Update (warning....long post):
Since the last posting here all was going well until around mid November my car started misfiring again on cold starts w\ large spread between B1 & B2 LTFT's at hot idle (B1 @ -7.8%, B2 @ -2.3% w\ both B1 & B2 STFT's switching), this time tripping the P0307 DTC (#7 cyl) but all cylinders were showing misfires....just not near as much as #7 & #2 was but all misfires stopped after engine warmed up to full hot idle. Since this was the 2nd time I've run into this issue since installing these cams I decided to go thru the full diagnostic plate & check everything out even if it didn't appear to be an issue before I got w\ my tuner (suspect fueling settings to be part of the problem due to drastic IAT temp changes in US 4 Corners area....going into winter & Lunati's were installed & tuned thruout summer & early fall.....).
So I tore her apart again & ran every check: checked PCM drivers\wiring for injectors.....all pulling down 1-2v @ 2.3-2.4a @ 61-69 freq so all injectors were getting good grounds thru PCM so all injector pintles were cycling fully (no short pulls creating lean fueling), all injector coils tested at 13-14 ohms (good) & none were leaking (pressured them up outside of manifold for visual inspection) so all OK but I swapped #5 cyl injector w\ #7 cyl injector just to get verification....reset OBDII & reran monitor...still got P0307 DTC after 2 consecutive cold starts but eliminated injectors (even though they're new Ford Racing M-9593-LU24A injectors....). Pulled all coils & plugs (Champion 9406's....MC HJFS 24FP equiv) & checked....all looked good w\ no carbon tracking inside boots or on plug porcelains so just to check, I regapped all plugs from OEM @ .042" to .035" (to make it easier for coil to fire gap) then also swap #5 cyl coil & plug w\ #7 cyl coil & plug to get verification....reset OBDII & reran monitor....still got P0307 DTC after 2 consecutive cold starts. Ran same checks on PCM coil drivers\wiring...all pulling down 1-2v @ 2.4-2.6a @ 63-69 freq so all coils were getting good grounds thru PCM, all coil's primary windings tested at 22-25 ohms (good) so assume all are good from swap test results (also, these coils are new Ford Racing M-12029-3V coils...). Ran vacuum gauge idle @ 17" inHg @ 5380' elevation (alt corrects to 21" inHg....normal vacuum range so no vac leaks) but pulled my FR Intake Manifold off anyway to check all out....all gaskets were like new w\ no flat spots or cracks & manifold port flanges were all square & straight (checked w\ framing square) & manifold checked out on close visual checks so flipped gaskets over just cause & remounted it (did stack another set of washers under the 2 long Allen head bolts that draw down the center of manifold to spread out the tq load--found the washers I used weren't strong enough to handle the 89 in\lbs torque, bolt heads had tried to pull thru the center of them--so the manifold felt much more solid in the middle this time when I tq'd her down). Ran vacuum gauge afterwards & got the exact same readings as prior then used carb cleaner & sprayed all flanges, connectors & hoses....all came out negative. Isolated brake booster, EVAP & PCV just cause....got no changes. Checked exhaust as best I could....could see no signs of leakage around header flanges & header gaskets looked good & all exhaust header studs\nuts that I could access were still tight & held the 18-20 ft\lbs tq called for. But I still kept getting the P0307 DTC after OBDII resets but I had all this info in hand when I called my tuner & informed him of the situation. So he set me up an appointment & I took my car down to On3 Performance the evening before so that he could run a datalog on my car thru a cold start 1st thing in AM when engine was cold so that he could see what was going on.....
I was there when my tuner went thru my tune file & made some tweaks to the fueling based off the earlier settings made thru the 4 prior tuning sessions in the base fuel map in the low load areas where he knew the car would be using during cold starts & from my recorded test results of the misfire monitor just after finish of cold start showing the pending P0307 DTC & misfires across all cylinders along w\ the heavy O2 sensor fuel corrections after CL then again same day after full warmup, drive cycle perform & IM Readiness prove out which cleared the pending DTC & showed the misfires to be gone but not the heavy fuel correction back to stoich during CL (pulled some fuel out so when the corrections were added based on ECT the overall result would be a little leaner). Hooked up to car & ran datalog thru a cold start...while standing outside the car I clearly heard a coil(s) on B2 side arcing when also hearing the exhaust note change so I knew the coils were jumping spark but why I didn't have a clue. But my tuner also saw that the PCM was actually pulling spark timing back into the negatives due to COT (cat over temp protection) kicking in so he made changes to this setting so that the PCM wouldn't pull so much spark timing away so the engine wouldn't lose so much energy to throw off the piston velocity accelerations then the car ran a little better but we knew that the intermittent misfires were causing the cats to get overheated from flashing off the unburnt fuel & O2 from them so I had to rectify this myself. But as usual once the engine warmed up all went away & all came back to normal but we did hear a slight ticking sound coming from the B1 side valve cover around area @ #1 cyl. Put her back on the dyno to see if the rest is still OK & we found that the car has lost low end WOT HP\TQ from the last session (approx 20 HP\TQ) but all came back to normal after 4500 RPM's.....
What we found is the VCT was not responding as before down low (slow to respond to PCM commands so they stayed at base timing too long instead of moving to initial 2* retard & up causing the TQ loss) on the initial WOT hit but caught up w\ PCM after 4500 RPM's on so no loss of most mid range & top end HP & TQ, only down low. Both VCT solenoids\CMP's showed to be working electrically just fine but the cam phasers were slow to respond to PCM commands until around 4500 RPM's. Tuner made some tweaks to the VCT tables to see if he could speed them back up but got no response so he put the settings back to where they last were as we both knew what this meant....the issue is oil pressure related (oil was fresh MC Full Syn 5W-30 as car had been serviced 1st week of November & have been using this same oil prior to this run so it's not the oil). Drivability wise I noted no issues. Now it could be the screens\plungers in the VCT solenoids varnishing up but from my visual inspection of engine internals during cam install I highly doubt this. But from the newly noted slight ticking when full hot from front of B1 side suspecting a lash adjuster is starting to lose adjustment (engine is dead quiet when cold) I'm suspecting that the ole oil pump may have just crossed the wear point @ 152,583+ mi where she's starting to lose just enough oil pressure at full engine temp to start affecting other component operations below 4500 RPM's at WOT & the lash adjuster on 1 of the valves on #1 cyl at hot idle (tail end of press oiling path) so it looks like I'm gonna be planning to do a full timing job on her soon to replace the oil pump w\ a hi pressure hi volume unit (like the Melling 10340MV) so I'll also be replacing all lash adjusters & followers as well when I do all this in the spring\summer to freshen it all up w\ the new redesigned FR components (redesigned VCT solenoids, cam phasers, lash adjusters w\ new redesigned followers, iron chain tensioners & hardened guide pivots, improved chains, guides, etc) so afterwards she should be in good shape. Min oil pressure specs for this 4.6L V8 is 75 psi @ 2,000 RPM's so it's very possible that the oil pump has lost some efficiency so I'll be planning to get a pressure reading off it at some time as soon as it warms up enough to get under it to install an oil pressure gauge tap. Also got me a HPTuners nGauge to use to datalog the car going forward & so that I can now go to remote tuning w\ my tuner as well if needed....
Always something but the car is 10+ yrs old so stuff gonna start giving up eventually...……………………..
Got to thinking bout the spark arcing that I heard afterwards & the only thing that I could think of was it had to be related to the dielectric grease (SuperLube brand) that I used when changing coils\plugs (also had used this stuff when I was diagnosing the misfires I had earlier on the MC HJFS-24FP plugs\OEM coils after initial cam install back in the summer but never gave it any thought as to this grease being suspect then) so I pulled all apart, pulled all coils & plugs, pulled all coil boots off so that I could clean out the springs & inside of coil boots of all this grease (found rubbing alcohol works very good for this as it will strip all of this silicone grease & it's film off but not harm the boot rubber & leaves no residue behind), put them back together then got out the old set of MC plugs & cleaned the porcelains off as well (these have the ribbed porcelains which are supposed to be more misfire resistant vs the smooth porcelain design of the Champions), gapped them to .040" (closest my wire gapper has to .042" spec w\o going over) & dropped them back in along w\ the now clean coils & coil springs & boots (I did hit the inside of each coil boot w\ a little WD-40 before install for insurance). Did all this early Monday morning of this week (18*F outside....was COLD mother) so engine would still be cold to test all out. Fired her up & straightway I noted a
HUGE improvement! Monitored on scan tool thru a full cold start......all misfire monitor checks (EWMA counts, misfire\cat damage counts, misfire\emissions counts, highest monitored combustion events counter & highest cylinder misfire rate counter as well as all individual cylinder misfire last counters) all came back at 0% or 0 counts so I now know that all dielectric grease ain't so dielectric as claimed as it was this
SuperLube dielectric grease that was actually
causing all these damn misfires (these Lunati VooDoo cams at base timing w\ 14* of advance cam timing GI do raise cylinder compression pressure higher vs the OEM cams w\ 7* GI cam timing advance due to IVC earlier AND no EGR as the Lunati EVC @ 8* ATDC vs the OEM EVC @ 19* ATDC during intake stroke so cylinder fill has more air\fuel volume w/ these Lunati cams vs the OEM cams which puts a higher load on ignition to fire the plugs so the coils would intermittently jump spark thru the dielectric grease film on plug porcelain to plug base instead of thru resistor core to plug gap until the plug core resistors warmed up enough to lower resistance so spark would stop jumping to external plug base) from the jump!
I never would have thought this to be the issue prior to now! Ran her thru several cold starts since then & all is showing to be well now concerning misfires...….damn!
All this time...………………….
Lesson learned...……….. Do NOT use ANY dielectric grease (at least this SuperLube grease) on these Ford coil boots....only use WD-40 if needed.
Now as to the FT spread (at hot idle B1 LTFT @ 0%, B2 LTFT @ +7.8%)...… Prior this tune session the CL FT's were B1 LTFT @ -7.8%, B2 LTFT @ -2.3% w\ both side's STFT switching around 0% (the O2 sensors will correct any set fueling commanded from OL base fuel map w\ ECT & load correction during cold start once the O2 sensors come online & PCM switches into CL....the correction differences can point to OL cold fueling issues whether excessive rich or lean as well as other operational issues). After this tune session they had settled out at B1 LTFT @ 0%, B2 LTFT @ +7.8%. So while going thru all this checking for intermittent misfires (FT's can help spot these as well) I also noted that the EVAP_VP pid was showing a small but constant negative readout (showing vacuum in fuel tank where the FTP sensor resides) during idle even though AAT was in the high teens for low's to low 30's for high's temp wise & car is parked (little to no fuel flashoff\vaporizing)....not right but PCM never set a MIL & EVAP monitor would eventually prove out in IM Readiness (PCM is supposed to cycle the CPV open\CVS closed only when the vapor pressure in fuel tank reached a set positive pressure threshold then cycle the CPV closed\CVS open when a certain amount of purge time has lasped to prevent from drawing too high a vacuum on fuel tank after EVAP has passed IM Readiness checks) so I suspected the CPV to be working but not seating off fully when commanded closed (part is original so never been changed....over 10 yrs in service & connects to intake manifold above PCV on B2 side of intake....) so I ordered a replacement yesterday (everybody in town was out of stock) & got it this morning. Changed this part out then started the car & monitored the FT's for approx 2 hrs of idling time & saw the PCM start readjusting the LTFT's down afterwards to B1 LTFT @ -3.1% from 0% & B2 LTFT @ +3.9% from +7.8% so the leaking CPV was the
main cause of the FT's getting out of whack (small vacuum leak during CVS open time from leaking CPV which mostly affected B2 side) which wasn't helping w\ the misfires either, especially on B2 side (lean) causing PCM to put even more fuel to this side making B2 side even more rich causing the engine to run unbalanced so some of the recorded misfires were fake! Not enough to set off any DTC's & not enough for most to even worry about (less than 10% either way) so if I wasn't periodically monitoring & making note of the PCM functions data I wouldn't have caught this until the PCM set a DTC or worse...…. After seeing all this I then immediately went to the local Ford dealer today & picked up a new FoMoCo gas cap to replace the existing 10 yr old original gas cap that was installed on the car off the assembly line (has the BP logo on the cap where Ford recommended using BP fuel at that time & the warning symbol to not use E85 fuel) as I knew this at some point was gonna be next so got ahead of this 1 (have already gone thru this issue w\ my '03 Dodge RAM 1500 truck's original OEM gas cap's seal failing after 16 yrs service causing P044x EVAP DTC....replaced w\ new OEM gas cap from dealer just last month). Observed PCM go thru Phase O Initial Vacuum Check on EVAP system which verified that the CVS is sealing off (system pulled a decent vacuum level of -2.726" H2O on gas tank before PCM commanded bleed off) & is also opening back up (system dumped vacuum off gas tank back to 0.00" H2O very quick once PCM command CPV to close & CVS to open & readout stayed at 0.00" H2O for several minutes before vapor pressure started building in tank also verifying new CPV seating off full when closed) so I won't look to replace the CVS at this time but will do this sometime later this year to finish up all the EVAP system refresh. I never thought to pay any attention to this prior as the EVAP has always passed IM Readiness checks so I was suspecting other areas to find the vacuum leak on B2 side (which I could never find) or fueling issues concerning fuel injectors (now know that the original fuel injectors and original coils are most likely still good so I have spares now).
The data was right there in plain sight pointing to the cause for the FT spread but I kept overlooking it due to other data saying there wasn't an EVAP issue......even though there WAS an EVAP issue in the making causing another issue that is more commonly associated w\ other causes.
So now I'll drive the car to allow the PCM to finish making fuel readjustments for CL operation (should see better gas mileage now going forward as well) then make note of where it all settles out for my records so I'll know where the new established baseline is at for future TS purposes.
In closing if you don't already have a decent OBDII scan tool to use to help TS these cars I HIGHLY urge\recommend to get 1 & learn how to use it as at some point you'll need it to figure out issues!
Exhausting & stressful but is also fulfilling when finally tracked to proper conclusion...….also sharpens your diagnosis skills!
Apologize for the long winded posting but I needed the therapy!