Slow to start

[tixer]

Fuse box should be an easy one. Assuming I'm thinking of the right car, you remove the battery, remove a large wire that bolts to the "end" of the fusebox, and then release a couple clips to allow it to slide up and off the bracket, and flip into the space previously occupied by the battery.

Again, this is all from memory, as I am presently sitting at my desk at work.. Your observations may be slightly different than my memory

 

[Jamesvinar]

Will try after class today, here's a few pics from the whole thing

 

[Jamesvinar]

Drivers side is off, had my brothers help.
Master cylinder off, power steering forward, coolant and fusebox forward, battery out, most wiring disconnected and pushed away
Thing just slides right out at this point

 

[Jamesvinar]

Im gonna need a little help here, the gaskets for the felpro VS50477R appear to be too big

 

[driller]

... the felpro VS50477R appear to be too big

I checked my Summit account and that is the same part number I've used in the past.

 

[Jamesvinar]

Ive got everything back together now. Not sure if i grabbed the right coil cover bolts. They still didnt really click in

 

[Jamesvinar]

Okay so its finally finished with nearly no issues, oil dipstick tube got bent out of place but thats an easy fix, ended up with 2 extra bolts and the throttle cable being placed differently, thats okay because its just compensating for the slack.

For anyone who finds this trying to do this
Passenger side-This is gonna be the easy side since you dont have much in your way, hardest part is probably the bottom bolts on the cover that you have to fish the socket through. Other than that you can just wiggle the cover off.
Drivers side-This side CAN be just as easy to remove, I wasnt able to do the motor mount trick but this worked. Basically everything over on that side fom the power steering res to wiper tray needs to be pushed out of the way, the things holding them down are not hard to get and rarely stuck but it can be time consuming, reward is the cover just popping off

 

[tixer]

It sounds like you've learned a lot on this one, and I appreciate your posting your experiences here.

Now.. How does it start?

 

[Jamesvinar]

It actually runs better now, idle is in the normal range and when we moved the throttle cable it took out all the slack in it so its nice and responsive now... oh and startups are instant

While the cover was off i did look at my imrc controller, theres 4 screws on the back of that to open it up, after that its basically just cleaning and making sure connections are solid to repair the unit

 

[Jamesvinar]

So.... After about 6 normal startups it started happening again...
I didn't change the plugs or coils while i was in there so thats my next step along with some seafoam to help clean the injectors
Running out of idea's here

 

[driller]

Maybe not so much the plugs, but it wouldn't be bad advice to replace the coils after they had been oil soaked for who knows how long.

Did you disassemble and clean the COPs? If not, there will be quite a bit of oil soaked 'innards' that will dissipate oil and could once again start fouling out the coil. That's the only explanation I can come up with.

I would recommend buying Motorcraft COPs only. I've not heard many success stories with aftermarket brands, even some of the more prominent name brands.

 

[Jamesvinar]

My cheap ebay ones were wiped down(With the boot still on and reused), I never put my old motorcraft ones on since I figured that I could just change the gaskets and be done, should have thought about how long they were covered in oil and what that did to the cheap ones, I'm still gonna just start fresh on those components with new sparkplugs and finally put in the motorcrafts, they're old but 7 of them were removed in working condition, only 5/8 wells had oil in them so I'll just keep one from the good well.
I might go with MSD for replacements, I've had good experiences with them.

 

[germansheperd]

What's the price difference between MC and MSD?
If you want an aftermarket I run Weapon X on my Mustang. If they are still around they were the best you could get when I bought them.

 

[Jamesvinar]

MC are about $65 each and $350 for a set of 8 while MSD has a set of 8 for $200 while Weapon X has them for $450... The weapon X's do look beefy though...
Just put the old MC's in and gonna clean the MAF, noticed they had a good "Click" When going onto the plugs

 

[germansheperd]

I know its about $150 more but I'd really suggest you get the MC ones. If your car is stock or a bolt-on car they are your best bet. Every aftermarket COP fails way sooner then the MC from what I've seen.

 

[Jamesvinar]

Motorcrafts are on.

 

[driller]

Summit has the MotorCraft coils for around $42 each.

I've never had MSD coils so I can't comment on them.

I did have WeaponX coils but for whatever reason they failed to be consistent past 7,500 rpms. We put in a new set of Motorcrafts to finish the tune in the car and they did just fine.

 

[Jamesvinar]

Well same problem :/

 

[driller]

Air/Fuel/Spark

Maybe we got sidetracked when you found oil in the spark plug wells?

Do not despair. I went back and read through the entire thread. Odd that it was intermittent to begin with but getting progressively worse. Then you changed the fuel filter and thought all was well until it reappeared again. Then you had the entire valve cover gasket R&R and once again it appeared fixed... only to return again.

Air. It would seem to me anything related to the air portion of the equation would not be intermittent. So, I think I would cross that off the list?

Fuel. I'm still suspicious of the fuel pressure. At least that would be easier to troubleshoot. Especially with comparing fuel pressure during 'normal' starts versus the long crank. Then you have the whole cam sensor thing which could throw a monkey in the works. If the fuel pressure seems normal, my next suggestion would be a cam sensor and/or harness problem. Some swear the cam sensor doesn't matter (but I disagree). But before you start chasing that ghost, do some fuel pressure diagnostics including bleed-down.

Spark. Seems we're going in circles with the whole spark thing. You could change spark plugs but that wouldn't necessarily explain the intermittent aspect of the symptom. Some Gen2s do seem to be sensitive to spark plug types from what I've observed over the years. The ignition in the Gen2 is entirely controlled via the PCM and the crank sensor, so that leaves little to diagnose past where you have already been. It's possible one or the other is failing and when they do, they exhibit intermittent symptoms at the onset before they fail completely. It's also possible there is a related wiring harness issue that is symptomatic to physical and environmental factors that would be intermittent and difficult to pinpoint.

 

[germansheperd]

Summit has the MotorCraft coils for around $42 each.

I've never had MSD coils so I can't comment on them.

I did have WeaponX coils but for whatever reason they failed to be consistent past 7,500 rpms. We put in a new set of Motorcrafts to finish the tune in the car and they did just fine.

[/I] I may have to pick up a spare set when I get a pair of drag radials.