just picked up a 97 f150 4.6 w/84k yesterday, on the way home the check engine light comes on and its running a littl rough. brought it to a shop and they told me its a hard misfire on cyl 2. i pulled the plug wire along with flying dirt and and all i can see is what looks like years of mud and grease, i cant even see a plug! i checked cyl 1 as a refference of the muddy hell that cyl 2 looked like and it was clean in comparison. is there any way i can tell if the previous owner knew of this condition? any ideas of what it could be? and i paid too much for it to boot.

 

welcome to the world of used trucks.....just go ahead and change out the plugs and wires...just make sure you blow out the wells before you remove the plug....remove the plug wire...blow out the well break the plug loose and turn the rachett one full turn then blow the well out again...this will ensure that anything like rust from the plug casing or dirt won't fall into the cylinder. Go motorcraft plats on the plugs and if your pinching pennys go with the Ford wires..go cheaper and you'll have problems...go more expensive and you'll have...well... really pretty colored wires on that engine ..go to Fordpartscheap.com and you'll get a good price on the wires...also I would look at the coils...a ohm test will help to diagnose that..I had a '97..now an '03..been there

 

pullewd the wire and theres what smells l,ike antifreeze in the 2 cyl blown head gasket?

 

Did you pull the plug? then get the smell? or is there just a/freeze in the well?...you have a leak on the top side thats ending up in the well....check the heater hose

 

follow the advice above. I wouldn't worry too much..It's hard to kill a 300 w/200k miles, let alone under 100k. miles. The engines are cake to work on too (gettin' 'em out and in is another story, depending on model year!). If the valve cover is bad, it will make the engine look like it was dipped in tar. It probably looks worse than it is. If you have to change the head gasket (or the valve cover for that matter), just make sure you carefully mark everything running to and from intake manifold . That's really the hardest part, suprisingly.
I've always owned vehicles w/ dodge 225s or ford 300s. Can't go wrong w/ the inlines. Even the old GMs are good, if you can find them (who said that?). Good luck.

 

jimsa2806, the only thing you could add to that post is:

"Just be glad it ain't a 4.6L V8. If it were you should just go ahead and shoot yourself now."

 

Had one of those chuncks of tin in a bronco II, an '86, I think. The damn thing overheated when my brother took it out, warped the aluminum heads, cracked the block, (which was cast!) and shot the aluminum radiator and heater core. After the thing was hot, a rather loud metalic rapping came frome somewhere under the hood (this was before AND after the overheat ). A quart of Morey's at every oil change silenced it, at the cost of about 1/2 the milage I was getting before. As it warmed up, the thing would buck like hell on occasion, Thought I would flip it a couple of times, it was so bad (did the usual ignition/fuel troubleshooting/spending). Now THAT'S a lemon, and there is no excuse for it. Was ford taking its ques from Triumph at that time???

 

Jimsa & Raoul,

Now I am confused. I didn't think that the 4.6 V8 even came out until 1996 and showed up first on the scene in the Mustang GT. I also did not think that there was ever such an animal as a 4.6L V6. Please enlighten me if this is not the case.

 

My fault.
I was having some fun with jimsa206 because his post was about the 300 I6 while the original thread was about 4.6 V8.

jimsa206 still didn't notice this in his second reply and I just laid low hoping no one would say "what's going on?"

...so, thanks...

 

I believe the 4.6 came out in '90 or '91. It was used in some Lincolns. It was used in the T-Bird and the Crown Viv/Merc too. I haven't ever seen anything about a 4.6 6.

That 300 6 (4.9) was a great motor. Even if it ran like crap, it would run like crap forever. It sucked for me because if the van I drove for work had the 4.9 I would have to drive it for a long time, and our vans used to run like crap!

About the lemon. If you can get out of that truck. See if you can get a decent trade on it. Don't mention the problems. If that's not an option then make sure the place you bought the truck from know your not happy. Let them know often!

 

It was a 232 in my old bronc.