Ford ThunderBirdFord thought they'd take their own stab at the nostalgia business. There are quite a few last-century icons that wear the blue oval. For a revival subject, why not use a car famous enough to have been the subject of Beach Boys songs, starred in George Lucas movies, and has been gone long enough to be missed? Why not indeed. In 2002, the Thunderbird was reborn.
Update.. Today i installed 8 new autolite irridum plugs, and a set of Borg warner plug wires.(approx. 120.00 worth of parts.) This fixed about 90% of my rough engine problems. The engine now idles at 800 rpm instead of 600. However, the car still has a stumble to it. I cleared the service engine light, and drove it pretty hard for about an hour. Eventually the service engine light cam back on. This time the code says, mis-fire in cylinder #5. So, after installing new plugs and wires, i feel like its got to be either an injector, a power pack, or computer issue. Any idea's on how i should precede from here? Should I look at an injector, or do i look at power packs or computer, or am i missing something obvious? I did notice today, when i was changing plugs, that the plug in #5, did have some black soot buildup on it. It was the only one of the 8 plugs that had buildup. i wonder if this black soot has clogged up the injector? I've never changed an injector, whats involed in removing and installing a new one ? Thanks guys for your help... we are getting much closer
Mach
Last edited by mach2race; 09-26-2009 at 08:46 PM..
Did you read and understand what I posted about induction missfire?
Make sure that plug wires to cyls 5 and 6 are separated.
See if that makes a difference.
__________________
BroncoJoe19
2006 Alt Fuel Jeep (electric)
'98 windstar 3.8L
'99 Crown Vic 4.6L
'90 Full Size Bronco 5.0L
I'm not a professional mechanic, take my suggestions with a grain of salt, or a cup of coffee
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Yep, i read the article at the link. I put brand new plug wires on, and took extra precautions to make sure the wires were kept seperated. I just added some seafoam injector cleaner, I'm going to drive it around some, then recheck teh plug and wire on cylinder #5. If everything looks good, I may swap the power packs around, just to see if the problem moves with the power pack.
a guy on another forum says i should pour seafoam into my brake booster.
I've never heard of doing that, but i suspect i do have some carbon buildup in the intake. So, I've been told... I just pull off the vaccum hose from the brake booster, and pour in 1/2 can of seafoam? How long does it need to sit, before i drive it? Hey i really appreciate all the help you guys have sent me. I got a pm from one of you guys yesterday, uncaged scanned some sheets on checking the electrical system. Wow, that was alot of help. I tested some testing with my ohm meter yesterday on both power packs, but the pages he sent me don't show what the spec's are on these ohm readings. One power pack read identical reading for both channels, the 2nd power pack showed a slight difference in ohm's between both channels. As it turns out, this is the power pack that fires cylinder #5, which is the problem cylinder, Does anybody know, what the ohm readings should be for these power packs? It is probably listed at the begining of the electrical section on the haynes manual. I will try to pick up one of those books, this week.
Anyway, you guys rock!. I really appreciate all teh help, i hope i can return the favor in the future.
Have a great day,
Mach
Swapping the coil packs around like you suggested above would be a great method of troubleshooting.
__________________
BroncoJoe19
2006 Alt Fuel Jeep (electric)
'98 windstar 3.8L
'99 Crown Vic 4.6L
'90 Full Size Bronco 5.0L
I'm not a professional mechanic, take my suggestions with a grain of salt, or a cup of coffee
At the bottom of each post there is a little icon
Clicking it gives feedback to the moderators, and poster regarding which posts are most helpful.
Start with the Bird outside. You need to have the engine running when you pull the booster vacuum line off. Then let the Seafoam get sucked into the running engine. You might have to help keep her stay running during this point. There will also be a ton of smelly white smoke puffing out your exhaust pipe- this is normal.
After all or most of the Seafoam is gone from the can, shut the engine off and reattach the vacuum line. Pour any remaining Seafoam into your gas tank along with another new can.
Close the hood and drive the heck out of your Bird for several miles (safely) or until she stops smoking. Try to completely use up that tank of gas before refilling too.
Report back to us.
__________________ The 1960 Thunderbird. Unique in ALL the world.
UPDATE... guys i can't figure this one out! Today i seafomed the intake, checked service code, still mis-fire cylinder #5. Next i swapped coil pack, from left to right, reset the code and drove the car hard for about 20 minutes, then code came back on. Checked at autozone... misfire cylinder #5. Ok, so at this point, it looks like an injector. Purchased a new borg warner fuel injector. Reset code, Another 20 minutes of hard driving, service engine light. Checked again at autozone, misfire cylinder #5. Ok, maybe my plastic intake is cracked, fired up motor, sprayed carb cleaner all around base of intake on cylinder #5... no change in idle. My dad had compression checked at shade-tree last week, and compression on all 8 was good. Can the ECM cause just cylinder #5 to mis-fire, and everything else run fine? I'm thinking I may need to take my t-bird to a garage, and have a real diagnostic computer hooked up to it. I've spent $200 on good quality parts, but still I have a miss on cylinder #5. Am i "missing" something here ?
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