Need help diagnosing whats wrong with my 03. No shop in my area (south FL) will touch the car because its “too old”.
All new top end (original cylinder heads failed leak down test and had bad spark plug repairs). Here is what has been changed…ported stock 99 casting heads with SI valves, trick flow 234/234 cams, trick flow lash adjusters and valve springs, new timing set, trick flow ported intake manifold, bbk shorty headers, tuned by a reputable tuner, holley 255 pump. Stock 21lb injectors that have been professionally cleaned and tested. New ford MAF, NTK o2’s and bosch iridium spark plugs. Car holds 40psi of pressure at the rails, and compression test was good with 150 on both banks.
Problem im having is short term fuel trims get off about 25% side to side, and it gets worse the longer you drive the car, and it will start misfiring bad only at idle. Can smell gas very strong outside the car. Under load the car is fine no misfire. When the fuel trims get off the cammed idle mellows out and becomes smooth like stock and a sputtering/white smoke can be heard and seen from tailpipes. The car will randomly try to stall itself out when sitting at red lights. Weirdest part is that when the fuel trims are even and running good, the engine is quiet as a mouse, but when they get off a ticking can be heard from the engine bay that sounds like a lash adjuster tick. I dont believe the lash adjusters to be bad because they are brand new so im assuming something else is causing this? Already fixed all the exhaust leaks.
One thought I had was maybe alternator is bad because of things ive read from people with similar symptom’s saying that was the fix for them. When the car stalls itself out I can hear the radiator fan turning on pretty loud.
Really at a loss on this one, been trying to get this right for several months and have had no luck.
All new top end (original cylinder heads failed leak down test and had bad spark plug repairs). Here is what has been changed…ported stock 99 casting heads with SI valves, trick flow 234/234 cams, trick flow lash adjusters and valve springs, new timing set, trick flow ported intake manifold, bbk shorty headers, tuned by a reputable tuner, holley 255 pump. Stock 21lb injectors that have been professionally cleaned and tested. New ford MAF, NTK o2’s and bosch iridium spark plugs. Car holds 40psi of pressure at the rails, and compression test was good with 150 on both banks.
Problem im having is short term fuel trims get off about 25% side to side, and it gets worse the longer you drive the car, and it will start misfiring bad only at idle. Can smell gas very strong outside the car. Under load the car is fine no misfire. When the fuel trims get off the cammed idle mellows out and becomes smooth like stock and a sputtering/white smoke can be heard and seen from tailpipes. The car will randomly try to stall itself out when sitting at red lights. Weirdest part is that when the fuel trims are even and running good, the engine is quiet as a mouse, but when they get off a ticking can be heard from the engine bay that sounds like a lash adjuster tick. I dont believe the lash adjusters to be bad because they are brand new so im assuming something else is causing this? Already fixed all the exhaust leaks.
One thought I had was maybe alternator is bad because of things ive read from people with similar symptom’s saying that was the fix for them. When the car stalls itself out I can hear the radiator fan turning on pretty loud.
Really at a loss on this one, been trying to get this right for several months and have had no luck.
