New Gen 2 Owner - Day 1 problems...[resolved, hopefully]

[marine5804]

Very similar experience. It was tuned prior and they removed their tunes and set to stock. I also tried to get a custom tune through vivid racing and ran into so many issues. I eventually went with a Cobb accessport and was able to resolve most of the sputtering and all that to go away. So I basically had to overwrite it to a simulated stock and then go from there.

 

[EricEst1978]

Thanks to everyone for the additional replies and the information… again, I’m learning a ton and I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me.

The shop was super busy yesterday so they didn’t have a chance to complete the inspection until today. Just got a call that there were two cracked spark plugs. No idea how that happens in 4k miles (previous owner said they were replaced at 35k) but that’s what they said was causing the issue. Is there any larger problem with the truck that could have caused the plugs to go bad so quickly? Something I should ask them to dig into or check out? Certainly don’t want this to keep happening.

Anyways, dealership is paying for the fix so I’ll be getting 6 new motorcraft plugs and 2 coils, then they’ll test it out and make sure it’s good to go.

When they checked the codes, the only code it had was for misfire, nothing else, so that seems promising as well.

Just want to confirm again, that with the aftermarket parts I have (listed in the OP) I shouldn’t have to have a tune right? Previous owner claims to have uninstalled the tune. Is there anything that could have gotten messed up in that process that would cause issues? If I don’t care to tune it at the moment, should I still invest in the Cobb AP? and why?

Thanks again guys. This community has been awesome thus far and I’m hoping some day I can return the favor and contribute like you’ve all done for me. Cheers!

 

[marine5804]

I also had a problem with gapping on spark plugs as Cobb rep mentioned. I replaced with the ford performance and set them to the proper gap. Not 100% but I think it was like.030 or somewhere around there. You can find it if you look.

 

[Oldfart]

I had similar symptoms on a untuned 2028 and it was the wiring harness to the fuel injection system. Codes will determine what it is

What was the ADM on a 2028?? It had to be massive!

 

[Gen1TillDeath]

Thanks to everyone for the additional replies and the information… again, I’m learning a ton and I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me.

The shop was super busy yesterday so they didn’t have a chance to complete the inspection until today. Just got a call that there were two cracked spark plugs. No idea how that happens in 4k miles (previous owner said they were replaced at 35k) but that’s what they said was causing the issue. Is there any larger problem with the truck that could have caused the plugs to go bad so quickly? Something I should ask them to dig into or check out? Certainly don’t want this to keep happening.

Anyways, dealership is paying for the fix so I’ll be getting 6 new motorcraft plugs and 2 coils, then they’ll test it out and make sure it’s good to go.

When they checked the codes, the only code it had was for misfire, nothing else, so that seems promising as well.

Just want to confirm again, that with the aftermarket parts I have (listed in the OP) I shouldn’t have to have a tune right? Previous owner claims to have uninstalled the tune. Is there anything that could have gotten messed up in that process that would cause issues? If I don’t care to tune it at the moment, should I still invest in the Cobb AP? and why?

Thanks again guys. This community has been awesome thus far and I’m hoping some day I can return the favor and contribute like you’ve all done for me. Cheers!

Well that’s awesome news IMO. I would HIGHLY recommend still investing in a tune and Cobb tuner. You have nice supporting mods to benefit from a good tune, also you can read and scan codes with the Cobb tuner so if you ever get any other CEL in the future you will be able to scan them and find out the codes your self.

 

[smurfslayer]

Well that’s awesome news IMO. I would HIGHLY recommend still investing in a tune and Cobb tuner. You have nice supporting mods to benefit from a good tune, also you can read and scan codes with the Cobb tuner so if you ever get any other CEL in the future you will be able to scan them and find out the codes your self.

Agree, this is a great outcome for sure. Cracked plugs... weird, but let’s take yes for an answer.

I’d not modify the truck or tune it until you’re sure it’s running right, and stable for a bit. Enough to be sure you don’t have any -other- underlying issues. Then, as mentioned above, you’re basically set with mods to support pretty much any vendors level 2 tune.

 

[WireNutz]

At least it was a simple fix! Boosted motors are hard on plugs, but to eat a few in 4k. They must have been made during covid, haha.

 

[EricEst1978]

At least it was a simple fix! Boosted motors are hard on plugs, but to eat a few in 4k. They must have been made during covid, haha.

That was my first thought/concern too... the thing is, I am not sure if the original owner installed them himself or if it was done professionally. So maybe they were over/under torqued? Not properly gapped? Would that cause them to crack? Is is possible the previous tune on the truck could have caused them to fail prematurely and finally give up the ghost on my trip home, under heavy acceleration?

I'm thrilled it seems to be an easy fix but, because I'm not super knowledgeable, I have this underlying fear that this is "too easy" and there's some deeper underlying issue that could have contributed to it? If that fear is unfounded, someone please let me know.

Cheers.

 

[smurfslayer]

So maybe they were over/under torqued? Not properly gapped? Would that cause them to crack? Is is possible the previous tune on the truck could have caused them to fail prematurely and finally give up the ghost on my trip home, under heavy acceleration?

I think this is all possible and the misfire condition itself can make it worse. The tune was almost certainly over boosting the turbos. The stock turbos have little room for spinning faster, without losing a bunch of efficiency and increasing amounts of heat. If the gap wasn’t correct in the first place, that could certainly have led to premature failure.

Spark plugs lead a hard life. There’s a lot of cylinder pressure and they’re passing a super high volt spark that’s required to work 100% of the time under challenging conditions. I don’t think this was simple overtorquing of the plug or ham ****** install, I’d suspect a combination of inarticulate plug gap, higher than stock boost and heat as a side effect, possibly wrong heat range for the application - I’ll defer to the tuners here, all stressing the plugs significantly more than stock.

Give it a good test drive when you pick it up. get the truck up to operating temp first- Engine AND transmission, then give it some WFO throttle. Make sure you’re symptom free before taking it home as “fixed”. once you do, make sure the truck is stable before modding.

 

[FordTechOne]

That was my first thought/concern too... the thing is, I am not sure if the original owner installed them himself or if it was done professionally. So maybe they were over/under torqued? Not properly gapped? Would that cause them to crack? Is is possible the previous tune on the truck could have caused them to fail prematurely and finally give up the ghost on my trip home, under heavy acceleration?

I'm thrilled it seems to be an easy fix but, because I'm not super knowledgeable, I have this underlying fear that this is "too easy" and there's some deeper underlying issue that could have contributed to it? If that fear is unfounded, someone please let me know.

Cheers.

Cracked spark plugs are the typically the result of damage before installation (being dropped, etc) or damage during installation, such as incorrect tools being used.