still running rich, still fouling plugs very quickly

[sircrunch]

First you need to determine if the whoosh sound was pressure or vacuum

Hold your hand over the oil neck while it's running and see...

its definetly vaccuum. I held my hand up to the oil neck and it was enough vaccum to suck the palm of my hand to it. also as a side note, the engine will almost stall when the oil filler cap is off. the rpms will surge and die, surge and die, but not cut all the way off. These valve covers are off a f-150 truck .. The oil filler cap is raised up off the valve cover with a little pipe.. This pipe has a t off it. I plugged that cap. I think it was about 5/8 Maybe I need a breather there or something? No clue.

Two PCV valves? In some of your previous posts you said the engine was a 95, then you said it was a 90. ? Neither had PCV in the valve cover. The only one should be the one in the rear of the lower intake.

Low engine temp could be a stuck thermostat, failed water pump, blocked system, low coolant, failed gauge. What gauge are you using?

What is confusing us is that you said it had been running good after you fixed the FPR. What changed?

yeah and I never knew that would be a problem but i will delete the one on the valve cover and plug the bung on the bottom of the intake that goes to it. I'll be down to one pcv then. The gauge I have is a brand new autometer electric water temp gauge with a brand new sender made by autometer

[PaceFever79]

Sounds like you have a bad vacuum leak into the crankcase

Could be a PCV valve stuck open, or could be an intake to head gasket leak.

[PaceFever79]

Btw, I know all of this must be confusing...

You had multiple problems, just sort them out one at a time.

[sircrunch]

I drove the car to a mechanic who is going to look into the possibility of an intake manifold gasket problem.

[sircrunch]

The question now is.... does the explorer intake mate up correctly with the truck heads I'm running? Heads are from a 1995 F-150. The intake is from a 97 explorer. When I get a new intake gasket, what vehicle should I order it for?

[cb84capri]

this might help you out:

http://www.cjponyparts.com/tech-fox-body-engine/a/170/

do you have #55 in place? a less obstructed picture:



don't condemn the intake gaskets yet. i really don't think that is the problem. the tube actually allows metered air to flow through the engine so the pcv isn't causing a negative pressure in the crankcase despite what their little blurb says.

cale

[sircrunch]

I dont have any pipe like that going to my throttle body. Instead, I have that port on the TB plugged up. I see the pipe in the pictue, but I cannot tell where the other end of that pipe goes to. Is this pipe a requirement. Can you advise?

[TWR2003]

Sounds like you have a bad vacuum leak into the crankcase

Could be a PCV valve stuck open, or could be an intake to head gasket leak.

Could not disagree more.

its definetly vaccuum. I held my hand up to the oil neck and it was enough vaccum to suck the palm of my hand to it.

The way a normally operating PCV system works the crankcase is supposed to be under some vacuum. Thats why its call a Positive Crankcase Ventilation system. Manifold vacuum is connected to the crackcase thru the PCV valve but instead of drawing a complete vacuum the crankcase should only be under partial vacuum because a hose allowing filtered and metered air is also connected to the crankcase. On a 87-93 Mustang 5.0L this hose runs from a nipple on the drivers side valve cover's oil filler pipe to a nipple on the throttle body.

This diagram is not exactly correct as it shows a carbd engine but the basic premise is the same: a vacuum is drawn from the intake to the crankcase but filtered outside air is then drawn in thru the air tract. This 'ventilates' the crankcase.



If there is a very strong vacuum when you hold you hand over the oil filler pipe then you dont have a outside air source properly connected.

[sircrunch]

Ok I'm hearing you and I'm trying to follow. I just have a couple of issues, please keep in mind that I am an inexperienced newbie to the whole scene.

1. If the engine, due to the way i have lines hooked up, is experiencing too much negative pressure, and I need to give it a source of outside air, then wouldn't that be provided to it sort of artificially and temporarily when i pop the oil cap off?

2. The nipple on the TB is maybe something like 1/4 or 3/8 i'm guessing, but the outlet on my truck valve cover oil filler is much larger, maybe somethign like 3/4"

I found a random image on line...... these are the valve covers i have, BUT i had to run them on the opposite side from what you see here, due to the oil cap getting in the way of the plenum... notice the huge outlet on the oil filler

[JACook]

If there is a very strong vacuum when you hold you hand over the oil filler pipe then you dont have a outside air source properly connected.

And by "properly connected", on a MAF car, that means the air supply must come from the
intake tube -after- the MAF sensor, and before the throttle blade. MAF cars will tend to run
lean if the airflow sensor doesn't know about the air going into the PCV system. The PCV
system should not be run without a fresh air supply. The crankcase will act as a vacuum
accumulator that will confuse the computer.

If there is any doubt as to the intake gasket, an easy check is to disconnect and cap the tube
from intake manifold to PCV, block the PCV hole and air supply hole, then see if you still pull
a vacuum on the crankcase. With everything blocked, it should build pressure pretty quickly.
Don't let it build too much or you can end up with a gasket problem you didn't have before.

[TWR2003]

Ok I'm hearing you and I'm trying to follow. I just have a couple of issues, please keep in mind that I am an inexperienced newbie to the whole scene.

1. If the engine, due to the way i have lines hooked up, is experiencing too much negative pressure, and I need to give it a source of outside air, then wouldn't that be provided to it sort of artificially and temporarily when i pop the oil cap off?

Yes, but the air must be metered (ie go thru the MAF sensor
). In the case of you allowing the air to go in thru the filler pipe that would be unmetered and would cause fuel-air mixture issues.

2. The nipple on the TB is maybe something like 1/4 or 3/8 i'm guessing, but the outlet on my truck valve cover oil filler is much larger, maybe somethign like 3/4"

Use an adapter of sorts at one end to make it work.

You can plug the PCV valve hole in the VC with a PCV valve that has a nipple cap on it.

Is there anyway you can post pictures of youir engine setup?

Is your explorer intake internal or external EGR?

We still believe you have vacuum/FP issues as the FP readings you stated in post #1 were not correct. You should have 39psi FP KOEO, ~32psi FP KOER at idle, and between 32 and 39psi at all other times the engine is running. FP should alway rise as the throttle blade is opened. That is fundamental.

[Black97Tbird]

We still believe you have vacuum/FP issues as the FP readings you stated in post #1 were not correct. You should have 39psi FP KOEO, ~32psi FP KOER at idle, and between 32 and 39psi at all other times the engine is running. FP should alway rise as the throttle blade is opened. That is fundamental.

^^^^This!^^^

I'm glad someone said it before I did. I would be checking all the vacuum lines to find out where the leak is. The PCV at the rear of the lower intake should be routed to the vacuum hoses on the underside of the upper intake. The oil filler is an odd issue since the filler isn't on the passenger side like the original Fox setup, but it should be connected to the TB nonetheless. If you can borrow a vacuum gauge it would help you a ton. Make sure there are no disconnected lines or cracked hoses. I had replaced it all on my 86GT just to be safe, and those upper intake hoses are a pain unless its apart.

Tom

[sircrunch]

the mechanic just called. he said he took the intake off and there was a problem with the intake gasket. he also said the underside of the intake shows evidence where the intake wasnt sitting flat on the heads. Said he'd wait and let me look at it before he cleaned it.. recommended I take the intake to a machine shop to see if its warped on a flat table. He said some of the intake bolts were loose (which is odd because i torqued them myself, very thouroughly, and by the book) I asked him while i was on the phone and my intake has the center hole in it. like a 9th hole right in the middle. (concerning egr, someone in this thread had asked)

[PaceFever79]

Sounds like you have a bad vacuum leak into the crankcase

Could be a PCV valve stuck open, or could be an intake to head gasket leak.

Sometimes we get it right

[sircrunch]

i took it to a machine shop and the intake checked out ok. may have been improper torqing. mechanic mentioned loose bolts. putting a new gasket in and then seeing what happens.

[JACook]

If you used the soft FelPro 1250 Print-O-Seal gaskets, there's your problem. They don't
hold torque very well at all. The 1250S-3 gaskets are better, having a stainless steel core,
but the factory graphite Explorer gaskets are my current favorite. They are the closest to
the gaskets Ford originally used on the 5.0 HO engines.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fm...0/media/images

[sircrunch]

update: putting everything back together, noticed a cracked injector. also two others had some breakage going on near the bottom, where the o-rings fit. New injectors from summit should be in tomorrow and I may have the car back tuesday or wednesday.

[sircrunch]

My mechanic called and said the car is running great and that I would be very happy with it. He also said that when the MAF is unplugged, it idles even BETTER. after a google search and a whole lotta reading, the concensus is perhaps it could be a 1) vac leak, 2) dirty maf or, 3) bad connection at maf. anyone here with any suggestions?

[TWR2003]

My mechanic called and said the car is running great and that I would be very happy with it. He also said that when the MAF is unplugged, it idles even BETTER.

That means there is still something wrong. You need to find a mechanic that know what he is doing. The MAF is meant to be plugged in.

anyone here with any suggestions?

Yes. Do KOEO and KOER tests. If you get code 67 in KOEO test it will not allow you to run KOER test. You need to repair or bypass the NGS circuit to get rid of code 67. You will also find that when you repair NGS your car will idle much better. We told you that a while back.

[sircrunch]

What is confusing me is that the painless harness does not have any sort of connection for a neutral drive switch, and also the painless manual says nothing about it. So how would I get code 67 to go away? (PS: I just asked painless the same question via email)

[sircrunch]

Update: painless is supposed to be sending me a little 3 wire mini harness with a relay and a sheet of instructions, something about pin 30 at the PCM. I will update again once I achieve this As a side note, painless states that these harnesses manufactured NOW have been improved to include this wire. Mine was manufactured probably several months or a year ago, depending on how long it sat on the store shelf.

[PaceFever79]

Cool... doing an engine swap often involves sorting out this stuff.

Like I said before, be patient, don't get frustrated, learn here, do the work yourself.

[sircrunch]

I picked up the car, and just like he said, it runs great with the MAF disconnected. But if you RE-connect the MAF it will surge idle and cut off when decellerating and stopping at traffic lights. My next step is to clean the MAF tonight. I noticed some screws that hold the maf on are not the originals. Looks like its been tinkered with before... might be a bad MAF, we'll see. Is there a way to test it?

[PaceFever79]

Read this to learn the basics of MAF testing and cleaning....

http://easyautodiagnostics.com/ford_...sor_ford_1.php

[TWR2003]

But if you RE-connect the MAF it will surge idle and cut off when decellerating and stopping at traffic lights.

Classic NGS circuit failure symptoms.

Be certain you have wired a VSS to pins ECU pins 3 (VSS+) and 6 (VSS-).

Connect a jumper between ECU pins 30 (NGS) and 46 (SIGTRN). This will clear code 67 and should significantly improve idle and idle down (ie dashpot). This is the NGS bypass.