Metal prices are down here as well. P&P offered free pick up and nothing more...

It does run, in fact, i was using it to and from work till the tags expired.. As long as you avoid "Overdrive"... :D

SR

So after sitting for about a month, I started it up again and it ran fine. I did check each of the coils by seeing if they produced an arc holding them up to the block and they all did, but it was running well then.

But after driving it back and forth to Milwaukee two days in a row, it started acting up on the way home today. Once the check engine light came on, I pulled into an Autozone, and had then put the code checker on it. It said misfire at cyl #2, which was (at first) surprising to me as it wasn't one of the ones that had one of the dirtier plugs when I pulled them. But I thought to look up how they number the cylinders to be sure, and they do it differently than how I learned it and #2 (which I would have called #4) is the one that had the dirtiest spark plug.

Now I looked and I can buy all 8 of the coils on ebay for less than I could get 1 for the price they were selling them at at the Autozone. Is this one of those things where the cheapies work just as good, or is there a real difference in quality? Also is there any benefit to changing all 8, or am I unlikely to see any others go bad in the future anyway?

If they were all making good spark then you may have a bad boot rather than a coil, however, a whole set with the boots is so cheap from Amazon it might make more sense to just replace them all, then you have seven spares (throw away the #2 coil)

Someone over on the A.R.F. Site used those cheap coils and said they worked fine.

It's incredible that a whole set is almost the same price that we pay for an OEM coil at work!

Be sure to put a little Silicone grease in the end of the boot, it'll slip onto the plug much easier and also come off easier later.

Given that the oem ford ones are prone to failing (granted, after ~15 years of use), I really don't think you need to worry about buying cheapie coils. They will either work or not work, there's no measurable difference in performance, only in that they may fail sooner than a higher quality coil (like a BWD coil). But again, since the oem ones are so failure prone, you'll be in the same boat with the cheapies as with the oem. Also, the autozone ones aren't bad, but aren't exactly made of gold, either. Definitely buy a set of 8, since you probably have the original oem coils in there, they're all just as old as the bad one. These particular coils are known far and wide for being failure prone.

In short, the cheapies from ebay will be just fine. If it was my car, I'd buy a set of cheapies, and I'm an actual mechanic.

Also... I bloody warned you about the cylinder numbering on fords.

It was great talking to you at the WARCI meet. I brought bad luck to your car by asking you about it. :D

$200 later and the Lincoln is gone... :D

SR

So like, you got $200 for it? Or you paid $200 to have it removed?

Was paid $200 and they drove it off.. :)

SR

I think it was a good thing because I finally figured out what was wrong with it :yes:

I replaced that cylinder #2 coil and now it runs great (better than it has in years). After I knew what to look for, I could see where it was arcing through the boot in that coil. I have the other 7 new coils and I'll swap them in too once the weather warms up more.

After I drove it for a bit, the engine wasn't warming up and I got another check engine code, but that just turned out to be a stuck thermostat. I put in a new one and that problem went away too.

Noice.