need help desperately.

stang dreamer · Feb 28, 2008

hey guys. i was having a conversation with another forum member tonight about spark plug gaps, and i had decided that to be on the safe side it would be best to gap the ones i had previously installed before they did any damage. on the drivers side cylinder bank i took the spark plugs out one by one to check them, and they were all gapped correctly anyway. i reinstalled them into their original cylinder, making sure they are all tight enough, but not overly tight, then took the battery off and waited around 20 mins before reconnecting to prepare for the ECU to do its learning thing. i have reconnected the battery properly, tightened it as i should, locked then unlocked the car using the fob, but now it just will not idle. i rev it, it goes from whatever rev i have it at and just gives up. its not as if its a slow and steady decrease in revs like it should do, and then stalls, it just goes from say 2000rpm to dead in a second.

also, when i first started it, it idled at about 400 revs, shaking the car like hell, i tapped the gas and it revved to around 2000rpm then died completely out.

i persevered, thinking it may just be an issue with the ECU being on its learning process thing, but after 30 miles of both motorway and city driving its still doing it.

i tell ya what i did notice though, there was a small creme coloured semi-circular rubber thing that came off one of the cylinders when i originally changed the plugs a little over a month ago, and today i found another. i have no idea what it is, but it came from approx 3/4 the way up the cylinder head. i was told its to keep the spark plug tool in line so the plugs dont get cross threaded, and it wasnt to worry about. but with me finding another broken one, and the problem getting worse, i have to keep things into concideration

blackfang · Feb 28, 2008

For starters what year and model car?

What did you gap the spark plugs at?

Have you checked all the boots to make sure there is a connection. What you are describing might be part of the boot. Can you take a picture and post it?

stang dreamer · Mar 1, 2008

i had installed the plugs without gapping them, thinking it would be alright. but over the past few weeks i have had problems that i thought may have been caused by incorrectly gapping the plugs, but it turns out that the plugs are fine and were gapped already at .054 as they are supposed to be.

it now idles properly after a short while but its still at the back of my mind, and sometimes drops the revs to around 500 then back up again to approx 900rpm at idle.

im at work now so ill try and get a picture later of the bit in question that i had problems with

PS its a 1998 Cobra

COBRA90GT · Mar 1, 2008

Did the engine exhibit this stalling prior to changing/checking sparkplug gap? I'm assuming the problem did not start to happen until you messed with the plugs, right?

Be sure to check the following items (no specific order really):

1 - Check for vacuum leaks. Make sure you didn't knock any other plumbing/hoses/tubes/filter/etc along the air intake tract loose while you were under the hood.

2 - a) Examine the sparkplug wires. Look at the boot end of each one and compare them to one another to confirm whether or not that "piece" you described might be part of the boot.

b) Also make sure the wires are snug on both the plug end and on the coilpack end.

c) It's possible you may want to try a new set of wires as well, especially if they are the original factory wires - but don't throw money at the problem just yet.

3 - The IAC (Idle Air Control) valve might be dirty/bad. Replacing it is preferred to cleaning it, IIRC, but you can try to clean it (?).

4 - MAF may be dirty/need cleaning.

5 - One of the coilpacks may have went bad. Replace it. I believe you can test the resistance of them individually to find the bad one. Consult manual.

Have any check engines lights been displayed so far?

stang dreamer · Mar 3, 2008

today... the check engine light came on as i was taking a photograph of a lamborghini local to me. error code 0174 (system too lean, bank 2) has come up.

when i installed the new air intake kit there was a rubber hose that fits into the engine on the passenger side (oil breather tube, maybe?) that doesnt seem to fit snugly into the hole properly. everything else i have checked and it seems alright.

after i installed the plugs last time the car just stalled whilst driving. as soon as the clutch was dipped it would randomly stall, and appeared to have lost torque. but i would have had to remove the intake to change the plugs, perhaps dislodging this breather pipe, resulting in lost vacuum pressure? im thinking of reinstalling the stock intake again so everything fits perfectly tomorrow just to make sure. would this create a problem like that?

IAC valve has been cleaned and its fine. the lack of idle problem stopped the day it happened but i have had some trouble with it since, stalling, engine codes etc.

EDIT, today again the really low idle. got a video this time around

http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...=VIDEO0006.flv

hvcobra99 · Mar 4, 2008

sounds like

Wrong gap on your plugs . Also Gap should be 054 I looked it up.
Unless you have a supercharger then it should be closer.

Also I think its time to pull the fun valve covers off and replace the spark plug seals ( thats what you are finding) and Make sure you EGR Valve / MAF /throttle body are clean post a picture of your engine from all angles also (CLOSE UP)

I hope you put some anti seize on your plugs before you installed them and Try NKG's they work great (Irudium)

stang dreamer · Mar 4, 2008

plug gap is fine. its set to the ford recommended .054 as i was instructed. then found the service manual, and it says the same in there also.

im not taking anything like that off the mustang, im in the UK and the parts are hard enough to get hold of as it is, let alone having to shell out a fortune in shipping for replacement parts on bits that i have broken taking my engine apart.

its my daily also, so i cant be taking valve covers off or anything like that, i simply dont have the time to do so

spark plugs are champion ones that came with the car, and i didnt put any anti sieze or anything on them.

Big Top GT · Apr 2, 2008

It sounds too much like unmetered air getting into the intake track.

check to make sure all the tubes and hoses are connected properly to the valve covers and to the tube between the fender and the throttle body.

If it's still doing it, there'a a chance that the IAC is on it's way out.

blueblazes · Apr 4, 2008

can you post pics of your engine bay?
1.) do you have a breather on the drivers side and the pcv hooked up to intake on passenger side? this can allow unmetered air into intake
2.) make sure maf is plugged in
3.) check for other codes make sure there not anymore
4.) try to find out why you have a lean code check wiring on your 02's
5.) get some copper ngk plugs like tr6's I run them in everything and they are cheap and very good
6.)what kind of intake did you put on the car??? how big is it?? is it one that requires a retune? If you placed to big of an air intake on the car then the car may not be able to build enough air velocity at low rpms to idle properly been there done that.
7.) buy a can of carb cleaner and check for vaccuum leaks

8.) get a can of electronics safe cleaner and clean your maf
9.) do you have aftermarket tb? if so have you reset the tps/iac stuff? check your tps voltage see where its at
10.)fuel filter?

theres something screwy going on with the maf sensor in one way or another imo, either it cant read the air properly or something is throwing off the calculations from it like unmetered air from vaccum leak.

those are a few things I can think of off top of my head
, do you have anyway to datalog the car such as from an xcal 2 or something like that?

need help desperately.

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