Misfiring and bucking?

[Pretty much broke]

Hey everyone, I'm back again. This problem has just recently shown up and I'm truly confused on what is causing it. From a cold start it has a slight misfire but will go down the road decent, after reaching full temp it starts to buck and misfire pretty badly when on the gas, heavy or light, it also barely accelerates while doing this. But more so on light throttle. Since I've owned it I've changed, TPS, IAC, coil, plugs, wires, VCGs, coolant, and just cleaned the EGR valve today, which made no difference. I noticed this problem right around the same time I changed the coolant, not sure if that is significant or not (coolant temp sensor maybe?) but it's not throwing any codes and no check engine light. I recently cut off the tail pipe to the far back from the muffler and noticed it was caked with about 1 1/2 mm of carbon all the way around as well. So running rich I assume, I pulled the two rear plugs and they looked fine, maybe a little bit hot but really not bad, I hear these get fouled? But regardless, any advice would be awesome and highly appreciated. Thanks - Completely broke.

[sly]

sounds like a sensor is dying under heat soak. ECT, ACT, TFI, PIP (inside the distributor) are all usual suspects for that. Double check all the wires around the engine just to make sure nothing is melting on something hot.

[Pretty much broke]

I'll take a look again, the wires at the moment are resting on the valve covers, but seem to be fine, even the ziptie holding them together isn't showing signs of melting, but thinking again a ziptie might not be the greatest idea because all the wires are touching. As you can tell I'm not exactly an experienced person when it comes to working on cars. It's all trial and error. The distributor looks like it may have been on there a while, I took it off and each peg had a pretty nasty white burn mark where the rotor is making contact, the rotor looked decent enough though. It definitely feels like an electrical issue but haven't looked into fuel much, I don't think the fuel filter has been changed in a very long time. Sadly the coolant in it is that red dexcool junk, It was all that was available at the time and I needed some form of coolant, I flushed the system fully but plan to go back to green ASAP. This is when things went down hill, maybe unrelated but still don't like red. I'll take a look though, hopefully it's something simple.

[Pretty much broke]

I checked the coolant temp sensor out and cleaned the contacts, separated the plug wires and just checked for anything I could spot, but in the process I could hear a mouse running around, and it sounds like the little bastard is either inside the firewall or gnawing on my wiring harness, there's a trap in there now so with any luck it'll be dead by morning. In searching for the mouse I found out that this thing also had an aftermarket security system in it and that whoever wired it must have been blind and or a complete ape. And also found out why my dash lights died on me. And looking closer under the hood there's quite a few bad connections here and there and some connectors aren't even connected to anything. Also put a stethoscope up to the cylinders to listen for misfires or anything out of the ordinary for shits and giggles but everything sounded fine, the plugs I put in are autolites if that helps. Seems to sound all good until going to the exhaust end and then it sounds like a slight puff / pop. can't really describe it. Another thing I noticed is that when you gas it in neutral it takes a second for it to rev. I think the thing just needs a really good look over. Any other advice would be really helpful though. Heres a pic of that aftermarket security system, not sure what goes into wiring one, probably can't effect anything much, doesn't look like it's worked in years.

[BerniniCaCO3]

"some connectors aren't even connected to anything"

THAT I can answer-- there are some red herrings in the engine bay. They used the same looms for all their vehicles. I assume that the connectors that don't go to anything, were for say a lincoln towncar that had some extra feature.
Also there is that test port for the ECM, which isn't plugged into anything unless you're checking engine codes

Confusing as hell when I swapped my engine (and was a noob) and trying to plug it all back in again.

[Pretty much broke]

I'm glad that cleared a few things up, there's 2 or 3 connectors I couldn't find a home for, it was driving me insane. Unfortunately I'm still an uber noob when it comes to fixing cars. I was an expert on volvo 4 bangers but those essentially have 4 wires and a tube and that's about it. And how do you go about checking codes in these? Theres no engine light but I'm sure there will be a code of some sort hiding. thanks

[L1011tristar17]

Use a Ford code scanner. They're about $30 at the parts store

[Pretty much broke]

I'll check around, sadly my parts stores around here are pathetic. I had to search 3 different stores to get plugs and wires.... Everything I get is from rockauto now. Can't find parts anywhere else for the price.

[miamibob]

Autolite plugs generally suck so perhaps you want to try Motorcraft OEM's (copper)???

[sly]

lol... looks similar to the POS alarm I pulled out of the 93 crown vic when we got it. The little red blinky light was where the fog light switch is now.

[Pretty much broke]

I went and did an engine running self diagnostic test because I'm at my wits end with this car, and I got a codes 94, 44, 33, 21. I knew the coolant temp sensor was shot and code 21 confirmed that, and 94 and 44 came up as air injection, I have my smog pump disconnected so I assume that's what is causing it. But for code 33 I'm not sure how to test the EGR valve. After taking it off the ports were all full of soot, so I cleaned those out. But it seems the plastic diaphragm inside the EGR is ruptured. I applied some vacuum and it didn't do anything. So I assume I need a new one. Which blows because for me 80 bucks is a lot. Is there any other ford rig that uses the same EGR? My neighbor has 3 f150 straight sixes that are dead, but I assume these aren't interchangeable. And if any of you guys have a diagram for firing order that would be awesome, I think I may have a couple of cylinders switched. Thanks!

[miamibob]

Check out ROCKAUTO to see if the F150 uses the same EGR Valve. For example, I believe your car uses Motorcraft CX1230A. Not sure what year the F150's are so couldn't look it up. See if you've got a match!

[gadget73]

33 should be valve not opening. A crack or leak in the vacuum line between the solenoid and the valve will cause this. Depending what you may have done when removing the smog pump, that might be related too. The single solenoid needs to have vacuum on the red line, and the green line to the valve needs to not leak. If you have a vacuum pump, its easy to test for leaks. Without one, my best suggestion is to suck it, and try not to take that the wrong way.


Firing order is on the emissions label under the hood. Should be stuck to the rad support.

[Pretty much broke]

Haha, got a chuckle with the "suck it" part there. But yes, I did try that, and found out it holds no vacuum and the plastic / rubber diaphragm is shot. I plan to replace the vacuum lines regardless. And sadly that sticker is long gone. Someone ripped all of the stickers out of it before I bought it for some reason. The main issue I'm having is that it feels like all the cylinders aren't firing anymore and the thing has no power. I've got another car though and I was getting ready to winterize it soon anyway so I've got plenty of time to work the kinks out now.

[sly]

Here's the vacuum diagram from my 88. Should be very similar. That's the only under hood sticker I even had in mine and it was peeling a little.