Ahh More Problems ='(

Post your codes. I'm sure it has several.

90% of the time you have global chaos like that, it comes down to ONE stupid little thing too. The trick is finding the bad egg. If you take it to Ford the first two things they will always do is scan it and give every harness the wiggle test.

If you haven't already . . .

• Harness wiggle test
• Redo BOTH your engine grounds
• Clean up connections on the power block at the fuse box and check for corrosion
• Clean your MAF sensor and make sure it's plugged in snug

It sounds to me like an electrical or ignition problem. You have the EGR tubes plugged, I would unplug the electrical harness from the EGR valve if you haven't already just to see what it does. If you have it unplugged, try plugging it in and see what it does. For the record, I had mine completely unplugged but I also have a TwEECer to turn off that function in the computer.

Codes?

You said:
"-I have a spark knock in the first cylinder when I take the wire out it stops.. but when I get on it I hear a ticking sound.."


It sure sounds like a bad plug wire. I would swap the wire with another one and see if the issue follows the wire. Also, when you run a cylinder balance test, does the car pass? If you're totally grounding out spark, it won't.

It sounds like you have a vac leak. This can cause the hanging idle. And I like John's idea to clean the MAF wires if you have not.

If you can view PIDs, now is a time to do it. With some many issues, it would be nice to stream data in real time.

Good luck.

What injector size do you have?

Are they all the same brand? Have you checked the ohms of the injectors? What color are they? (just to be sure) Also check the injector wiring with a noid light.

And pull codes!

How much vaccum do you have?

The stock trim jumps from rich to lean. It's by design. Let's say you were teaching a kid to bowl and you put 2x4's down the lane, each 1' from the center of the lane. The kid could throw the ball down any old way and the ball would bounce back and forth between the two runs of wood, eventually allowing the ball to end up in the middle of the lane by the time it reached the pins. Same kinda deal with the A/F monitoring.

A MAF can be dirty or totally out of whack and the car still runs. The puter is just receiving incorrect info (very bad on a load-based processor). Wes recently taught me that a dirty element can cause a two-fold WOT issue. The dirty sensor causes leanness at WOT. The dirty sensor also causes richness at idle. The adaptive control can allow the lean adaptation to transcend the MAF function, causing further leanness at WOT. In other words, everything ends up out of whack.

If your EGR was actually stuck open, the car would barely idle and run like total crap.

Vac leaks are a real PITA to track down. You just have to get it done though. Folks have various methods they might talk about (I wont for fire hazard concerns).

You needn't even buy new wires. Just swap the bad one with another and see if the clicking follows the wire or stays with the cylinder. It should follow the wire. I have used various materials to insulate a leaky wire in the past. It works for diagnostics.

If you have an ignition in decent shape and you have your other hand touching metal (I lean on the radiator support when I work on things, for instance), that can allow a shock to occur. Given your other issue however, the wires are suspect. You could mist the wires with water from a spray bottle (in the dark - BE CAREFUL OF MOVING ENGINE PARTS!) to see where the wires are leaking.

Rediculously large plug gaps can cause issues, as can the wrong plugs (wrong reach) for the application.

Good luck.

why change it when you can just clean it. get some alcohol and cuitips and gently swab the bars in the sensor. plug it back in. end of story. i'd lean towards that causing some of your problems.