NorMich99SE
CEG'er
Hey all, I'm hoping to get some insight from the collective experience here on a problem I've had just a couple of times, but especially bad yesterday. Please bear with the longish explanation as I'd like to get as many details out as I can.
The car btw is a 00 SVT w/ K&N drop in filter, headers, gutted cat, and trubendz exhaust. I have MIL eliminators but a CEL is on due to a HEGO circuit issue I haven't figured out yet (pops the fuse). I am the 7th owner and as far as I know it still has the stock 2.5, but I'm pretty sure one of it's previous owners was not kind to it.
Yesterday I had to drive from where I live to Grand Rapids, MI, and then to Saginaw, MI, From here to G.R is roughly 2 hours on the freeway, and from G.R. to Saginaw is roughly another 2 hours on mostly 2 lane country road. temps in MI yesterday were mostly low-mid 60's. Now here's what happened. On the drive down to G.R., the car was running fine the entire 2 hour drive, sat for roughly 30 minutes and then I headed to Saginaw. About 10-15 minutes in to that drive, I started getting some misfiring up around 3500-4000 RPM and higher, especially in 4th and 5th gear, under partial throttle. Giving it more throttle would make it worse. I was having a hard time maintaining freeway speeds of 70 mph. Once I got off my exit onto 2 lane blacktop the problem kept up and got worse. The engine starting bucking pretty bad off and on and a misfire was nearly constant, speeds above 45 were mostly unreachable. The temp guage never rose higher than halfway on the guage, I stopped a few times and the coolant level was good. There were a few times when the car slowed down to 10 mph or slower and I had to have it in second gear with a very light throttle input to even keep it running, then it would pick up power again and allow me to very slowly accelerate and eventually get up to 45 or so. The car did stall about 3 times and wouldn't start back up for 2-3 minutes. I stopped at a gas station for a break and removed the IMRC cover to allow some more heat to get out (I have the cf evo hood with the heat extractors right over the imrc) and after sitting for 15 minutes or so, the problem was better, but still there. I was able to maintain around 55 mph most of the time and eventually limp into Saginaw.
The car sat for about 5 hours and when I drove it next, no issues what so ever. No misfiring, no problem maintaining freeway speeds. I drove it about 10 minutes, parked it for another hour and then completed the 2.5 hour drive home with no further incident. Something similar happened to me about a month ago on a drive to Sault Ste. Marie, MI, which is about a 3 hour drive, and was in similar weather conditions, i.e. mid 60's or so. It felt to me for all the world like pre-ignition, and the intakes and valve covers did seem pretty warm to me when I stopped and felt them, but like I said, the temp guage never climbed out of the typical range, it never went higher than straight up and down.
Perhaps also worth mentioning is that the car has had new Ford plug wires put on within the last 2 months, by me, and the previous owner put in new plugs about 17K miles ago (last summer). I also haven't cleaned the filter or anything so over oiling shouldn't be an issue I wouldn't think. I do work at a Ford dealer so I will see if I can get plugged into the scan tool Monday and see if I have any codes besides my HEGO codes, I suspect I'll have some misfire codes at least.
Any input on this one would be appreciated as it was really annoying at the very least and I can't afford to be worried about driving this car long distances. Thanks.
The car btw is a 00 SVT w/ K&N drop in filter, headers, gutted cat, and trubendz exhaust. I have MIL eliminators but a CEL is on due to a HEGO circuit issue I haven't figured out yet (pops the fuse). I am the 7th owner and as far as I know it still has the stock 2.5, but I'm pretty sure one of it's previous owners was not kind to it.
Yesterday I had to drive from where I live to Grand Rapids, MI, and then to Saginaw, MI, From here to G.R is roughly 2 hours on the freeway, and from G.R. to Saginaw is roughly another 2 hours on mostly 2 lane country road. temps in MI yesterday were mostly low-mid 60's. Now here's what happened. On the drive down to G.R., the car was running fine the entire 2 hour drive, sat for roughly 30 minutes and then I headed to Saginaw. About 10-15 minutes in to that drive, I started getting some misfiring up around 3500-4000 RPM and higher, especially in 4th and 5th gear, under partial throttle. Giving it more throttle would make it worse. I was having a hard time maintaining freeway speeds of 70 mph. Once I got off my exit onto 2 lane blacktop the problem kept up and got worse. The engine starting bucking pretty bad off and on and a misfire was nearly constant, speeds above 45 were mostly unreachable. The temp guage never rose higher than halfway on the guage, I stopped a few times and the coolant level was good. There were a few times when the car slowed down to 10 mph or slower and I had to have it in second gear with a very light throttle input to even keep it running, then it would pick up power again and allow me to very slowly accelerate and eventually get up to 45 or so. The car did stall about 3 times and wouldn't start back up for 2-3 minutes. I stopped at a gas station for a break and removed the IMRC cover to allow some more heat to get out (I have the cf evo hood with the heat extractors right over the imrc) and after sitting for 15 minutes or so, the problem was better, but still there. I was able to maintain around 55 mph most of the time and eventually limp into Saginaw.
The car sat for about 5 hours and when I drove it next, no issues what so ever. No misfiring, no problem maintaining freeway speeds. I drove it about 10 minutes, parked it for another hour and then completed the 2.5 hour drive home with no further incident. Something similar happened to me about a month ago on a drive to Sault Ste. Marie, MI, which is about a 3 hour drive, and was in similar weather conditions, i.e. mid 60's or so. It felt to me for all the world like pre-ignition, and the intakes and valve covers did seem pretty warm to me when I stopped and felt them, but like I said, the temp guage never climbed out of the typical range, it never went higher than straight up and down.
Perhaps also worth mentioning is that the car has had new Ford plug wires put on within the last 2 months, by me, and the previous owner put in new plugs about 17K miles ago (last summer). I also haven't cleaned the filter or anything so over oiling shouldn't be an issue I wouldn't think. I do work at a Ford dealer so I will see if I can get plugged into the scan tool Monday and see if I have any codes besides my HEGO codes, I suspect I'll have some misfire codes at least.
Any input on this one would be appreciated as it was really annoying at the very least and I can't afford to be worried about driving this car long distances. Thanks.
