Newb with questions about COP's..
 

Since I am new here I thought I would start with with something that has never been discussed before:lol: Sorry, Just kidding.

I have used the search and found many useful pieces of information about the COP. I do have a Haynes manual and I still have a couple of question that I could use clarification on.

First the truck is a 2003 F150 4x4 supercrew 5.4 with 205,000 miles.
The problem is that it has started to shudder under load. No warning light so far. Idles fine and in park or neutral raising the RPM's up, it stays smooth. So through my research here I have concluded it' the COP's. Also, because of many good members opinions here I have ordered the COPS's from global on ebay.

I have never held one of these yet so some of my questions may be more evident once I have them. But where do I apply this dielectric grease? The manual says "coat the entire interior of the assembly with silicone dielectric compound". I am assuming that "interior" means the outside of the boot area that is actually down in the head? Nothing goes inside the hole of the boot where it goes over the spark plug?

The boot looks like it's tapered to me in the picture so I don;t understand why applying it from one end to the other will matter. It seems like just applying it to the upper one inch or so where the rubber ribbed part is would seal off the chamber?

If there appears to be fluid that got into one of the chambers does that make the COP bad or can it be dried and replaced? I am replacing all eight but I just want to know if I can put the ones I take out on the shelf if one or two is wet or if I need to test them.

Testing... Since I want to keep the old ones that are good, can I test them off the vehicle. I read that someone said they have to be under load so now I am thinking that the only way to test them truly is to get them to send a code while in the vehicle to know which one is bad? I do not have a tester to read the codes.

My wife bought me this truck new in 2003 for Christmas. It has really been trouble free all it's life except for a couple u-joints and a fan clutch. Also, the drivers side seat warmer has stopped working recently. But all in all, this has been a great vehicle and this forum has been great for knowledge. (I've been reading for years just not posting).

Thanks in advance for any advice or wisdom you can give me on these questions.

Grease -

Pull the boot from the coil/ grease entire inside (interior) of boot with a long blade screw driver. Make sure spring is retaining a good solid connection to the coil blade. Slide boot over spring and onto the coil/ clean spring end where spring contacts the plug w/a grease cutting agent to assist, this is crucial. You may have to stretch the spring very little to achieve this after reconnecting the boot. Test dry to confirm just how much.

Then grease the top boot seam on the outside/ install coil. Grease the void between the boot and plug chamber of the head/ grease the connector, then wipe off excess.
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Don't bother to test old coils/ keep them yes, but you need a WDS for stress testing in order to do so. You can take them in for testing at the dealership, but it's really not worth the trouble IMO.

Okay, so the spring can have grease on it as long as it's not on the end where it contacts the plug?

I guess I will see void between the boot and plug chanber once I am doing the job. But greasing the connector? Not the plug but the mating surface where it slides together?

One last thing - while I am waiting for these coils to arrive, does it hurt anything to drive the car on short trips like 10 miles to get into town and back? I don't want to mess anything so if you thing that it is not advisable then I will just let it sit until the weekend.

Thanks for your help

Correct. You can insulate the spring, but the spring MUST have good contact with the plug.
You'll see what I mean, yes. I just go over the connector after it's plugged in as an added precaution.
If you re-boot the computer every now and again, the bad coil will fire more at first, but will go eventually get back to the same state it was in. If you don't have to drive it, I wouldn't. If you have to and you don't have full primary failure, re-booting every 75 miles or so will help.
No problem.

Springs and boots, yours will be the bottom set of this pic. -

https://www.f150online.com/galleries...940-176819.jpg

Coils installed -

https://www.f150online.com/galleries...939-183244.jpg

Don't over tighten the coil bolts. Your coils ride on bushing and must move freely to keep the tops from stress cracking.

Awesome! Thank you for going to all the trouble with pictures and everything!

No trouble, if your changing the plugs as well, use Motorcraft, NGK or Denso's only in your Modular. Coat the porcelain with a little grease as well. That way when you install the coil you can twist it from side to side while pressuring downward for a perfect seal. The sort of trick is to keep that grease away from the top of the plug where the spring mounts and getting a good seal at the same time. Installs can go wrong, I've folded #4 boot in half before when it failed to mount the plug correctly. So take your time, set aside a good part of the day to do this, you only want to do this once if possible. You can do a better and more thorough job yourself vs. having it done.

Hell, that's SOP fer this guy - he's the best. :thumbsup:

Ask him something hard, next time, lol.



(pay up, 'Brew :lol:)

:lol: - I like the easy ones.

:beers:

Okay let's go ahead and make it a bit harder.

At Christmas I noticed that I could smell some burning oil when I stopped the truck. Nothing real pronounced but it was there. If I opened the hood right away I could see a little bit of smoke goming up from the back passenger area of the engine.

When I got a chance I slid under the truck to see if I could tell where it was coming from. It was wet with oil down where the trans and engine join. But it wasn't really dripping or anything. Maybe there was a drop getting ready to fall but I never see anything under the truck when it's parked. It's was snowing and wet slushy wheather out when I pulled the truck inthe garage to check it. So there was water and ice everywhere under the truck anyway.

It seems kind of like it's coming from higher up and some of it is getting on hot engine parts/E. manifold, thus the burning oil smell. But I cannot see anything very obvious about where it is coming from. I thought maybe a valve cover gasket? It's pretty hard to see around that area so I have not located it yet. It worried me a little because the first thing that I thought was the rear main seal. But I just don't think that there is enough oil coming down for it to be that and it seems to be burning a little higher up than that.

Now several weeks later my truck starts running like I described in original question. Coinsidence or possibly related? What things to you suggest that I check for known problems? FYI, I don't think that I have ever changed the PCV on this truck unless I had them do it during an oil change but I really doubt it. The plugs were replaced by my mechanic around spring time or some time this past summer. So I think those should be good The first set lasted me 185000 miles:o

By the way, I don't see anywhere on this site where you can give rep points to posters. I was looking for that last night because I wanted to post some points for your help. I also read through a lot of posts on the COP problems and see that you are a great help to many. Thanks.:beers:

Passenger side head, rear outside corner, look to see if that's wet to begin with. Could also be the heater core hoses which leak intermittently under pressure/ check plug chamber #4 for coolant to confirm. Worst case, -head gasket. If it were the torque converter, you would smell trans fluid. After she's warmed up and driven more than 10 miles or so, - leave it running put it in park. With your foot on the brake, go thru each gear pausing 2 seconds before continuing to the next. When you arrive back in park, check your trans fluid for an accurate reading with the engine still idling.

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A plugged or partially plugged PCV can smoke the motor and cause all kinds of problems, it may be to late for that, but anyway, change this with a Motorcraft part only - Nothing else!

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Points? No points here. I could send you a bill, if you like :D

Who's Bill? You could send him if you want. I guess it would be good to have someone helping me.:lol:

:lol::lol::lol:

Oh, man, are you SO gonna fit right in here with all the other assclowns :thumbsup:

:beers:

So whens your flight ? Bill ? You still gettig chased around that Target store ? ;)

Shhh! Hiding in the Camo section. Don't tell anyone !:lol: