I believe this scanner has that ability. Can you also answer if the miss at idle indicates a different issue than the miss under light load? Thanks much.

New here and joined up specifically for this problem.

2000 F150 with a 4.6 and 150k on the clock.

Shuddering started about 500 miles ago and when it got bad I parked the truck until I could get around to/somewhat afford to look into it. I have just enough knowledge of newer engines to be dangerous to myself and my wallet...lol, but figured it was a CoP issue or at least plugs so this past Saturday I replaced packs and plugs (yes, all of them). Went with motorcraft plugs (ps432) but couldn't afford motorcraft coils so I went with Accel instead. The slightly rough idle smoothed out immediately and a rev to the engine while parked smoothed out as well, a test drive however showed that the problem was still there. Like a lot of others here I have no code or code reader to "trap" while its running. At my wits end with no clue and to top it all off it sounds as if I have developed a knock/tap on the left side of the engine when I rev it a little. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jim

Jim, If you only have the misfire in OD between those speeds it's still one of your new coils with low output voltage. It won't set a code because it's not a hard fault..
Without getting into it it involves the EGR system at that point.
Accel is not the best coil, being made in China (PRC). Too many failures with them.
There is nothing to say you did not get a bad one out of the box new.
Again, a Scanner with ability to trap as first choice (or) look at the misfire monitors will catch which cylinder so you can return it for replacement.
Note that you either need to run it long enough for the monitors to get replacement data collected after the coil replacements or reboot the computer so it accumulates the counts at a faster rate.
Sorry, you can only go so far without test equipment when things get beyond the game of hoping and guessing. The use of a scanner is almost mandatory to look at and interpet live and accumulated data.
This is why good repair shops are supposed to have Scanners and be able to see what the issue is 'beyond' just seeing codes..
Good luck.

Thanks Bluegrass that's what I needed to know (now that you mentioned it I need to run it with the OD off and see what happens), I'll hunt down someone/some place that has the scanner. Sorry to make you repeat yourself yet again but very much appreciated. Any idea on the knock/tap?

You need to know that EGR will still function in third gear just at a different speed so expect you would see the same effects but not quite so severe.
Converter lockup also works in third.
We seldom talk about it in third gear but is still works there.
With OD being able to be tuned off, your back to third.
The EPA would not let this go unaddressed.
Good luck.

I see that my scanner does freeze frame but not live data. I just ordered a scanner that will do live data. It arrives Thursday so maybe then I can figure out which cylinder is missing.

Retiring a second time to full time retired and turning in the company pickup. Wanted a small truck so I kept looking at the small trucks like Ranger, Colorado, Dakota and skipped the foreign types. Found a 2001 F150 Regular Cab Flareside V6 auto 6.5' bed sport package with 88K miles out of Arizona. What a great little (full size) truck.:-X03

Anyway, been doing maintenance and other minor stuff to make it closer to perfect and realized I had the stumble reported here. I have a couple of questions on applicability to my jewel.

1. Does all the info above apply equally to my V6?

2. If I change the spark plugs does this engine have the same potential problem of the plugs becoming corroded into the heads as others I have heard about?

Thanks guys and especially Bluegrass. I'll post up a picture here soon.

DR

:-drink

The V6 is an old design push rod motor from carbureted days that has been upgraded on the outside hardware for fuel injection.
The plugs are in the heads same as the old engines and are not prone to any special issue.
The ignition system is called a wasted spark type in that the coils are cylinder paired such that spark occurs across two plugs at the same time.
Sounds wrong but there is a science behind it. One plug fires one cylinder on compression, the other fires during the mate exhaust stroke and presents a low resistance to it's ground electrode during that time being connected to the other end of the coil winding.
.
The crank has been fitted with a toothed wheel and sensor same as the V8 as the reference for all systems to 'initially' time from..
.
The cam position sensor takes the place of the old distributor location and is used for fuel injection timing reference.
.
The ignition is outside the engine and is controlled solely by the computer for spark and ignition timing.
The intake manifold has been fitted with movable air control runner plates to alter/increase air speed at low rpm to help increase torque of the small displacement engine without affecting the higher rpm range when they open to allow full volume airflow.
Beyond all this it is the same operation as for V8 with the only codes that are specific to this engine are due to the physical design vs retrofit such as the intake air control a v8 does not share between 97 to 03.
Good luck.

Thanks for the help Bluegrass7. I got my scan tool today. It is a Innova 3160. I hooked it up to try it out and was able to record live data. I guess I need to study up a bit to learn how to read what cylinders are the problem. I found no codes stored in the system. Do you know where to look to see where the misfire is? Thanks Ken

Can you give more info on this? I thought the scanner I just bought would do this but now I am not sure. It will display and record live data. So far I can't find any that relates to engine misfire.

This is a problem with buying Scanners.
You can't tell what all they will do on a specific make vehicle unless it's a high end unit..
For example one scanner might work well enough for what you want on a Ford but work even better on Chrysler product giving twice the data access.
It depends on the scanner designer, how it is displayed, the level they put into the software and the data the vehicle mfger allows them to use.
Read the manual for detecting how to navigate to the different sections and screens.
A screen may say the function is not supported if the designer did not put it in program or allowed it to be accessed.
Sometimes if the function data can be viewed in another part it won't be repeated.
What your looking for is to see misfire monitors in mode 6 that lists a number of tests.
It may not be called mode 6 so you would have to recognize it.
Within mode 6 are many test results.
You would have to know what they means to be usefull.
Within mode 6 the test 53 is the one that would show the cylinder misfire monitors. In this test number you would step from cylinder to cylinder to view each cylinder's counts.
Those counts could be displayed several ways.
1. High, normal, low or zero.
2. In decimal numbers.
3. In Hexadecimal for which, if not shown to be high, normal or low, you would have to convert to decimal and reference a low count value as acceptable.
To convert Hex notation to Decimal you can use your computer by going to 'tools' then to the calculator. Once that display is up key in the Hex number then request the readout in Decimal to see the conversion.
I don't know what scanner you have as to it's capabilities but I use a one form Sears Model 20890 that is made by another well known company for Sears.
A near full treatment of all the modes, tests and codes are accessed in Ford's document for the year your interested in by visiting the Motorcraft website and down loading the document. It will be near 100 pages.
It's takes a lot of study to become proficient at all this from scratch but in the end it makes perfect sense how it all works and relates.
It's pretty easy for me since I have been in all this since 1985 and the first F150 FI 5L motors came out.
Since that time I had retrofitted an old 1973 302 cu/in motor to 90s style fuel injection so really leaned about how all the systems worked.
Not much has really changed over the years to the basic operation of fuel injection and EPA required self testing.
More then you wanted to know but maybe you can get something from all this.
Good luck.

You need a scanner that will display Mode $06 data.

As I mentioned I got a Innova 3160. It looked to be the top of the line scanner from that company on Amazon. I read in an earlier post that I needed a mid level scanner so "my bad" I guess for not getting more info first. From what i read online here i got the impression that a mid to high level, "prosumer" model would have that as a routine feature. I see the sears model online and it is $50 less than what I paid. If I look at the descriptions of the scanners, is there a feature that would be listed that would mean it does what I need? Or do I need to get my hands on it to find out? The closest I can find on the one I got is that it has module $10. I'm not sure if that is related to mode $6 or not. I got it at amazon so I think I can return it.

I suppose I should be sure of what I have. The description I see online says my scanner has OBD2 Scan Tool Functions OBD2-All Modes 1-10. It is shown here.
I need a better manual. The PDF that I found is no help on using the darn thing.

From what I have learned my scanner does do mode $6, but doesn't do the misfire count. Is that unusual or am I just still clueless? It has 25 different choices to monitor with live data. From what I can tell the problem is that engine misfire isn't one of the choices.