I was towing my camper like with my 4.6L with the towing package, 55K miles on truck, and driving in OD for about 1.5 hours on alot of hills on a hot day in June. Stopped for gas, when I was pulling out of station the truck started to miss, and shake for about 30 seconds then stopped. It was fine for another 2 hours on the highway until I got 1 mile from home and started again for about 30 seconds. When I got home and disconnected camper it drive fine ever since. I have not towed yet since then.
The tranny fluid was changed at 40k, and I only tow about 4 times a year.
Could I have gotten bad gas? or maybe too much weight?

Any suggestions? :

 

One thing you may want to check is the engine cooling system. The Trition V-8 has a fail safe built in so that when the engine gets overheated, it will shut off one cylinder at a time while alternating this pattern. This causes the dead cylinder to act as an air pump to help keep the engine cool until you can safely shut the engine down. The engine runs very poorly during this operation, but it keeps you from damaging your engine.

Ken Roberts
Waynesboro, Ms.

 

Is this something I can do myself? Or can I tell if this happened by looking at something?Is it okay to drive on a regular basis?

 

Well, if it's failsafe cooling, then your temp guage *should* show hot.

Do you have a check engine light?

 

No temp light went on. No warning lights at all.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. When it quits, get it fixed.

 

Here is a wild card. Maybe your plug wires are getting weak? I've had engines buck/miss with a bad plug wire. It may fire fine when the load is light but miss-fire under a heavier load.

 

I would bet on a plug wire. Suggest go to Autozone and have it scanned. It should show the cylinder that is misfiring.

I had it yesterday, and it finally lite the cel.

It's been doing it for a month in certain high load situations, but no light and ok at normal speeds.

I am going to replace No3 plug wire tonight. If that does not do it, I will get more serious about testing the right coilpack. It tested ok yesterday. Next I will try to pull and change the plug.

As a back up, it may be torque conveter shudder. Mine, (97 F150 4x4 4.6) had this once, and a fluid change improved it. I thought it was back a couple weeks ago, so I added Lubegard again. The cel finally lead to the misfire. Our 96 Explorer did this a while back and it was the plug wires.

 

99's don't have wires to my knowledge..

 

I got a bad tank of gas in Maine while pulling my trailer. I thought my truck was shot. Wouldn't run over 45 mph. I stopped and put in 2 bottlies of dry gas and 2 of injector cleaner. Soon it was running good for 300 miles. Then I parked on a very steep drive and it happened again, so more dry gas. Ok now after 6000 miles.

 

I am going to take it and get a tune-up anyway. Can't hurt. Has 55k on it without a tune-up