2001 Lincoln LS v8 - Little Power on Acceleration

[prodigal]

Hi everyone, I'm experiencing a problem with my 2001 Lincoln LS. Also note that the car had been sitting for about 8 months after I did an engine swap. Early this week I decided to drive the car and experienced the following problem.

When driving, the car has a slow acceleration even if I have the pedal to the floor. The RPMS barely go over 2k. The check engine light does not comes on but when I plug the scan tool in, I get a misfire on cylinder 5. I previously had a misfire on that same cylinder which gave me a rough idle, I changed the ignition coil - the car to idles fine but when I take it for a test drive it seems like there is little power on acceleration.

If I put it into park or neutral and give it gas it revs as quick as it should.

I've noticed a few things:

- Check engine light flashes if I were to go up hill. Scan tool reads cylinder 5 misfire again. That's the only code present.

- The prior mechanic that did an engine swap messed up my air intake around the PCV hose(?) the one that goes from the air intake into the driver side engine close to the dips stick. This particular hose does not properly connect to the air intake anymore and was "glued" with black adhesive for it to stay in place.

In the past I remember a little bit Cottonwood seed (those hairy white fluffy things floating around in the summer) came into contact with my sensor which caused similar symptoms little acceleration power and the car would stall and die. I took that out and it ran fine.

Could it be the bad air intake? Or is it a deeper problem that I can't really wrap my head around?

All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[joegr]

Was the previous misfire on #5 on the previous engine? If so, your PCM may be bad. You really should replace all the coils (use Motorcraft only) and all the plugs first. Verify/set the gap of each plug to 1.0mm, no more, no less.

Other problems related to the #5 misfire could be a bad injector or a bad wiring harness (to the COPs and/or to the injectors). Another general problem could be stale gasoline.

 

[prodigal]

Thanks, joegr for the quick response.

No, the misfire is on the new engine. The previous one didn't have any misfires - but a bad tensioner that lead a mechanic to snap the chain and blow a valve. Which lead me to getting this engine (from a new mechanic). I haven't changed all coils or plugs on the new engine so I might give that a shot.

Before I do so, I also noticed that on the new engine the mechanic did something similar (with the air intake) with the COPs by using this black adhesive for the wiring harness connectors to stay together. There are no clippings on the wiring harness, nothing "clicks in" everything is sticking together by this adhesive.

I'm not to sure where to look for the injectors.

I took it for another spin not to long ago and notice that the power comes and goes. For example the car accelerates normally after a cold start up. A little bit of driving and coming to a complete stop and accelerating again there would be little power as if the throttle does not want to open. If I stop the car and accelerate again it accelerates normally, when I come to a complete stop once again it would then have little acceleration takes a good 15 seconds jut to break over 1.5k revs.

But, if I put it in park, neutral or even reverse it accelerates normally.

Thanks for the help

 

[joegr]

You need a new "mechanic." I don't believe that tape will hold those connectors in good contact.

 

[jjcool00]

Two of my connectors are broken. Not by me - not that this matters. Last time I did all 8 coils, I zip tied the connectors on with mini zip ties. No issues.

 

[LS4me]

Two of my connectors are broken. Not by me - not that this matters. Last time I did all 8 coils, I zip tied the connectors on with mini zip ties. No issues.

I also broke the tabs on many connectors during my last coil change. I just bought a bunch of new connectors. There's a post here somewhere....

 

[joegr]

Two of my connectors are broken. Not by me - not that this matters. Last time I did all 8 coils, I zip tied the connectors on with mini zip ties. No issues.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with using a correctly placed zip tie to do it, just with tape. I have one injector connector broken and zip tied myself.

 

[prodigal]

Kudos on the zip tie suggestion. I'lll give that a try in the coming weeks after I get all the remaining coils and see how the car preforms. Could the power issue with my car be related to the connectors?

 

[1LoudLS]

Could the power issue with my car be related to the connectors?

if its not making a good connection, then the cylinder wouldn't be firing...

any cylinders not firing would definitely result in a loss of power...