Chris_North
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2013
- Messages
- 178
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 0
- Vehicle Year
- 1998
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Transmission
- Automatic
So on my way home from work yesterday my truck out of the blue started running absolutely horrible. At an intersection the engine started sputtering extremely bad, and after accelerating and RPMs rising above 1500 the sputtering went away but I was extremely short on power, with the truck struggling to make hills even at full throttle. Not soon after my old friend CEL came on. When I got home the codes were cylinder 3 and cylinder 6 misfire. Nothing weird showing up on any gauges before, during or after.
Today after work I did some investigating under the hood. Put an inline spark tester on the supposed trouble cylinders and spark looks strong. Did a quickie compression test (only pulled one plug at a time, and by the time I got around to it the engine had cooled way below operating temp) and came up with these numbers:
1: 118 2: 111 3: 130 4: (Did not check, PITA to get to.) 5: 120 6: 120
So these numbers are way below what I was expecting, but they are all for the most part within 10% of each other. I didn't have someone to look at how the gauge pumped up while I was cranking, but these are fairly decent numbers right? So this should rule out a bad valve or gasket or rings? I threw a pair of JY heads with only some lapping of the valves on about 7 months ago because cylinder three had a burnt exhaust valve. Before it became apparent cyl 3 valve was shot (roughly 14 months ago), I had changed the coil pack, cyl 3 fuel injector, all plugs and wires, and the fuel filter. Up until now the truck has been running great, I don't really understand what happened. The only other thing I think I should mention is that when I began reassembling the truck I was on my 18th hour, and can't remember if I put the head gaskets on correctly. I may have put the blocked coolant port side in the back, but I can't remember. If this was the case, wouldn't it have been a problem right away? I have made several long roadtrips and pulled some heavy trailer loads with not so much as a hiccup.
Probably also worth mentioning is that the cam sensor is still the original, with the truck having about 145K on it but the engine only about 75k. I planned on having it changed soon, but it never gave any warning signs of going bad.
I noticed a bit of a burning rubber smell before pulling into the garage, though this could have been coincidence. It was cold out today (about 15F), but I noticed no vapor or condensation from the exhaust. No funky smell either.
So any ideas? If I can't find something soon I might just take it to a shop, but I'd rather find and fix the issue myself. This is my DD and work machine, so it needs to be dependable.
Today after work I did some investigating under the hood. Put an inline spark tester on the supposed trouble cylinders and spark looks strong. Did a quickie compression test (only pulled one plug at a time, and by the time I got around to it the engine had cooled way below operating temp) and came up with these numbers:
1: 118 2: 111 3: 130 4: (Did not check, PITA to get to.) 5: 120 6: 120
So these numbers are way below what I was expecting, but they are all for the most part within 10% of each other. I didn't have someone to look at how the gauge pumped up while I was cranking, but these are fairly decent numbers right? So this should rule out a bad valve or gasket or rings? I threw a pair of JY heads with only some lapping of the valves on about 7 months ago because cylinder three had a burnt exhaust valve. Before it became apparent cyl 3 valve was shot (roughly 14 months ago), I had changed the coil pack, cyl 3 fuel injector, all plugs and wires, and the fuel filter. Up until now the truck has been running great, I don't really understand what happened. The only other thing I think I should mention is that when I began reassembling the truck I was on my 18th hour, and can't remember if I put the head gaskets on correctly. I may have put the blocked coolant port side in the back, but I can't remember. If this was the case, wouldn't it have been a problem right away? I have made several long roadtrips and pulled some heavy trailer loads with not so much as a hiccup.
Probably also worth mentioning is that the cam sensor is still the original, with the truck having about 145K on it but the engine only about 75k. I planned on having it changed soon, but it never gave any warning signs of going bad.
I noticed a bit of a burning rubber smell before pulling into the garage, though this could have been coincidence. It was cold out today (about 15F), but I noticed no vapor or condensation from the exhaust. No funky smell either.
So any ideas? If I can't find something soon I might just take it to a shop, but I'd rather find and fix the issue myself. This is my DD and work machine, so it needs to be dependable.