Well, just my luck. I was on my way to get the wires Friday after work and gave them a call so they could get them ready for me. Dude tells me he doesn’t have my kind , but can get them- even though other dude I talked to Tuesday said he had 2 boxes in stock. SO they’ll be here Tuesday.

Yea I had no prob running the oem wires, thats why I bought them in the first place but after reading all the problems with misfires etc these trucks have and my own experience of these oem wires lasting only a few weeks before the misfires presented themselves again I NEED to try some pretty blue wires. 1bad97ford I feel ya.

My truck has been reasonably good to me but I can ONLY say that because after I got it with an extended warranty I had over $7000 worth of work done to it. From replacing an A arm, idler arm, tie rod end, head gasket to completely rebuilding the rear end. . . TWICE. Only cost me a couple hundred bucks in deductables. Man was I glad I got that warranty.

 

Put the wires on last night and all is right in my ford world now. YEA! We'll see how long these last. I took extra care to insulate them wherever they touched other wires or came close to metal parts. That extra mm sure is a lot compared to the old 8mm.
Thank you for all your guys help. I will be keeping an eye on the rubber hose components on the intake.

 

check wires with an ohm meter

 

I hope the plug wires fix your problem. I have a 2000 4.6 and have had issues with the injector connectors being burnt (2). Touch the engine and bump the wire it runs good for a while and started missing again. Got those fixed and now have another COP going bad. Third one in 123k miles.

 

I've heard it for years, but I ignored it up until I couldn't anymore... actual Ford-manufactured plug wires for these trucks seem better than anything else. I got the Ford performance ones and stopped having the headaches parts-stores 'best' wires were giving me.

 

I see this thread is still alive and well. To briefly recap. When I bought the truck (98k) it was stuttering and stumbling. I replaced the plugs and wires- Plugs were I think, Autolite from Advanced Auto and the wires were Ford Motorcraft from the dealership. It ran fine for about a month then started stumbling again. I lived with it for a long time. Finally SAW the arching taking place thru the wire insulation, figured that was the problem all along and so replaced them with 9mm Ford Racing wires from a speed shop and I replaced the plugs with motorcraft. It's been running great now since I did this and it's at 152k now.

 

I wouldnt say that Only motorcraft work with these trucks, although I personally recommend Motorcraft and use their plugs an wires exclusively on my truck, but thats just me.
I strongly feel the reason why people encounter so many of these issues after they have done a tune up, can be traced back to one common mistake being made.
I have seen it time and time again at my shop, someone will bring in their truck, with this very problem, and they cant figure out what they did wrong.
Here is what I have found....
When replacing the plug wires, most people dont take the time to "route" the wires back to their original placement along the manifold.
This is time consuming if you havent done it before, and most people just put them back the best that they can, with wires touching various parts of the manifold or other parts of the engine.
These wires , regardless the brand, short out or begin "arching" like Dank said in the above post, in usually a short period of time, and the problem returns.
I learned this years ago, and have always taken my time, and put everything back to factory after doing a tune-up.
I wouldnt say every shop follows my same attention to detail, and Ive even had customers come to me from other shops that couldnt resolve their problem, which was casued by that shop in the first place, because they didnt put the wires back properly and had the same arching problem.
Have plenty of wire clips/guides available when doing a tune up. Its the last step and usually the most overlooked.

 

just remember to change your plugs at the proper engine temperature, you do not want to blow a plug out of the head

 

Well, did some searching, and this thread has been most usefull. My truck started sputtering suddenly on my way in to work this morning. 2002 4.6 automatic with 83k miles. I don't have any maintenance history, so am hoping it just needs plugs and wires.
It hasn't tripped the check engine light yet though, so pulling codes probably wouldn't show anything.
In everyone's experience, did your trucks start missing suddenly? or was it gradually?
That's also a good note on proper routing of the wires...

 

IndySilverAnny, mine was gradually, and it was worse sometimes and better others. My truck has wires, not C.O.P.s, and twice one of the wires went bad. I finally did buy Ford wires (Ford Racing wires, specifically) instead of the 'best' wires from auto parts stores and this set is lasting.

 

Mine's coil on plug, and it happened suddenly. Went out at lunch, wiggled the coil packs, and injector plugs, and no change. Also looked and listened for arcing, and didn't see anything.
I was going to do a tune up on it soon anyway, but I guess it'll be sooner than later.
I'vegot a code reader I used on my 88 and 91 bronco, and my 85 SVO Mustang. Will it work on my 2002 truck?
Will a bad plug or coil always trip the check engine light? Can it throw codes without the check engine light being on?
Do coils go bad suddenly, or wear out over time?

 

Not sure about all your questions but at 83k I would think a tune up will cure all your ills. Replace the belt too.

 

Autozone pulled codes. Misfire on cyl. 2. I'm calling around tomorrow for a new coil. Wouldn't dare put a Duralast in there. Is it recommended to buy only Motorcraft coils also, like the plugs?

 

Bought a Visteon coil, and put it in with a new plug. Fortunately, it was about the easiest cylinder to get to. Took like 15 minutes. Runs silky smooth now. Still going to replace the rest of the plugs soon though.

 

I'm back to square 1, also. I posted in the "changing spark plugs" thread that my '02 F150 Supercrew, 4.6L was misfiring, but not throwing a code. I changed all the plugs with Bosch and got a boot/spring kit. It ran fine for a week or so, then back to the same problem.
yesterday, I tried pulling the coil wires off each COP one at the time and starting the truck after each one, and it seemed that #8 cyl. was the culprit. When I changed out the plug before, it was quite rusty and dirty. So I bought a COP and replaced it on cyl 8, and I still have the same problem, running rough as hell. The initial startup after the COP change seemed to run smooth, but has gotten worse after a few miles.
Oh, 60,000 miles on the truck.
I found a light gray colored rubber cap that is round on the open end, and tapers to a flattened out portion on the other end, maybe one inch long. It way lying on top of the valve cover. Could this be some type of cap for a vacuum line or similar? I looked all under the hood and can't for the life of me figure out where it should go. Or if it even goes on the engine.
I did have some issues with the dealership last time I went in with the service engine light on, and I'm hoping I don't have to take it back after the raping I got there.
Sorry to be so long-winded, but I'm very frustrated at this point.
Thanks so much,
Allan.