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Engine running poor


aterriblesound

New Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
3
City
Illinois
Vehicle Year
2000
Transmission
Manual
About three weeks ago my 3.0l started running poorly. I have done a tune-up which included motorcraft plugs and I had to get the O'Reilly brand wires. It also included fresh oil and oil filter as well as air and fuel filters. I also put a new coil pack on thinking I had a bad spark, did not help at all. I don't think it's the fuel quality because I have gotten fuel from the same station all but two times this year. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. By the way the truck is a 2000 3.0 5spd 2wd. Thanks.
 
I noticed it's your first post and i want to be the first to welcome you here to TRS. Lots of info around and lots of good people. I'm not the best but ill try to help. :)
I would pull codes before you go any further. I have my money on a vacuum leak and looking for one couldn't hurt. Explain a little more what you mean about running poorly cause that could be any number of things happening to you. Slower? Rougher? Pinging? Ticking?
 
Thanks for the welcome, I hope to find the information I'm looking for here.

No dtc's, no pinging, ticking, or knocking. Engine idles rough and has a good loss of power. Sometimes it runs poor right after startup and sometimes it takes until the water gets to operating temp to start running bad. At idle the engine shake is pretty noticeable and under moderate to heavy acceleration my shifter shakes pretty violently. If it was a vac leak, where should I begin looking for it and how?
 
I would double check the wire locations, Sounds silly but they can be easily crossed on the coil. I would disconnect the battery for several minutes to reset the computer. After that start by cleaning the MAF, IAC Valve & then there is an engine temp sender unit that feeds the computer info, If it is not reading the temp correctly that can cause problems you describe. Is there any chance of a cracked plug, even though they are new. You said the engine shakes which is typical of a miss fire, I would start that direction & proceed. Could be fuel but I would check everything associated with spark & air first. Vacuum leaks usually cause a high idle & rich smell at the exhaust, double check that during the wire intsall you did not knock off one of the vacuum lines. An easy way to check for leaks is with an un-lit propane torch & place it around fittings & hoses, if you find the leak the motor rpm will speed up. Other methods are using carb cleaner, WD-40 etc but they make a mess of the engine.

JP02XLT
 
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I double checked the wire locations and they are good. I looked at the MAF sensor and it looks spotless. The IAC solenoid was replaced in spring '07 so I don't think that's the problem, although it still could be. As far as spark plugs go I didn't pull any today, but I distinctly remember gapping all of them to .045".
 
I'm just surprised you don't have at least a misfire code cause of this. I would be sure to pull the codes even if the light isn't lit up. Be sure to check vacuum leaks. Unmeasured air into the system can really mess up those air/fuel ratios.
 
check 2 make sure that the air box is on there good if it is i would go back and check plugs for cracks i have cracked some before and yea one heck of a missfire and when i would get on it it would shimmy and shake a good bit. next i would go through and check like said above the maf it might look clean but you never now they make a special cleaner for it and if it is gas they also make a fuel line antifreeze which will get the water out of your fuel and its pretty cheap around here its like two bucks a bottle. and check the spark coming from the plug wires get some insluated pliers and pull one off at a time and see if they are sparking good. next would be to check the fuel filter there are i think three lines on mine and its an 07 im not sure if there would be that the lines are correct
 

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