It sat for over a year with a bad fuel pump. Gas in the tank was bad so I dropped the tank, changed the pump, and cleaned all the old gas out. I changed the fuel filter, put new gas in and seafoamed it. Seafoam in the new gas and in the brake booster line.

It was running rough and had hesitation off the line in the 1-2k rpm range. I changed the plugs with autolite double platinums, and it did help some but I wouldn't call it fixed. There are no codes.

It also seems to have a rattle at idle that I don't remember being there before. I uploaded a video to see if anyone can recognize what may be going on here. Any suggestions?

 

Only rattle I ever had with mine.. sounded more high-pitched and metallic.. it ended up being the harmonic balancer inside the crank pulley had somehow separated.. it was like a thick metal washer bouncing around inside. I would hear it at idle in drive-thru's or something when the sound was bouncing off of a wall and I had my window down. It DOES NOT sound like that. That sounds to me more like a ticking/tapping sound.

Not a solution, but maybe eliminates an idea.

 

ever swap out the cam sync ryan?

 

Nope, thought that could have something to do with it but wasn't sure.

 

i would start there or just ax the 3.0 altogether and go 5.0

 

I think he'd rather fix the 3.0 and sell it. Lot work for a truck he almost never drives.. F that, lol

 

It'd be sweet, but yeah I'm not putting that kind of time and money into it anymore.

 

Where's RonD? He's usually all over this stuff by now lol

My vote would be to start with the cam sync

 

Had a little time to work on it today. I unplugged the maf and it idles and rev's a little better, but has no power to take off with it unplugged. With the maf plugged in the 1-2k rpm hesitation comes back. There's no codes with the maf plugged in either.

I'm gonna pick up some maf cleaner and clean it but I still have a feeling something else is wrong.

 

Pulled the #1 and #2 injectors today to have a look. Cylinder 1 is the one that's is missing. The 1 injector was dry and had a lot of buildup on it. The 2 injector was wet and was a little dirty but nothing like the 1 injector. I ordered a new motorcraft injector to replace the #1 injector. Fingers crossed.

 

Well, I replaced the #1 injector and no change. Still running rough and stumbling. I pulled the spark plug for the millionth time and no it appears to be oil soaked. Put another plug in and ran it for a few minutes, pulled it and it's oil soaked too. Not sure how I feel about that. I used an inline plug tester and it's got spark. I haven't done the cam sync but that shouldn't cause oil on the plug. Guess I'm going to do a compression test and see if the cylinder has bigger problems than I thought.

Anybody familiar with 3.0's having problems like this?

 

Pulled the valve cover and found a pushrod off the lifter. Hmm.

 

just tuning in here.

Is push rod bent?
very odd for one to come off the lifter or rocker unless the rocker nut somehow backed off.
It should have 24ft/lb torque on it so unlikely unless it was skipped on a repair.


Oils most likely source is the intake valve guide seal, these can be changed without removing the head.
Compression test would be good, if compression on this cylinder is average for the others then it is the valve guide seal that is leaking, as it is not "in" the cylinder so wouldn't effect compression like rings would.

 

Pushrod is not bent and the rocker was tight. I'm thinking maybe the valve was gummed up from sitting so long that it didn't close as fast as it should've which allowed the pushrod to fall out. Just grasping at straws though. Is there anyway the lifter itself could've allowed the pushrod to fall out. I've heard of collapsed lifters but not sure if that would allow a pushrod enough space to get out.

I guess the question will be if I can put the pusrod back in, re-torque the rocker and expect things to work normally again?

 

Collapsed hydraulic lifter usually means the check valve in the lifter is stuck open, spring still holds it open but if you push down on it, it will collapse to the bottom, so it will "tick" when engine is running.
It could cause push rod to come off, never heard of that through.

Sticky or bent valve maybe, it would be a good guess, could explain the oil as well if guide cracked.

You can pull off the valve spring and feel if the valve is bent.
You need to put piston at TDC and either have a rope coiled up in the cylinder to hold the valve up or use compressed air in spark plug hole to hold the valve up, although hard to check for bent valve that way.

 

Well good news, I think. I put it all back together and started it up. Miss was gone but I could hear that lifter tapping....pretty noticeably. I went ahead and changed the oil which was about a quart low. I hadn't changed the oil in at least 5 years so no surprise there. I'm happy to say though the tapping was gone with the new oil and all the hesitation and missing is gone also.

Not sure what happened to make the pushrod fall out in the first place but hopefully it'll keep running normally now.

 

Good to hear that you've got it straightened out. Hopefully it stays that way.

 

Time for the for sale sign?

 

Time to fix the steering.

 

Good work.

In my area steering issues seem to always come down to the steering wheel nut.........
Loose nut holding on to the steering wheel

 

That's at least 90% of the problem I'm sure.