For the past I don't know how long (years), my truck's engine put up with my tinkering. CEL was on for the better part of three years, and, amazingly, didn't burn out yet.

I changed my coils last Friday. What a change. It drives smoother, stronger, and doesn't misfire. I filled it up with gas and will check mileage, but it was giving me 11.x MPG, so I'll see if there's improvement. 4.6L Supercrew ought to give about 15 MPG, huh?

So built Ford tough... maybe the truck isn't tough because it nickel-and-dimed me, but the engine survived three years of mis-maintenance and mis-repairs, and seems to be driving stronger than ever (which isn't hard given as it was driving under a handicap for half its existence).

So.. now you all know, from anecdotal evidence, that 4.6L V8 is a sturdy piece of work.

And on a tangent, one of the coils (from the misfiring cylinder) had about an inch's worth of orange mis-coloration. Thoughts?

 

U go girl on changen them coils If the misfire was #4 I would say thats the gold antifreeze or rusty water from a leaking heater hose.

 

My rig has a crazy misfire,too.Rarely sets a CEL/DTC Code but when it does, it's always #4 Misfire.I will be sure and look for this tomorrow morning,but what do you mean by "gold antifreeze"?I understand the bit about the leaky heater hose,and I will be sure to check that.

 

Ford has a Premium Gold brand antifreeze that is used in several cars and trucks. This is the link to it: http://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubricant...ing%20Products

 

Glad to hear the news that she runs better. My #3 had the rust dusty crap on it, another too but not as bad. I use to wash the engine on a regular basis, didn't dry well I guess. The thing that did it was driving fast through huge road flooding. It looked cool and scared the idiots opposite me driving jap econoboxes.

 

This was actually #7, the third-from-the-front on driver side.

 

I found and fixed my misfire as well.A small pebble had worked into the #4 spark plug well and wedged between the plug and the wall,not letting the coil boot to slide onto the plug.With a small mirror and a flashlight I was able to see it, and with my shop-vac,I was able to pull it out, and it's working fine now.But what a pain in the a**.I wonder how long it would have taken for my local tech to figure that one out.

 

Ya, and dontcha just love getting at these 7/8 coils? I needed extensions, u-joint adapters etc, I forget how much but wouldn't you know, patience and small hands were tools not available to me Go figure.

 

oh my god yea dude i have every tool made and my hands are pretty big...and those far 2 plugs...idk what number they are...but their a b#%@& and all those hoses are in the way!!! just not an easy task BUT I GETS IT DONE!!!

 

wow, 11.x mpg with a 4.6!


i get 14 easy with a 5.4. in the city. your truck is slightly heavier than mine, mine is a extcab.

is yours 4wd or 2wd

 

I drove my 00 F150 for 175k, and never changed the plugs. Kinda impressive And kinda dumb

 

ive been gettin 14.3 in my 4.6 but thats with no cats and a heavy foot and driving about 85 when i should go 70 ive eased up tho...no more heavy foot (keep it under 2000 rpm's) and the 20 min drive to my work i hit 70 set the cruise and the whole 20 minutes is cruise control set ive still got half a tank till i check my milage again hopefully its 16, 17, 18 or so

 

my 99 4.6 gets about 15-16 but I drive it fairly conservatively

 

I've yet to find out what my newly fixed (or burnt-out CEL???) engine gets! So far, it's gone about 180 miles (same gas tank since I fixed it) with no CEL. Weeeeee'll see... Who's betting on what?

Brain vs. brawn? (Devising ways to screw it up vs. sheer bulk of a metal engine)
Faith vs. experience (Maybe this time it won't break....)
Reputation vs. experience ('built ford tough' vs. me living on f150online at one point)

What'll win? Place your bets!!

As to answers to people's questions: 2 wheel drive, kinda heavy foot, racing it around a bit, sometimes 85 on the highway, other times eh maybe 65-70. Sixty percent city, average speed there 25mph.

Sooo... stay tuned.

Btw, anyone wanna buy this thing? It's for say (been, since 2004). =)

 

I can atest to that my 4.6 has 238,xxx miles on it and it made another 340 miles on 6 cylinders