Looking for help..

I spent some time yesterday cleaning my engine, since I had not done so in well over a year (yeah yeah, I know I'm getting lazy)..

Anyway, the truck has always run great up until this point..

I took off the K&N for cleaning, and taped a piece of plastic over the open end.. Sprayed down the engine compartment with Simple Green, let it sit for 5 minutes, then hosed it off.. While letting the engine dry, I followed the cleaning & re-oiling instructions for the K&N..

I put the K&N back on and started her up.. The idle is EXTREMELY rough, and seems to be ready to stall.. I took her our for a spin, and she seems to run better once you get her going (pressing the gas petal down, and it took 5 seconds before the acceleration happened)..

Any ideas?? I've read a couple of the other posts on this subject, and I know that I need to change fuel filter, etc.. But the only difference between yesterday afternoon and last night was that I cleaned the K&N and washed down the engine compartment completely.. I was careful not to get water into the FIPK, but what else did I miss?? I used my OBD II tool to see if there were any codes, but there were none..

Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks!!

 

Sounds to me like a mis-fire from getting water on/in an ignition coil.

 

Try cleaning your MAF. Somwtimes when people clean the K&N they oil the filter a little to much. The extra oil gets sucked in the intake and dirty ups the MAF. Get a Q-Tip and Windex. Soak the Q-Tip and CAREFULLY clean the MAF elements. See if that helps.
Jes

 

Sounds like a vacumm leak.

 

- Is there a correct way to get the water out of the coil packs??

- I cleaned the MAF right before I re-installed the K&N.. I used alcohol and a q-tip on the sensors just inside the FIPK tube from the filter.. I'll pull the filter tonight to see how it looks..

 

if it is a vacuum leak, where do I start looking?? where are the majority of the vacuum lines connected so that I can check to see if they were knocked off when I was cleaning the engine??

makes me wonder how some of these guys keep their engines so clean.. I finally take the time to get it looking good, and then it starts running like crap!!

 

smcconaghie,

It definitely sounds like water got into spark plug well under one or more of your coils shorting out to ground...no spark to plug. Proceed with using compressed air to blow off any possible moisture on and around each coil first. Start it up to see if that corrects the problem (not likely though). If not, then you will have to pull each coil and blow out the well and the coil to plug boot. If you decide to do this, buy a 4 oz tube of dielectric grease and apply it liberally around the ridges of the boot that slide into the top edge of the spark plug well. The grease will help impede moisture getting down into the well. Disconnect the connector to the coil and use a 7mm swivel socket, various extensions and 1/4 inch drive ratchet for the coil bolts. Be very careful not to drop the bolts. Again, using compressed air, blow out the well. If there's a lot of water in the well, carefully push an absorbent rag into the well with a screwdriver. Also blow out any moisture on the boots.

Sometimes, the rough idle will clear itself simply by the heat evaporating the moisture.

With COP engines...I stopped spraying engines with water...I just use a rag with Simple Green sprayed on the rag.

The most notorious spot for a vacuum leak is on the PCV line from the passenger side valve cover to the rear of the engine. Theres an elbow that turns into back side of the vacuum valve (behind the throttle body). These ells will perforate or crack creating a vacuum leak. Also check the large vacuum hose from the brake booster over to the vacuum valve. This hose on my 5.4 easily slipped off when I last removed the vacuum valve. I clamped it.

Based on your "timing" of this symptom, the rough idle began after spraying the engine down. I therefore would rule out any excess K&N oil getting on the MAF.

Hope this info helps you out.

 

Area 52

Thanks for the note!! I'll give it a go tonight and see what happens..

 

The coil on plug engines must be really sensitive to water I've always sprayed the bejesus out of my engine with a pressure washer and never had one problem. I wish you luck!,,,,98

 

I agree with the guy who said that there is water in your spark plug wells. I have had the same exact problems!! Come to find water was in the #4 Spark plug hole. Drove me nuts! I never thought it could cause so much problems

Scott

 

Sounds like water on one or more of the boots of the COP system. You could have also water logged a sensor or a connector to a sensor, like the IAC that sits right on top of the intake.
Then again it may not be water related at all. Since you were fooling around in the engine bay cleaning and reoiled you K&N. Check the air intake hose to TB connections, my wouldn't run without the intake hose detached the first two times I tried. Then one time I pulled it off and it started right up but ran a little rougher and threw a code. Also, take a magnifing glass to the Mass, and look at the filiment type wires. When I cleaned mine I found little strands of cotton on them left by the q-tip.

The last time I cleaned my enigne, about 3 weeks ago. I stuffed rags around the top of each plug wire (4.6) to keep water from even entering the plug holes. I also covered several sensors and etc that I knew would get direct shots of water. After it was washed I started it up (rough for a few seconds) and let it idle for about 15 minutes. Detailed engine with shine stuff and ran for another 15. No problems as of yet. I have been done that rode twice but it's always taken several months before I see the effects.

 

Well, I've tried a couple times and can't figure it out.. Took it to the Ford dealer for service last night.. We'll see what happens..

 

What did you try?

 

Pulled the front coils to look for moisture, but did not find anything.. Did not have proper tools/time to look at the back ones.. Also spent time ensuring that I had not knocked off any of the vacuum tubes, etc.. This process was not easy because the K&N FIPK makes some noise, which pretty much rules out trying to listen for any leaks..

The check engine light finally came on a couple times.. The codes that were coming up were 2 general and 1 ford specific code that were coming from the exhaust banks, etc.. These were unhelpful as I'm pretty sure that they appeared as a symptom of the rough idle, and not the cause of it.. It was both downstream O2 sensors, and I doubt that washing my engine caused both cats to go bad!!

I'll repost when I hear back from the dealer..

 

The oxy sensor codes your getting are probably due to raw fuel through the exhaust due to the misfire/no-spark condition.