Testing COPs
#1
11-20-2008 | 08:19 PM
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Joined: Nov 2001
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From: Northern Kentucky
Testing COPs
Just thought I'd share some information.
I live in Northern Kentucky and around this time of year our weather starts to turn cool . . well sometimes cold. That's when, for the last couple years, my 2000 F150 4X4 5.4 gives me the ole Jekyl and Hyde attitude. It's one of those illusive miss problems that is so fun to chase. Last year it hit about this same time (aha, a fall season pattern emerges) and with 110K mile I decided to change the plugs, not too bad of a project. I also fumbled around and replaced the #4 COP, hey everybody said that's a common one to go bad. I tried testing all of them at that time with a meter but I admit I wasn't real sure I discovered anything. OK, a week or two ago it started again. I did the typical "searches" and found some more good information, so I jumped in again. I went to Ford and bought the PCV elbow (yeah, the one at the back), not the problem. Oh well, it was only 11 bucks. I noticed it seemed to be an ignition type miss, by that I mean it seemed to be very repetitive almost like you could count the cylinders that were firing and the one that wasn't. Also, it felt like it ran relatively smooth at lower RPMs and not under load, kind of like just casual driving thru a small town with a level road. But, hit the highway and put it under some load and it felt like I was riding a buckin pony at the rodeo. I'm thinkin I gotta bad COP here. I stopped and got some dielectric grease and jumped in under the hood. I took the advice of unplugging the COPs one at a time, starting it each time with one unplugged until I found the culprit. It was #8, firewall driverside. When I pulled it I noticed alot of moisture on the boot and the bottom of the boot had a bit of a deformation from what appears to have been maybe a continous arc problem. I still had a spare COP from last years round with the ole miss so I took the boot off, greased it good where it clicks on the COP and then I greased the lower part of the boot where it goes on the plug. I put on a healthier dose of grease this year because I realized it needed enough to discourage any moisture from getting in. I put it all back together, took it for a test drive and . . . NO MISS ! ! ! The whole process this time around only took me about an hour or an hour and a half, I am one happy camper.
Hope this may help somebody as I got alot of help from previous posts.
rb
I live in Northern Kentucky and around this time of year our weather starts to turn cool . . well sometimes cold. That's when, for the last couple years, my 2000 F150 4X4 5.4 gives me the ole Jekyl and Hyde attitude. It's one of those illusive miss problems that is so fun to chase. Last year it hit about this same time (aha, a fall season pattern emerges) and with 110K mile I decided to change the plugs, not too bad of a project. I also fumbled around and replaced the #4 COP, hey everybody said that's a common one to go bad. I tried testing all of them at that time with a meter but I admit I wasn't real sure I discovered anything. OK, a week or two ago it started again. I did the typical "searches" and found some more good information, so I jumped in again. I went to Ford and bought the PCV elbow (yeah, the one at the back), not the problem. Oh well, it was only 11 bucks. I noticed it seemed to be an ignition type miss, by that I mean it seemed to be very repetitive almost like you could count the cylinders that were firing and the one that wasn't. Also, it felt like it ran relatively smooth at lower RPMs and not under load, kind of like just casual driving thru a small town with a level road. But, hit the highway and put it under some load and it felt like I was riding a buckin pony at the rodeo. I'm thinkin I gotta bad COP here. I stopped and got some dielectric grease and jumped in under the hood. I took the advice of unplugging the COPs one at a time, starting it each time with one unplugged until I found the culprit. It was #8, firewall driverside. When I pulled it I noticed alot of moisture on the boot and the bottom of the boot had a bit of a deformation from what appears to have been maybe a continous arc problem. I still had a spare COP from last years round with the ole miss so I took the boot off, greased it good where it clicks on the COP and then I greased the lower part of the boot where it goes on the plug. I put on a healthier dose of grease this year because I realized it needed enough to discourage any moisture from getting in. I put it all back together, took it for a test drive and . . . NO MISS ! ! ! The whole process this time around only took me about an hour or an hour and a half, I am one happy camper.
Hope this may help somebody as I got alot of help from previous posts.
rb