Where can I get them for that price? Do muffler shops charge alot to check the cats?

 

Call or stop by one and ask..........

 

Stopped by a exhaust shop at lunch today, the guy drilled holes near each of them and measured them with what looked like a vac guage. He reved the engine to probably about 3-4K on both sides, then welded the holes back up and took it off the rack. He said that the cats were ok and thats it. I couldnt really see what side of the cat he was drilling on (pre cat or post cat) but he is pretty good at what he does.....so I'm still in the same boat it looks like.

Also, I was going to try and check the fuel pressure, but the 04+ 3V doesnt have a valve on the fuel rail on the engine to make it easy to check......grrrrrrr

Here is a list of what has already been replaced:

Cam Phasers
Timing chains
Tensioners
Fuel filter
Air Filter
Cleaned MAF
Cleaned TB
New Fuel Pump Driver Module
New Motorcraft Spark Plugs
Trans flushed with new filter
Sealed upper intake box (foam gasket came off, causing too much air to be sucked in causing bad idle)

 

My buddy has an 08 and he was having the same problem. It turned out the fan clutch was shot so the fan was locking up sometimes. He could hear it though. Just a thought.

 

The fan clutch has been replaced on mine with a new motorcraft one. I tried getting one from a local auto parts store but it was a "severe duty" one and it was consistantly engaged so the truck sounded like an 18 wheeler.

Today im going to go test drive an 07 that has a LOT more miles on it then my 04 and see if it acts the same way in the upper RPMs as mine does.

 

Test drove an 07 F150 5.4L 3V that had 169K on it, hands down out prefromed mine that only has 86K on it. No problem pulling in the upper RPM range. Only differences in the truck was mine is a 4X4 and the one i test drive was a supercrew 2WD. Also test drove an 09 XLT 4X4 supercrew with the 5.4L 3V, it had alot more power then mine also, but the newer 09+ 5.4L 3V put out a little more HP and the fuel system changed.

 

Well i will share my recent (currently ongoing) story. My truck (04 5.4 165k) was having similar issues. Except my power loss was significant. Set my cruise on 80 on the interstate and wouldnt have ebough power to hold speed going up a west virginia hill, and gas milage went from about 12.5 to 10 if i wad lucky. So i did all the normal things, cleaned my maf, replaced air filter, ran seafoam on my oil and gas and an antislip additive in my transmission (which was about 2 quarts low).

So i take it down to the local dealer and had the service manager drive it and he said it felt like stopped up cats to him but to bring it back the next day and theycould check everything out. Alright cool right? So i takr it home and decide ill go ahead and put a new fuel filter on it just for fun. I crawl underneath the truck to find transmission fluid covering the entire underneath of my truck....

So i take it to the dealer the next day, come to find out my torque converter went into fail mode causing my transmission to overheat throwing transmission fluid out the vent hose and damaging the transmission while at it.

Sooo that brings us to where im at now picking up a new transmission for the truck...

Moral of the story... check the transmission fluid... and btw my truck didnt throw any dummy lights either.

 

hmmm...maybe I need to put another set of plugs in my '98. It does this at times too. Sometimes it passes great, other times it just kind revs but no real increase in pwr is there. Time to add another this too the list.