1988 F250 with a 460.
only firing on four cylinders. Does anyone know what this problem could be?
replaced the distributer??? could there be a problem with the remand distributer?
replaced wires, cap, coil, ecm...
thanks....

 

could you post a little more background please? what was the original problem? did it start after you did some other work on it? were you driving it when it started or did you just start it up one day and boom?

 

Problem started with: ran sluggish at higher rpm's, loss of power at higher rpm's. Missing and hesitation.
Has allways started "right now", barely crank over and it would fire up.
The pickup sat for two years, so i noticed a few wires the mice chewed on(fixed them), changed the plugs, replaced the wires(nobody had anything but cheap wires in town, so there cheap), replaced cap(another cheapy), replaced the ECM, replaced the coil, replaced the distributer-after replaceing the distributer it really started running awful, now it starts and if you give it a little fuel it just pukes , spits, and dies. I put the timing light on it and couldn't get spark to the #1 plug wire...started checking all the wires and only four wires make the timing light flash, and depending on the wire you put it on, it will flash really fast on one wire and slow and inconsistant on another wire.
I've pulled the tank-clean as a whistle, swaped out high pressure pump with an extra i have laying around, changed the fuel filter.
got a code: EGR, but would that be the cause of all this???sensor checked out fine but replaced it. Haven't cleaned out the valve though.
It's had a past problem with shearing off the pin that holds the distributer gear on. Oil pump???
hope this helps, but trying not to make it confuseing.

 

ok.from all you have replaced or worked on i would start with the distributor. i would make sure its timed up on #1 and all that jazz. redo all the plug wires as in making sure you got them on the right plugs using the correct firing order

 

I am just wondering if the distributer is messed up. Like if they used a wrong component when rebuilding it. I also noticed a bunch of shavings from the bottom of the distributer housing, where the washer on a pin pushes up against the housing....another thing when ever i have timed this engine in the past i could just snug the bolt and then do my adjustments..now if you don't reaiiy tighten the bolt it will throw the distributer like there's to much pressure on it, and i mean you really have to tighten it to keep it from moving.
timed it numourus time, checked firing order several times, and plug wire connections.
The parts store i bought this distributer from went out of business, so i'm not able to bring it back to them. Hate to buy another one but i don't know what else to try.

 

What is the oil pressure like in the motor? If you are shearing the roll pin holding the gear to the distributor something is seizing up in a very bad way.

If the truck was firing up right away, i.e. with the engine not even turning completely over it starts running, how is the fuel mileage in it? 9 miles to the gallon is average for the 460, 7 or worse you may have a bad pressure regulator or a leaking injector, more likely a leaking injector if it is firing up that fast. Pull the vacuum line on the FPR while the motor is running, if fuel is coming out the FPR then the diaphram separating the vacuum from the fuel has failed.

You could have a bent distributor shaft as well. Did you Notice if it was a random miss of wires or one side of the cap was firing but not the other. The motor can run on half of its cylinders but not very well. As long as you got 8mm plug wires, you should be okay for awhile until you can get yourself a better set...

 

Are you sure that you didn't put the wrong distributor in it? I know that they make two different gears on the bottom for different cams (although i'm not sure on the 460) but the cast gear is for the flat tappet cam and the steel gear is for the roller cam. I know that there not interchangeable either. I hope that this might shed some light on the situation.

 

That's kinda what i was wondering, but i took this distributer to the junk yard and compaired it with another one that was saposingly for that same year 460 and they where identical. But i think that would explain everything if it is the wrong distributer. Don't have the origanal one anymore to compair to, cuz of the exchange when i purchased this reman one.
Thanks