Give you the rundown.. Drove to Autozone to rent a ball joint press, Truck drove fine. Came out from Autozone, started it, noticed running rough, feels like it's missing, gas smell from exhaust. Spits and sputters while accelerating. Checked what I could see, found a Vacuum line coming from driver side firewall to back on throttle body that was collapsed, replaced it, no change. Seems to do it more in Drive and Reverse, but ofc, idle is Naturally lower in gear. Idle RPM does seem to be 50-100 rpms lower than normal. When revving the truck, you can hear air being sucked into intake, but a louder venting of air at back on intake manifold when RPMs begin dropping. I think it's the "Crankcase positive ventilation assembly" (But I may have made that up), but I dont remember hearing any "venting" back there in the past. Throwing NO CEL's so can't throw a scanner on it.

List of things done in the past year that COULD relate to this issue. Replaced Intake Mani Gaskets, plugs, wires, some random vacuum lines. Have not done fuel filter (have one, but the instant problem doesn't make me think fuel filter, that seems would have been gradual), coils (again, goes from running great when i turned truck off, to running crappy on startup, makes me lean away from coils). Have not cleaned the MAF (dont have MAF cleaner and worried to drive the truck), EGR Probably needs replaced but was worried with damaging the tube so never replaced it, I did tap on it to see if it was a stuck valve but no change. Disconnected the vacuum line from the EGR while idleing and no change in anything.

I'm still leaning/hoping torwards Vacuum leak somewhere, as the weather has began getting colder and rubber is normally the first thing to go. Sometimes the idle gets rough, almost like the truck has aftermarket cams in it, sometimes it isn't quite that bad. I don't know... Frustrating I fix my ball joints, tie rods, sway bar and such, then another problem develops..

Any help GREATLY appreciated, and if you help me find this problem and it isn't a bad fix, ill send you CASH MONEY, no BS. If it involves any timing related parts, i'll hook a 100 shot of nitrous to it and blow the SOB sky high, and start riding the bus. Banking on Vacuum, but I cant find it!

 

Check the PCV elbow behind the intake.

 

You may have earned yourself some free gas money. Went out with a clear head, found when I touched the pcv hose, that goes from valve cover to intake manifold, the sound of escaping air went away. Noticed the PCV seems to move around in the valve cover also, but the hose is what changed the sound. Cant see it as its under that rubber/foam protecting sleeve, but think I will limp to the parts store and pick one up.

Edit: Cant find a direct replacement locally, guess I will order one. May look for the specs of it and piece it together out of vacuum tubing, who knows. I'll keep you posted! Hopefully you win the grand prize!

 

You have to get behind the intake to see the elbow, it should be separately replaceable from the hose that goes all the way to the PCV valve. The complete assembly is a dealer-only item.

If the valve is moving around in the valve cover, you need a new grommet. Use only a Motorcraft PCV valve, aftermarkets don't meter correctly.

 

Update: Pulled the PCV hose, was a small hole in the rubber sleeve by the pcv. Cut a small piece of old hose and replaced the sleeve, and put in a purolator pcv. I know people said only use MotorCraft, but I had this laying around and figured a working, non Motorcraft is better than a nonworking Motorcraft. Seemed like it improved, but problem is still there. EGR tube has vacuum through it, sprayed brake clean around on any vaccum lines I could see hoping for a jump in idle rpms. No worky. Going to reset the ECU and install a fuel filter i've had laying around. Still no CEL, still frustrated.

 

Not much of a change. Runs ok on 10% throttle, but still has the flu. Going to change the EGR tomorrow and hope I don't destroy the down tube, heard those like to break. Other than that, I see nothing else it could be. When it stumbles I can hear a brief sucking sound so I will keep checking hoses, but years ago it did throw a code for EGR problems. I had thought I replaced it but I remember the Parts Store gave me the wrong EGR, and so I just returned it for refund. Will also buy MAF cleaner as the inside of the intake is a dirty girl. I wish it would throw a code honestly, but I'm sure it would just say "bank 1 lean" or some ish, but not tell why.

 

You need some correction on what you see.
The PCV valve will have some vacuum on because it is being pulled from the intake. It's normal. It pulls crank case byproducts to be burned in the motor.
If so much as the dip stick seal or tube has a hole, it will have an effect.
The system is supposed to be sealed to a high degree.
The hose between the EVR and the EGR should have little to no vacuum on it.
If it does, you have a fault with the EVR .
The EVR is not commanded to open until the right driving condition prevail in gear at a certain min road speed and light throttle application.
.
Brake Cleaner will not detect an intake leak because it is likely non combustible.
.
What is your present condition after doing the changes?
Do you have any codes?
Good luck.

 

Until your post, I had not, for whatever reason, gone further than the EGR valve and the hose coming off of it (which did have a good amount of air moving for such a small hose, at idle and at operating temp). I'm not sure why I didn't dive deeper, was just looking at hoses, and not what the hoses actually connected to. I know my solenoid makes a lot of noise on engine shut down, thought that was normal though. I think I need to look into that further, also check the diaphragm in the valve to make sure it isn't leaking, and clean it if it's holding air. I will keep searching the interwebs and looking at cellphone pics I took during the intake manifold gasket change, for reference to all vac lines and such. Thank you for your reply

After looking at old pictures, I see a plug/connector going from the Solenoid, to the position sensor? It looks to have a hose coming off of it and going elsewhere? If this is correct, time to dive deeper.

I think my wrong terminology is crossing up with your proper terminology.

 

I think you just gave the reason for the rough running.
The EGR is being held open from a dirty EVR solenoid.
Remove it, take the round cap off, remove the filter medium and clean it.
Clean the EVR internally and reassemble.
Put the system back as you found it.
Leave the EGR alone.
A Scanner would have detected this from the ignition timing being too far advanced.
'Part' of why the engine ran rough.
A normal result of an open EGR valve.
Good luck.

 

Going out to do what you said right now.. I'll post back!

 

No change after cleaning the Solenoid and filter best I could with no chemicals. A lot of fine dust down in the solenoid, but once the truck got about halfway to normal operating temp, started missing and stumbling again. I'm going to inspect/clean the EGR, but I am starting to lose faith. I hope it isn't something like the timing chain guides, or anything else along those lines. This Engine has too many miles to invest in fixing that. Really at a loss until it throws some codes. May end up biting the bullet and have a shop run some Diagnostics on it.

Edit: There is slight suction on the green hose from noid to EGR at idle, almost enough to hold itself to the tip of your finger.

 

Pull the vacuum hose off the EGR valve and plug it. Drive it and see how it runs. It will throw a CEL. If it runs good, you have an issue with the EGR control system. There should be NO vacuum at the valve at idle.

 

Plug the Hose, the EGR, or both?

I have since cleaned the MAF, no change, cleaned the Throttle Body and Throttle Plate (just to insure EGR ports weren't completely blocked) with no change. Changed the Oil for giggles, no change. Drove it to parts store, hard to get up to speed but NO lights still. Even bought a little $30 scanner, for Giggles, isn't picking anything up and is trash . Considered buying a Solenoid but didn't. Tried to take EGR off to clean, doesnt want to come off the re-circulation tube though. My Cats are now noisier than ever, but no 02 light yet. Figured I should throw that update out there.

 

Plug the hose.

Noisy cats? You sure they aren't plugged? That will kill the power big time.

 

Im sure they are on their way to being plugged, but leaned away from that as the truck was perfect when I drove to the store the other day, upon startup to leave, complete ****. Would figured the cats would have slowly/gradually gotten worse, not just an instant thing. Unless the 02's went bad because of the cats, but then there should be an engine light for that I would have thought.

Going to plug the hose and leave the EGR nipple open, and see how she runs