bad idle and no power?

Thanks for all the help guys. To mee it seems like its tha cat more than anything. Sometimes you can hear it if you know what i mean. Heard you could drive around and measure the temperature if the cat and the exhaust going in should be less than the temp going out. Also is there a distrubutor on the 2.7,It Only has two coil packs. Also. Does anyone have a good way to remove the cat for inspection. My bolts are rusted on there bad. Ive sprayed them etc and dont want to break them using the impact?

 

Or does it smell like an egg fart ?? Seriously ....

& you gotta get away from using water or starting fluid to check for vaccum leaks (its sucking,not blowing)

 

If the botls are rusted on try blasting thnem with heat.

 

Well i know you should get the sulfur like smell if there is a leak. I really only get that every once and a while and probably due to a small crack in the manifold i saw when running the seafoam through the engine. Nothing major tho. Also everyone including my father said using starter fluid etc is the best way to check for vacuum leaks quickly wue to the fact that it is sucking the vapor in which would cause the engine to increase the rpms if there was a leak in One of the lines. I may have to just take the torch out and heat the bolts i guess, figured i may have to because of the age of them and all the rust. Would straight piping with the autozone etc metal flex tubing be ok for now

 

Ahh i really hate my iphone spelling on here . But the only real smell is after cold starts every once and a while. Besides that its really nothing. Another thought. Non my way home from school i due notice i get dizzy sometimes. Its either im tired i guess or carbon dioxide. But that could be just because of lack of sleep but only seems to happen on my drive home

 

Tried that last test seemed ok my dad said but that was a while back. I tested the maf sensor today ith voltage was .5 volts no air movement and when blowing in hard about 3.5 v max. So i guess its working since the manual says no specific voltages. Did notice 3 of the 4 plug wires were kind of loose on the plug they snap on but can still be pulled up a hair. The plug wires were ohm tested months back and are in spec besides one being @ about 12k ohms still in spec tho

 

sorry i keep going on with this guys but. my dads friend who works at ford as there head mech/ manager said if its the cat to unplug the 02 sensor and if it runs better until its the cat. he said if not it should be worse once it heats up if i remember right? well ended up trying this, (front 02) not only did i get the 02 code pop (p0135) up but i got p0125 code insufficient coolant temp for closed loop fuel control? i dont see how i could get that for just pulling the o2? my problem now seems to be only getting worse

 

plugs were change twice for no reason all should be still good but i could check them again. plug wires still seem to be in spec but checked them months ago when this was happening, tho only thing with them as i said before they seem to pop up a hair even though they click on. and what should be the normal timing for idle etc. i have the elm 327 tool that i use with my iphone which can give me real time timing etc. everything was always + timing i know that no mater what rpm

 

yep mine was at 10-12 deg at idle from looking at the log file

 

ok guys im back again. i just decided to test my coil packs which seems like my last option for testing. the primary resistance should be .67 -1.05 ohm cold . i tested my lower coil pack it has two wires running to each coil pack and got .9 ohms and my resistance of my meter is .5 so that would mean its reading .4 ohms if im correct? then i tested my upper coil pack and got nothing at all. could this finally be my problem? are both coils bad or just that one? i also havent checked to see if im getting spark from all them either thats my next step

 

After reading through this I am more inclined to suggest you find a way to test your fuel pressure. Your description about the power loss, and it getting worse, plus the black tipped plugs which can indicate a lean condition sometimes, all lead towards low fuel pressure. Also, get a spark tester from the parts store. They are inexpensive, and the easiest way to test your coil and plug wires for efficiency. You want a nice, bright orange spark. If the spark is blue, then it is weak, and could indicate a bad coil, wire, or primary.

 

not to be mean but black plugs mean rich not lean. white tipped is lean. but i do agree with the fuel pressure, i would love to test it but there is no way unless you rig a gauge up to the fuel rail which it shows in the manual. there is no testing port on this year which sucks. but i still think it could be that one coil pack unless its reading .5 ohms and my meter is cancelling it out. i did change my air filter last week and it helped a hair but not that much. im gonna have that guy come out this week hopefully today to test everything

 

a nice crappy meter forget the make probably similar to a walmart one but does test down that low. i got it in my IT class in some kit

 

Derp, got my mind backwards again...wait.... sevaw niarb gninethgiartS....OK, Straightening of brain waves is complete... You are correct, black is rich. My bad.

 

thats what i thought. it should be missing if the coil is bad. but there is no specific code for a coil pack. but the meter doesnt lie, its reading nothing should test it again when its dead cold to make sure but it read nothing everytime i touched it. unless its just completely shot and not firing at all but that couldnt explain for the plugs being black but they havent been tested in a while so it could have just gone completely now. i did get some random code a long time ago after unplugged the maf or seafoamed because i got a missfire code maf code and some other codes but reset and never came back.