2019 Classic, no low end torque

[hunterdan]

I'd think you'd have a code if the vvt solenoid wasn't operating properly,but maybe if all it is ,is sludged up,it wouldn't throw a code,but if it's sludged up to the point it's not letting oil through the screens,i'd think the whole engine would be full of sludge,and something would throw a code.

Well, I have a plan of attack. This weekend will be getting the truck up to temp, then running some seafoam through through the intake. Then pull the throttle body off and clean it. I have a bore scope for my phone coming in and I want to try and run it through the manifold and see if there are pools of oil or any other crud in there. I have a set of spark plugs and intake manifold gaskets on order. Plus I have the gearwrench spark plug magnetic socket and short extension on order.

 

[Wild one]

Well, I have a plan of attack. This weekend will be getting the truck up to temp, then running some seafoam through through the intake. Then pull the throttle body off and clean it. I have a bore scope for my phone coming in and I want to try and run it through the manifold and see if there are pools of oil or any other crud in there. I have a set of spark plugs and intake manifold gaskets on order. Plus I have the gearwrench spark plug magnetic socket and short extension on order.

Make sure you look at the inside top of the manifold when you're scoping it,as that's where alot of the crud build-up will usually be

 

[RamDiver]

I think they have more electrical issues after 19,but that's just going by the amount of guys on facebook and here having electrical issues.Mechanically they're not much differant. But electrically i think the quality of wiring etc. went downhill when covid struck,as every manufacture was scrambling to get enough wiring and computor components to build their vehicles

That's just fine, I'm still going with my truck is near perfect, until it proves to be otherwise.
I've had it for almost 4 years and 40K miles, no nasty surprises yet.

I have to wonder if more 5th gen haven't snuck into your special poll and corrupted the results.
No FB for me.

I have heard of many more recent 5th-gen electrical gremlins. Interestingly enough, I was having this specific conversation with one of the senior technicians at my preferred stealership yesterday. I had my truck in for an oil change/warranty check. It has 1 more year until January 6, 2027.

He was describing how his SIL had traded an older 4th gen for a recent 5th gen and was very regretful after being plagued by continuous electrical gremlins. The tech owns a 4th-gen (I don't recall the year) and won't consider owning a 5th-gen because of the gremlins.

.

 

[Wild one]

That's just fine, I'm still going with my truck is near perfect, until it proves to be otherwise.
I've had it for almost 4 years and 40K miles, no nasty surprises yet.

I have to wonder if more 5th gen haven't snuck into your special pole and corrupted the results.
No FB for me.

I have heard of many more recent 5th-gen electrical gremlins. Interestingly enough, I was having this specific conversation with one of the senior technicians at my preferred stealership yesterday. I had my truck in for an oil change/warranty check. It has 1 more year until January 6, 2027.

He was describing how his SIL had traded an older 4th gen for a recent 5th gen and was very regretful after being plagued by continuous electrical gremlins. The tech owns a 4th-gen (I don't recall the year) and won't consider owning a 5th-gen because of the gremlins.

.

I'm not on the 5th gen pages,just 4th gen pages

 

[hunterdan]

Well, the weather has thrown my plans out the window. Snow tonight means, I don't want to let the foaming cleaner sit in the intake overnight. So, I pulled the throttle body. Wasn't near as dirty as I thought it would be for 106k miles. Cleaned it up, cleaned up pretty easy. Stuck my endoscope camera in and the intake is definitely oily inside. Attached is what looks like part of the SRV system. So, I bought a can of seafoam and stuck the straw in the intake tube right at the throttle body and sprayed the can inside. I went that route instead of the brake booster line because I wanted to coat the entire intake front to back. I had a half a can from before, so I used about 1.25 cans total. Then shut it off immediately. It's now sitting and hopefully the seafoam is breaking down any carbon on the valves and inside the intake. So, we'll see what happens in a few hours when I head out and put some miles on it.

 

[hunterdan]

Preliminary results from a few drives after seafoaming are promising. It blew a bunch of smoke out the pipes for several miles. I should have done the treatment at night so it wouldn't look so bad. Had to go pull a deer blind, the 30 minute first drive showed improved off idle throttle response. Required significantly less throttle input to get adequate acceleration. It seemed to hold gear better/longer and even start to accelerate in higher gears instead of downshifting. I could feather the throttle to keep it from downshifting. Previously, no amount of feathering the throttle would prevent it from downshifting since it would just keep slowing down until it did downshift. Later, took the wife to the movies which required a trip on the highway for about 10 miles. Again, similar results. Holds gear, would maintain highway speeds on minor inclines. Feathering the throttle would even allow it to pick up speed. Same trip home, seemed better yet. Perhaps the engine is relearning the improved efficiency. I was able to keep it in 8th gear the entire highway trip without it downshifting. I did the foaming treatment when I got home on the hot engine. I'm going to let it heat soak for about an hour before taking it for a drive and blowing all the junk back out of it. It is also low on fuel, so I'm going to fill up with a higher grade of gas.

 

[hunterdan]

So, have been doing some 0-60 times to try and keep track of any results. Yesterday before any kind of treatment, I was averaging around 7.1-7.2 seconds 0-60. After the first treatment this afternoon it came down to about 7.0 0-60. Nothing crazy, but it's a result. I just ran out to run the truck hard after this second treatment. Included a couple of really hard 0-60+ pulls. First time run clocked in at 5.91 seconds. That was my fastest. This is using amthe obd port with the mx+ and their performance page that tracks 0-60 times. My speedometer is dead nuts accurate. Was on level ground, if anything, slightly up hill. Subsequent runs averaged in the 6.4 second range. Guessing the motor started to get some heat in it. Overall, really noticing some positive results. Throttle input is far improved. It now feels like I have my banks pedal monster plugged in and set about midway on the sport setting before I did any of this cleaning. I'm going to run the bore scope in the intake in a few days to see how things look.

 

[hunterdan]

Had a chance to check the 0-60 again today. Just wanted to see if it was legit or if the numbers last night were fluke readings. Based on the results I got, I'd say they were legit.


Again, before all this, I was averaging 7.1-7.2 seconds.

 

[Wild one]

Had a chance to check the 0-60 again today. Just wanted to see if it was legit or if the numbers last night were fluke readings. Based on the results I got, I'd say they were legit.
View attachment 577116

Again, before all this, I was averaging 7.1-7.2 seconds.

Awright glad things are panning out for you.Did you go over the 10 bolts that hold the manifold on,they have a habit of losing torque.They call for 108 inch -lbs or roughly 9 ft-lbs of torque.
Post #9 has the torque sequence,it's for a 6.4 intake,but it's the same for a 5.7 intake.

Check your intake manifold bolts

This hasn't been talked about for awhile,but check your intake manifold bolts.They call for 108 in-lbs or roughly 9 ft-lbs of torque,and they should be checked at least yearly,as they do loosen up. I've been doing mine at least twice a year on all 3 of of my hemi equipped vehicles.They should be...

www.ramforum.com

 

[hunterdan]

Awright glad things are panning out for you.Did you go over the 10 bolts that hold the manifold on,they have a habit of losing torque.They call for 108 inch -lbs or roughly 9 ft-lbs of torque.
Post #9 has the torque sequence,it's for a 6.4 intake,but it's the same for a 5.7 intake.

Check your intake manifold bolts

This hasn't been talked about for awhile,but check your intake manifold bolts.They call for 108 in-lbs or roughly 9 ft-lbs of torque,and they should be checked at least yearly,as they do loosen up. I've been doing mine at least twice a year on all 3 of of my hemi equipped vehicles.They should be...

www.ramforum.com

Not yet. It'll be something I check while I'm off work. It still feels a bit down on power while cruising, at least tonight while driving in to work. It's definitely better. It doesn't require it to downshift near as much, but it's still dropping down a gear when I feel like it should be able to maintain. I may do another intake cleaning with seafoam and see what the gets me. But I will likely end up pulling the intake off and thoroughly cleaning inside it. I'm thinking the long runners are caked with junk from when the catch can was over filled and are partially limiting air flow. Hence the reason I've been seeing some gains from each cleaning.

 

[hunterdan]

Did a follow up treatment this morning with crc intake valve and turbo cleaner immediately after I got home from work. Let it hot soak for an hour after the treatment and took it for a ride. It didn't smoke near as long or as bad as it did the first 2 times I did this. So it could be that I'm starting to make headway and get things cleaned up. I have 1 more can, but I'm going to do that over the weekend and put some miles on the truck first. Drive into work seemed better, holding gear better, pulling through the higher gears even. It'd probably be a good idea at this point to disconnect the battery for a while and see if that'll help the fuel map reset and relearn.

 

[hunterdan]

Well, finally getting around to changing the plugs. Weather wasn't very cooperative. Starting with the driver side, these are the 2 plugs against the firewall.

 

[hunterdan]

Got the rest done. They all looked about the same nothing looked abnormal or overly different than the others. Overall, took about 2-2.5 hours start to finish. Wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I took the driver's side front wheel off, lowered the spindle onto a couple of 2x4s so that the front end was as low as possible to make reaching those rear plugs as easy as possible. This was the key for me. This made everything so much easier. Passenger was a piece of cake. Pulled the 3 easy coils, swapped all the plugs, pulled the final coil, swapped those plugs, then put all the coils back in and tightened everything up. Put the airbox back in and fired right up after I hooked the battery back up. The gearwrench sparkplug socket definitely is a massive help. It wasn't the hardest set of plugs I've had to do, but wasn't the easiest. #6 cylinder on a sohc Ford 4.0 ranger isn't exactly fun.

 

[Wild one]

Well, finally getting around to changing the plugs. Weather wasn't very cooperative. Starting with the driver side, these are the 2 plugs against the firewall.
View attachment 578169

View attachment 578170

Those plugs were definitely due to be changed,as there isn't a sharp corner left on the ground strap or pintle,lol. The spark jumps from the sharp corners to the sharp corners on the ground strap

 

[hunterdan]

Those plugs were definitely due to be changed,as there isn't a sharp corner left on the ground strap or pintle,lol. The spark jumps from the sharp corners to the sharp corners on the ground strap

I did see mpg numbers creeping up into the mid to upper 20s while cruising at 40 - 50 mph this afternoon. Before I think it was 18-20. I ended up installing the denso iridium power, supposed to maximize power output and efficiency compared to some of the others. I know I pulled out ngks, but I will say the denso did say they were assembled in the USA and I believe the ngk plugs said the same. But, I'll see how it holds up, hopefully mileage numbers continue to maintain or increase. Hopefully the increase isn't just a result of me disconnecting the battery for a few hours while I put the plugs in.

 

[Wild one]

I did see mpg numbers creeping up into the mid to upper 20s while cruising at 40 - 50 mph this afternoon. Before I think it was 18-20. I ended up installing the denso iridium power, supposed to maximize power output and efficiency compared to some of the others. I know I pulled out ngks, but I will say the denso did say they were assembled in the USA and I believe the ngk plugs said the same. But, I'll see how it holds up, hopefully mileage numbers continue to maintain or increase. Hopefully the increase isn't just a result of me disconnecting the battery for a few hours while I put the plugs in.

I have nothing against Denso plugs,they're all i ran in my nitrous fed truck,admittedly i ran the copper 3381's and swapped them every spring,but they never once misfired under the high cylinder pressures created by nitrous. As long as you didn't buy them off Amazon or Ebay,odds are they'll be every bit as good as the original NGK's were.They are famous for being knock-offs if bought off Amazon or Ebay though.

 

[hunterdan]

I have nothing against Denso plugs,they're all i ran in my nitrous fed truck,admittedly i ran the copper 3381's and swapped them every spring,but they never once misfired under the high cylinder pressures created by nitrous. As long as you didn't buy them off Amazon or Ebay,odds are they'll be every bit as good as the original NGK's were.They are famous for being knock-offs if bought off Amazon or Ebay though.

Picked them up off rockauto

 

[hunterdan]

Spent the day today pulling the intake manifold and cleaning it. The intake ports on the head were pretty nasty. I tried soaking the intake manifold with simple green and pressure washing it but it just wasn't cutting through the grime. So, I filled it with gas and sloshed it around and let it sit and soak. Repeated several times until the gas was coming out clean. Or mostly clean. The short runner valve was also noticably stuck when I started, but I wasn't throwing any codes for it. I couldn't budge the valve. After cleaning for a while, I was able to get it to move, but it would only rotate about 1/8 of a turn. With a camera inside, I could see 1/8 of them would move the valves quite a bit.
It took a lot longer trying to clean the manifold than it did to remove and reinstall it. Took it for a ride after I finished and it seemed to run fine, no check engine lights or anything. Real test will be how it runs when cruising on the highway, which will be tomorrow morning.

 

[Wild one]

Spent the day today pulling the intake manifold and cleaning it. The intake ports on the head were pretty nasty. I tried soaking the intake manifold with simple green and pressure washing it but it just wasn't cutting through the grime. So, I filled it with gas and sloshed it around and let it sit and soak. Repeated several times until the gas was coming out clean. Or mostly clean. The short runner valve was also noticably stuck when I started, but I wasn't throwing any codes for it. I couldn't budge the valve. After cleaning for a while, I was able to get it to move, but it would only rotate about 1/8 of a turn. With a camera inside, I could see 1/8 of them would move the valves quite a bit.
It took a lot longer trying to clean the manifold than it did to remove and reinstall it. Took it for a ride after I finished and it seemed to run fine, no check engine lights or anything. Real test will be how it runs when cruising on the highway, which will be tomorrow morning.

I'll use gasket remover to clean up the intake ports on the heads if they have a noticable build up of crud.
Do you have a catch can on the truck,as they do help to keep things a bit cleaner. They won't keep the intake and head ports spotless,but they do help to keep the build up mininiumized ,and usually keep the short runner valve working a bit better.

 

[hunterdan]

I have a catch can, the issue that got me into this mess was that I forgot about it for several months and never emptied it and it was over filled, so it was sucking in way more than it should have.