2.7L misfiring after going through water

Long time lurker, first time posting. Albeit an embarrassing first post.

Went out to play around in some puddles and one ended up being a lot deeper than I thought. Truck ran fine for 4 or so hours while trying to pull my buddies Ford out and drove home just fine. Went to start it this morning and I thought my clutch was slipping and had burned it out while trying to pull out my buddy.

Then my idle got super rough and I lost almost all my engine power and the check engine light came on. It's like the truck went into limp mode. Turned around and made it home. Spoke to a few friends and we started with replacing the plugs. Ignition coils 1 and 3 were dirty on the outside when I pulled them and the tops of my plugs had some rust on them.

After replacing the plugs I started it and it ran normal with no check engine light. About a half mile down the road I lost power again and the check engine light came back on. My next thought was replacing the fuel filter because also felt like the engine might be starved for fuel? O'Reillys told me the fuel filters aren't serviceable. Next thought after that was an ignition coil went back but those are $100 a piece so I want to hold off until I know that's the problem.

Aamco up the street said they'd check my codes for me but I'm worried about causing more damage to the engine.

Any ideas? I'll be letting the bigger trucks check the depth of the puddles from now on

 

Maybe this should have gone in the technical section? I can post there if that's where I should be

 

Not yet im waiting for a buddy to pick me up and i was going to go get some MAF sensor cleaner. I think i've got a can of air laying around here but from what i was reading those sensor are pretty sensitive?

 

If the CEL is still on find out what the code is so you it will point you in the general direction to look so you can fix your problem. You can buy your own code reader to have on hand (or even a Scan Gauge or Ultra Gauge).

 

Friend showed up with his scanner and I'm showing a P303 for a code so a misfire in cylinder three. It shows the code twice. Should i just replace the coil?

 

I'm thinking air box has water in it also.

Always check water depth and bottom firmness before running through it.

 

The filter looked clean and dry but I'm going to put my Afe dry filter back in. I'll looked to see if there's water spots underneath though

 

i replaced the coil for cylinder three and cleared the code. Drove it around town for a few minutres then hit the freeway for a mile or s and it seemed to run normally. we will see how it goes tomorrow

 

Good. Sounds like you have it. You can also swap coil packs between cylinders to see if the code moves with the coil pack to troubleshoot if it happens again.

 

The truck was running fine after replacing that coil but its havin an issue starting now. I'm thinking my starter is toast too. Ill turn the key and nothing happens except the lights dim. No sound from the motor trying to turn over at all for a couple seconds then it kicks on. maybe mud in the electrical connection feeding the starter?

 

I think that the starter is binding up. The clue would be the lights dimming when you try and start it. High load is pulling too many amperes causing the lights to dim. I would replace that starter, rebuild it or at least take it apart and clean it up.