Coil packs

[baraff]

Originally Posted by Mudsock

I would be inclined to swap the suspected bad coil to another position and see if the misfire then occurs at the new position. If not, you save a few bucks.

What about picking up a coil, or two, at a salvage yard? Spare parts can sometimes be good diagnostic tools.

It is true that the required voltage to ignite the mixture is greater under load.

How do you tell which cylinder is misfiring? If it throws a code, will it specify which cylinder?

[Mudsock]

A scan tool should reveal the number of misfires per cylinder. I saw that in the list for my 2011 Chevrolet HHR last week. I remember seeing it in the list for my 1995 Buick Century, as well. It is an OBD2 (On Board Diagnostics 2) thing. I am making an assumption that it will be there for the Ford V10.

Scan tools vary a great deal in their capabilities. The car manufacturers and dealers use very high end scan tools that give more extensive information. High end tools are very expensive.

Autozone or Advance Auto will read the codes on a car for free. Both read the codes on my car two weeks ago when I was having transmission issues. The tool Advance Auto used and sells (Actron) provides live data of engine parameters. I saw misfire per cylinder on the Actron I purchased from them. The Autozone tool (Innova) claimed to read live data, but did not. I returned it.

[Waiter21]

How do you tell which cylinder is misfiring? If it throws a code, will it specify which cylinder?

Yes, maybe..

A P0300 code is a misfire detected right after the engine is started

A P0301 - P0310 is a misfire detected on a specific cylinder ( 1 - 10 ).

I recommend buying a wifi or Bluetooth ODBII Reader then install the "Torque" app on your phone (The premium app is a little better than the free one.)

This is the Reader I bought, $21 from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products.../dp/B005NLQAHS

If you really want to get in and troubleshoot problems, having access to the ODBII Mode 6 data is very useful, i.e. displaying real time and historical sensor raw data...

Ford publishes a very nice guide that describes all the codes for specific F53 years.. i.e. is the one for my 1999:

http://1999southwind.com/DOWNLOAD/F53_obdsm99b.pdf

..