was a recall on 89-93 or something like that on the valves because of this. Not sure, but it is a possibility to explore if you have the time.

I don't have my book, but you might be having a little engine surging that cleaning the idle air control valve would fix.

Go up to my signature for info on my truck.

 

I am SORTA sure that the chugging is not tank related. I bought it last winter and the front tank would just lean out really bad at over 3K rpm. I tried sea foam and such, but I just think it is a bad pump. The rear tank has always run like a champ, but I do suspect a little that the tank selector may be bad. The first time this ever happened, I just put a little gas in the front tank (dry) to make sure I could get home if the pump was bad. When I pulled the caps off the tanks, the engine started running better. I ran on the rear tank home and it didn't happen again for a while. This last time, there was fuel in my front tank when I was stranded (I KNOW I ran it dry 2 weeks before) It got me into town, but the operation was still pretty crappy. Can honestly say it ran a little better on the front tank, just not good.

With 140K on the motor, and black exhaust leaks around the exhaust system, I strongly suspect a clogged CAT, and since I don't need emissions where I live, I am going to gut it, maybe just run dual turbo cheapies. From my experience with motorcycles, I know that the more restriced the exhaust, the richer the engine runs. Since the engine is trying to compensate for over rich, I suspect that it might be pulling the fuel/air ratio down as low as it can, but since the readings are based on a clogged exhaust, the engine is actually getting less fuel than it needs. This was the same situation on my ex-girlfriends truck, and now the thing is so lean that I will have to re-jet her carb.I know carbs and FI are like apples and oranges, but the principle is still the same. I will clear the codes again after I whack off the exhaust and see if over rich returns.

Johnny

BTW, there is no engine surge at idle, and most of the time it runs perfectly. Just when it goes bananas, it really goes. I am cleaning the valve, the TPS and the MAP sensor too, just because...

 

Update...

Pulled the exhaust off, behind the cat. Muffler weighed about 100# by itself. Started it up, really loud. No need to gut the cat, apparently it did it all by itself. I am making a baffle out of 2.25" pipe to stick in the cat, and use it as a muffler (I am sooo cheap!). My O2 sensor is shot, may have to weld a bung into the exhaust pipe. Gonna get a EGR bypass from fordfuelinjection, as new ones are $100 here. Anyhoo, will continue to keep up to date.

Johnny

 

Summit sells turbos for $15.