Engine Washing Problems and Stalling

new 4/02/2004

Engine Washing Problems and Stalling

Well I think I got ahead of myself as the car ran all day with out a problem. Final drive of the day she started to mis-fire again. I would imagine spraying water on each individual coil at this point would not work as the car is mis-firing anyway. I read your chart on coils from a couple of years ago Paul and I have 4 spare coils as I put all new ones in the back when I had the Cams welded and the 4 spare measure out at 5.34, 5.35, 5.36, 5.44 with the last one a newer one replaced about 5000 miles ago. The car ran smooth with these coils in and of course the new one's until I washed it. If a coil is bad what type of reading could I expect across the coil and the cracks (Thermal) that I could have possibly caused from washing it are they visible to the naked eye and even though the coil is cracked could I expect a normal 5 -6 range when I measure across it. I do have a code reader and I will try that but from reading experiences from other that does not necessarily lead you in the right direction. I will swap out the 4 front coils with the 4 I have as spare and see where that gets me. Anymore advice as to what I could do would be appreciated.

Clay
97PG

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Can't remember if you said you insulated the wiring on the back wire loom when you had the cams welded. This could be the problem. As far as the coils cracking more than likely it is an internal breakdown of the windings that has caused the problem. Heat will accelerate the destruction and aggravate the problem once it starts to manifest itself.

Here is a link to a very good description of how COPs work and how to test them.

http://www.wellsmfgcorp.com/counterpoints/counterp_v4_i3_2000.pdf

FWIW I found my bad coils by testing them with an ohm meter after getting them down to about 0F in the freezer. They would show up open then.

Paul Nimz
'97 TR

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Here the specs on a Visteon COP. Should be close to the ones we have.

http://www.visteon.com/technology/automotive/coil_on_plug_energy_spec.shtml

Here's some interesting technical papers on various automotive sub sections.

http://www.visteon.com/onlinelibrary/white_papers.shtml#electronics

Paul Nimz

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Found this too for testing coils on the car. On sale now......

http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/WAE-76560.html

Paul Nimz

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Well, Clay found something that appears to be near and dear to the heart of our reclusive Area 52 expert. Another great job Paul, Thanks/

U.L.

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4/05/2004

Im sure Ill be corrected here, but when I test them I make sure that they are all in the 510-550 range all others I throw out.. The 856 Im guessing is showing more resistance and part of your problem.

Got any grand kids or little ones? Give the old coils to them they make great play guns

Kirk J Doucette
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A coil can still be weak no matter what the test shows. I’ve run this down 100 of times. The only true way until a coil totally shits itself is have a cyl balance test done at Ford. I read an article on Motorcrap.com somewhere that they (ford) changed the programming in EEC to be less prone to triggering the light on the 97 and up. The multimeter test is a great one and I always start there because sometimes you find the bad one, but other times you wont. It has saved me several times as long as the customer states that he has noticed a skip.

Kirk J Doucette

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4/06/2004

Well how about bad gas. All the things that I went through and my tank is down about a half. Fill it up and the mis-firing disappears almost completely, with the occasional rare mis-fire. Once I have a chance to go through another half a tank and fill it up completely from another station I am going to assume the mis-fire is going to disappear completely. One thing for sure is I know allot more about my SHO now then when I started trying to figure this out.

Clay
97PG

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