Passenger side has heater hoses running right over the top of them in the back and on bothe sides, the fuel rail runs right in line over them too. And the back four are just way back there under the cowl. Don't know why ford decided to bury them so much. I looked at an 07 this weekend and its set up about the same.

 

Sorry, I did not see your post.
I would not trade it over this, you change all 8 for after market and forget about it.

Wow, Its that buried? I have a 99 crown vic retired cop car with the 4.6, which is the same motor just 3" narrower and 1.5" shorter. It not like that at all, I thought the F150 would be about the same, space wise.

On the fuel rail, I have always been able to unplug the injecter wire and turn it 90* to the side, that makes enough room to work it out most of the time.

One thing you can do is replace them one at a time until it runs like it should, starting with the easy ones.

If one of the hard ones is bad, it does not help much, but its worth a try.
You should change them all either way.

 

Would you think it would be worth taking the truck to ford and have them put it on their computer to check for a misfire? I can probably do that for a hundred bucks (85 with my AAA discount). And I think if they find something they will apply the diagnostic cost to the repair.
Maybe when it stops raining today I take a look at the plugs again, maybe I just wasn't looking close enough.

 

They talked about pending codes being read a few pages back, I had no luck with that.
Ammco advertises free tests, you might have them try it.

The thing is, if one is failing they are all getting close.
My first went out at 130,000 and now at 170,000 I am down to 3 that have not been changed, and they are missing.
If you are sure thats what it is I would do them all.

You can change the wire between the plug and coil by its self, some people have had that fix it. The problem is you have to pull them all if it does not.

I would be willing to help change them if your close, your location is not filled in yet.

 

I had the surging problem you described while towing 9,000 pounds home from Florida this weekend. 2000 RPM and below in OD pulling hard was pretty bad; almost bucking. I was prepared to take it to a transmission shop until I heard 3 or 4 misses at idle yestarday. I've had intermittant problems with COP's before in wet weather for years, but it was dry this weekend. I've replaced one or 2. Do they simply wear out after 145.000 miles? Should I just go on and get all of them replaced?

 

Thanks for the offer bill, I really appreciate it. But i'm actually in Southern California.
Yeah, if I was throwing a code I wouldn't have a problem changing them all out, but without knowing if this is the problem I hate just throwing new parts at it. I already did that when i thought it was vehicle speed related. It just doesn't seem like they should be going at less than 70k, even though its an 11 year old truck. I really do appreciate all your info and help, maybe I will check out AAmco.

 

If you had problems in the past with the wet coils, I would check out the boots. After time they may crack and then let in water down to the plug, and that just sits in there causing all sorts of problems. Pull the cop, take off the boot and if you have compressed air I would see if you can blow anything outta there. If any of the boots look cracked I would replace those, and seal around the area they fit into the head to prevent more water in there. (even a light coat of grease) The boots are in the $5 range and the cops $35-45 if you can find them for that.


I have not looked at the f150 but would presume that it is like the 5.4 in the superduties. You might want to do as I mentioned above to jsp. You can stretch out the boot in your hand to check for any cracks. If they check out fine, put them back in and then use a water/vinegar mix in a spray bottle spraying around the cops while running. That might just send the hesitant cop into throwing out the code. If it is even a bad cop. That is how ford will check for a bad cop. Also with the use of the scanner, before and after the spray.

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throwing in my 2 cents. I've had the same missing skipping only after the truck is hot. no codes no CELs . mileage down to 7-9 mpgs. lack of power is most irriatating. higher octane fuel helps but not worth it. changed 2 coils helped, but others seem to be dropping. truck has 115k on what looks like original cops. my SOS coils should be here on monday (all 10 for under $400 w/shipping).
old coils getting weak when their hot???? gonna be saving my pennies for a 5 star

 

im actually having the same problem with a coil right now myself , no codes thrown yet and I know it's a coil ...but got to wait till it gets worse or I can pull the older ones 1 at a time and replace and drive if no fix put it back in ... may take a few hours im sure

 

Replaced them all with the cheap e-bay product. I've either already had one fail, or the instalation was bad on 1. I kept my 9 good ones as spares. Inasmuch as it wasn't intermittant, I'm guessing that it was an install problem, but who knows.

I'm getting a scantool and carrying spares when I travel.

 

replace my coils and plugs. the 2 plugs that were in the holes with the bad coils were nasty black. truck has more power but the slight knock at 1100 rpms light load is still there. is it just the crappy ford tune? do I need to get 5 starred?

 

Well, it was not the Coils, it was worn out plugs.
I did all 10 spark plugs and cleaned all the coils up. It runs great!
Much more power and much smoother than before. Hopefully my fuel mileage will go back up to what it was before.

 

My gas mileage improved by 1 mpg on my current trip. Much better driveability when towing. Still have my spares!

 

after I changed coils and plugs still had the miss/knock. returned some empties and sold some stuff got a SCT from 5star. helped some, still had the miss/knock on the econo tune. Mike suggested retarding the timing which helped, but why retard 7 or 8 cylinders because of 2 or 3. going on my 3rd can of seafoam to cook the carbon out of those cylinders but the knock/miss is finally gone and the timing is back to ford specs. last tank was only 12.2 which was what I was getting before the coils plugs started dropping like flies.

 

I Seafoam HEAVY once a year while towing. I had a ping while towing when I first got it. It was gone after the first treatment. The heavy fueling caused by towing helps clean the injectors.