So Ive been thinking about swapping the coils out on my engine for some new ones. Eimer has rode in my truck before, and he noted the idle is significantly rougher than his. Im running NGK 4644s, all sensors (except for the O2 sensors) are fairly new, running quality gas, changing the oil, and so on. I still get what feels like a miss or two or three at idle. Im getting no pinging or missing while driving, just at idle.

I have read that coils can go bad with age without throwing a misfire code. I have 121000 on my current coils. Would it be a good idea to swap them out for 8 brand new ones, in hopes to solve my rough idle?

I can get Mopar brand new for $20 each shipped, or an aftermarket set of 8 for $130 shipped off of ebay. Any opinions?

 

ive got 8 from my HO motor. you can have them for free if you want to test them. let me know

 

I hope they solve my idle! Im hoping a few of my coils are just well "aged" and its time for a replacement.

 

C.O.P designs from my experiance either work or not work. Have you pulled the plugs on the affected cylinders? You might want to swap coils to see if the roughness changes. Have you considered a seafoam treatment?

 

I just swapped the plugs and there were a few that had a little more black on them than normal, but other than that all the plugs looked fine. I wasnt sure about swapping the coils around because all that will do is move the misfire, but I cant tell whats misfiring because I dont have any codes.

Winston is sending me 8 coil packs with 65k on them so Im going to swap them out and see what happens.

The only other things that would cause a rough idle that I havent replaced are the O2s or the EGR. I would figure I would have stalling issues if it was the EGR not closing, as it would be creating a huge vacuum leak. Everything I can tell from the OBDII port signals that the EGR is functioning fine. And O2s should be throwing a code if they are gunked up and causing the engine to run rich.

I did seafoam but I wont do it again. I did it through the brake booster, let the engine sit for 5 minutes, and on restart all I got was blue smoke. I think I may have loosened some of the carbon/oil build up sealing the rings so I dont want to risk doing it again and removing more of the sealing capabilities.

 

The seafoam treatment is suposed to loosen the oil residue and crap inside the manifold, tge intake side of the head and intake valves. It will cause blue smoke. I find it best to do yhe treatment and let it sit for 10 minutes then make a bunch of W.O.T runs to burn out all the loosened crap.

 

Ok, so maybe it wasn't bad that I saw all the blue smoke. I was reading some horror stories online with guys doing seafoam on higher mileage engines and the engines ended up burning a ton of oil. What worried me most was all the youtube videos show the seafoaming process producing white from the tailpipe, not blue. Maybe Ill have to do it a few more times as Im sure its not clean yet.

 

Its awsome. Had an 86 ranger 2.3l I seafoamed a few years ago. I swear I broke some thing, it smoked all 10 miles home from work. Thee farther I drove the better it ran and by tge time I got home it ran like a dream and made 10 extra horses, and 10 horses is a lot on an engine rated for 88hp.

I would gently pour it into the pcv line than runs from the fill cap to the back side of the manifold, their is bound to be a bunch of crap right there. As well as the booster line an another vacuum line close to the throttle body. That way you get good distribution. I also recommend you do it while the engine is warm so the heat can help soften crap up.

As for the coils, if the plugs weren't fouled I wouldn't think the coil is bad. But for free eh, ehy not.

 

Lol, we will see. Ill keep you guys updated!

 

Here you go Bobby..
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Rock Auto Newsletter..."When COPs Go Bad"....You may be on to something with replacing your coils!