Well, there's no water or damage to the pcm connector, the wires are in the right order and connected tight at both ends, there are no vacuum leaks, and my coil checker that I ordered doesn't work at all... I still have no codes. the only ones I got were for the no.1 and no.5 cylinders, which makes me wanna say coil since that entire coil is misfiring. According to the Haynes, there are 3 coils in the pack that fire 2 cylinders simultaneously. The 1 and 5 are on the same coil and misfiring. anybody leaning towards a bad coil but me? I haven't pulled the plugs due to the degree of difficulty in pulling the back 3, but I can if I have to to figure this out....

 

I did pull and clean the egr also. it wasn't very dirty, it moved freely when I pushed on the metal end of the valve, and everything seems to be in order with that. I put a new fel-pro gasket on it also, even though the old one looked pretty new...

 

just finished pulling the plugs... all 6 look just like the picture in the back of the Haynes showing good plugs and the gap is right on 54/55.... this is irritating...

 

Yes, I am thinking this could be it. I may have lost track but didn't you exchange the coilpack?

 

I guess I just got the go ahead to buy the coil and wires for it tomorrow. If this don't fix it, i'm gonna scream... The wires on it look good, but I'm done guessing. I'll buy new ones so I know they aren't the prob. and keep the old set as a spare. always good to have spares. Thanks again for the help, i'll let everyone know how it goes after it's done. Keep your fingers crossed that something goes right with this thing for longer than a few hours! The bright side of all this: when I finally figure this thing out, it'll run like a champ after all the other work I've done to it!

 

I didn't replace it, I was told it was replaced just before I bought it. I believe them based on the like new condition the coil looks to be in. Doesn't look like it's been on for the 230,000 mile ride for sure. I think the 95-99 gap on the back 3 plugs may have hurt it somehow or running 3 new and 3 way bad killed it, or maybe it was a crap part and just died, I have no idea. I'm annoyed I mail-ordered a coil wire tester from auto zone only for it to not do anything at all, no matter what I tried... I never was a big auto zone fan...

 

O.K. that was it. I was taking it by the word. But I think you got this exactly right: the bad plug must have overloaded the particular coil and burnt it out internally.

I don't like Autozone either. I very much prefer O'Reilly's.

As a general rule I like to replace wire plugs and coilpacks together using quality stuff. My coilpack and wires are BWA (Borg Warner) They may be produced overseas but they meet Borg Warner standards.

Please let me know how it turns out. I think this is it!

 

Well, I changed the wires and the coil. It runs perfect, when you push the gas pedal. Runs like crap when parked or stopped. I may be getting a vacuum leak on the driver's side, firewall side of the intake near a large rubber hose that goes to a vacuum regulator on the firewall, that seems to run to the vacuum regulator on the intake for the egr. The coil and wires were obviously bad, so replacing them was good, but why does it want to die?!? I am 1 step away from swearing off ford...

 

is it possible that the intake spacer bolts with the isolator bushings stretched? Should I try to permatex the isolator bushings? Could the intake have a crack in it? I've never seen any damage, but cracks can be a bit hard to see in plastic sometimes.... Any ideas?

 

I truly appreciate all the help you guys on here have been. It's good to know there are some people out there who still want to help people, like I do. The last problem most certainly was vacuum. I had inadvertently knocked off the vacuum hose I described at the intake when I was hugging the engine to get to the plug wires. Windy officially runs like a champ now! The only weird thing it does while running now is it clicks and the idle goes up about 400-500 rpms every 15 secs or so. Not sure if this is normal, but other than that, it runs like a champ! Still needs tie rod ends and a good suspension check, but I'm just gonna enjoy it running right for the first time for a day or two before I crawl back up under it for anything. Thanks bluewind, grindman, and hanky for your input on this one. Everybody had something to say that was helpful. I won't be a straner!