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Running Weird (With Video)

D

DyComet

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Messages
526
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
Well here's the deal. I'm getting sick and tired of dealing with this damn thing. I just replaced the plugs again because I don't like money and the wires are brand new. New IAC, DFPE, TPS, Plugs, and wires. The coil pack is grounded BUT there are only 3 bolts holding it down, don't ask me where the 4th went, I have no idea. There is a lot of clutch chatter in the background but you can hear the car making a weird noise at idle. The car vibrates like a madman at idle only and continues up to about 3k then is perfectly smooth from there on up. Hopefully this fix will give me the horespower I feel like I'm missing out on. Who knows, give it a listen and spit out some ideas. Thanks.

 
Wow, that does sound terrible.!!!

Wow, that does sound terrible.!!!

The only thing I can think of is the idle vacuum line (off of the main intake going back towards the windshield). That sounds like the valves are really taking it hard. Any codes at all?
 
Its loping like its got a slight vac leak, the roughness could be attributed to the coilpack / wires / plugs. Did you double and re-triple check your plug ORDER

Firewall

Coilpack
4 6 5
3 2 1

Motor
1 2 3
4 5 6

headlights
 
My plugs are in order for sure. Like I said it runs perfectly smooth up top. I'm running a CEL for my secondaries being stuck open, which I've confirmed at least 20 times that they're opening and closing as they should be. I can only check so many times for vac leaks but I guess this time I'll tear it down to the heads to make sure there isn't any air getting in where I did my porting. Could this also possibly be an issue with my tune?
 
I would think it would be east to find. I mean the Contour has the 2 tubes that run out of the valve covers, the intake area, UIM & LIM gaskets, spagetti of colored hard lines, and the tubes for the PCV valve. Look for old rubber going to the PCV, broken colored hard linesand don't reuse UIM & LIM gaskets unless they have under 10k on them!
 
Yeah that's what I was thinking. The UIM, LIM gaskets have about 1k on them. The PCV might be the issue, I have to look a little deeper at this. And the spaghetti lines are brand new and fine. This should be an easy fix but it's not turning out that way.
 
Just pulled the UIM and LIM. There are no vacuum leaks where I did the porting. I again, checked all vacuum lines again with no luck. I'm utterly confused here, I have no idea what's going on. I need major help.
 
And another thing I just thought about. I have MSDS headers with no mil-eliminators and I'm not throwing any codes for it??? I'm going to take the car in tomorrow and see if Ford will even touch it but I have my doubts. Maybe I'll just tell them it's a stock 2.5L with a powdercoated UIM.
 
DyComet said:
And another thing I just thought about. I have MSDS headers with no mil-eliminators and I'm not throwing any codes for it??? I'...
Click to expand...
Either the CEL bulb is blown or the PCM got a tune which turned off the monitoring of the Lower O2 sensors.
 
I know CEGers with headers and no codes w/o MILs. You checked all condition of hoses etc? Hoses going to PCV etc?
 
I found one of the hoses to the back valve cover was completely melted. I replaced this hose yesterday and put the UIM and LIM back together and started it up. Unfortunately now it runs much worse than before. It almost jerks the entire car at idle and I can't even drive it in its current condition.
 
I know it may sound dumb, but check your ground cables. Especially the clamop at the battery. I had mine crack on me and wasn't getting full clamp on the battery post. It caused missing problems just like you're having. Once I got go higher revs it pulled like a mother.....but under 3-4k it had nothing.
 
You know I'll actually give that a check. I took it to Ford today, yep, they're idiots. The guys like well your headers are probably causing your problems since they don't have the cats and the 3L block isn't compatible with the Contour. Then he told me it was running really lean since there was fuel coming out of the tail pipes. Give me a break.
 
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