Blinking Check Engine Light
 

Today I had a new anomaly with my car. Was at a local raceway, then lost a huge amount of power and 10mph off my trap speed. Immediately greeted by a flashing check engine light that would flash for no more than 15 seconds than disappear. Obviously I was losing power so I decided to limp the car home. I figured that it may be tune related since I got new ones or possibly bad gas causing a misfire. My SCT tuner wasn't able to pick up and DTC Codes either. Eventually I was able to plug in a 91 octane tune instead of a 93 tune which is what I suspected as a problem.

On the drive back I was being cautious, monitoring my A/F ratio and other aspects. Check engine never came back on until I decided to give it a little gas on a freeway on ramp. Instantly got a blinking CEL again. Rest of the drive home, no issues. Figure I will try to run some newer 93 with a fuel system cleaner/octane booster to see if it was gas related. Then if this doesn't work my only thoughts would be a bad coil or spark plug.

I am just hoping I don't have a cylinder 8 issue looming or something bigger as I am sure the dealership won't warranty anything with my car. Anyone else experience something like this before. :Frustrated:

Sounds like an air leak in the intake or charge piping letting unmetered air in

Hoping for the best for you. But yeah, you are right I think. A dealership will not touch your motor.

Sounds like spark plug to me.

Fu$k me. The light finally stayed on so I was able to read a DTC. I'm going to try a new spark plug tomorrow, but I'm thinking I am screwed on this one.

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Damn that sucks. Hopefully it just needs a new spark plug and that's it.

How many miles you have on your 5.0? Total and since you went boost.

Yeah, not what I was hoping to find out with the tuner.

13,5xx miles right now. Went boosted at the 12k mile point, been running the ProCharger canned tune up until last week which I had a dyno tune done. A/F ratios were not dangerous on either tune...May have to start reading into some warranties here soon.

Tomorrow I will get it looked at if possible, don't want to go to a dealer right away since I know where that conversation will go.

Damn that sucks. Hopefully it's just a plug.

Any smoke? Any water in the oil?

That's what I am hoping.

Didn't appear to be any smoke. Only thing I have is a real hard start, engine cranking but engine not turning over until after a couple seconds. Didn't have anyone following though to really see it. By the time I got back, it was too dark for me to see. Right now I am just hoping and will try to tackle some of the diagnosing tomorrow.

Boss 302 Crankshaft M-6303-M50B – $242.00
Boss 302R Piston/Rod/Ring Combo M-6100-M50BR – $759.00

:facepalm: I hope it's a plug.

Ugh...$1k in parts plus labor...there goes my chances of affording a trailer. I just hope I can get this thing up before the Texas Mile.

I think those would be the cheapest upgrade route and should handle 700 easily its what I was thinking of doing. I guess your the guinea pig. there's actually a thread going on about these internals you could keep the stock crank and get billet oil pump gears

Haha, glad I can help you out here.

I would have to get the stock crank rebalanced though and the boss crank is designed to work with those rods/pistons. I would love to have a forged bottom end...but this situation this sucks.

Just my personal opinion but if the motor is apart I would go ahead and put forged internals. There is no point in doing it twice.

Have you done a compression check? If the plug and then coil don't fix it, that is what I would try next.

If cylinder 8 is bad and I really have to do a rebuild, I will definately be doing forged internals. No sense paying to take the engine out and apart then put the timebomb back in. I am just hoping this isn't the issue.

Haven't done a compression check, hoping I don't get to that point but it probably needs to be done anyways even if the other solutions correct the issue. I am pretty sure if it isn't fuel (bad gas or injector) or spark related (Coil or Plug), then the only thing left is to join the failed cylinder 8 club.

Right now there is a possibility that the PCV is blowing back into the engine though since the ProCharger kit simply caps off the ports. I have been looking at getting a newer catch can (don't like breathers) to work, but haven't jumped on aything yet. If is just a gummed up spark plug then the next thing that is getting ordered is a new catch can system though. These problems just suck, especially for a car that isn't a year old. I understand modifications put different stresses on engines, but this is an engineering issue with these 5.0 Coyote engines.

Maybe call CTP and get them to check out the car again? Obviously you haven't had the car back that long, and they would be the guys to figure it out.

This.

Hate to tell you, but that's the same symptoms my car had... that resulted in Ford replacing the engine under warranty.

Mine was a completely stock 2012 GT (no tune or any other mods) at 23700 miles. The service replacement engine for my car was what they put in the 2013-14 GTs, with the coated pistons, additional ring gas ports, and different head bolts.

I haven't heard of many blown-up 2013-14 engines, but with boost and some road course time, I could see it. I certainly hope that's not the case for you. Good luck.

Who tuned it?

That's the plan right now.

I haven't heard of '13+'s having this problem either. That's why I think I may just have a simple fuel or spark problem. Hoping this isn't a huge problem.

I just had it tuned by CTP that same week so I am sure it wasn't them. I had been running the canned ProCharger tune for almost four months. So if there is a culprit, I am pointing at ProChargers tune as I only put maybe 20 miles on the car since CTP touched it. I had driveability issue with ProChargers tune anyways which is why I sought after an aftermarket tuner.

If you pushed the car hard on the canned Procharger tune, that very well may be the issue, and when CTP was done with it, the damage was already done, making that cylinder weaker.

Didn't have a chance last night to pull the plug, but this morning I was able to talk with CTP. Jeff down there is rather optomistic about the plug or coil being bad based on some attributes of my car. Whenever it is cold, it has always had a weak idle almost sounding like I had a real aggressive cam or lope idle tune. So this check maybe the root cause of the cylinder 8 misfire for me. The plugs were replaced to NGK plugs that were a step colder when I put the ProCharger on so there is a chance that something isn't right. This afternoon I will clear the code, run it for a while and see if it comes up again. Based on that, we will check out the plugs, then if looking good we will swap out the coil pack and plug in a different cylinder to see if it throws a code again.

I am staying optomistic right now based on our conversation though. I just wished it would have been a different cylinder that misfired, then I would have alot more peace of mind lol.

In my opinion, looking strictly from a causation standpoint, there are three available culprits if something truely is wrong with your motor. 1) bad luck+pushing a stock coyote motor on boost at the track over time, 2) the CTP tune, or 3) the Procharger Canned Tune. Or, it could be combination of all three.

I understand you took a risk when you went boost. However, if it were me and I had to point a finger at someone or something and bad luck (#1 above) was not an option, I would look at CTP.

To me, it is only logical. Your car did not have any check engine lights and your car didn't randomly lose power before they tuned it. They tuned it and 20 miles later, you are losing power and popping a check engine light. But, that's just a simple causation conclusion. In the legal world, the length of time between two events, with one event potentially being a producing cause of the later event, can be evidence of causation. The closer in time, more likely the earlier event was a producing cause of the later event.

But, hopefully it's only a plug and no fingers have to be pointed.

For me it would actually be the opposite. If it turns out to be a blown piston rings on #8 (which we all know is a flaw on stock coyote engines once you start asking for more power), I would be pointing the fingers at ProCharger. Catestrophic failures like this seem like it would take time to weaken the part to the point in which it would fail. CTP has done some great work and I have full faith in there shop. So I am not into the pointing fingers game.

Either way, I cleared the DTC during lunch and let the car run for about 30 minutes on its own. It was smoking a little from the passenger tailpipe only so I believe there is still a misfire. After the engine warmed up, no code was thrown, and the smoke was non-existent. This one has me puzzled, but I am leaning more towards a spark issue.

That makes sense as well. Keep us updated buddy.

Best wishes either way.

-Alex

I dont think its the power level...575whp.

I would think it would be a blow by issue. Same thing led to the destruction (somewhat) in my old 12. Capped off pcv system, a ton of oil in the procharger piping and on the plugs. New owner put stock plugs in and thats what did it. The plugs where so gunked up I would think that would lead to some sort of spark issues.

agreed. Everything was fine and as soon as it was touched someting happens.

You seem to forget he ran the conservative Procharger tune on the car for 4 months, that included a couple of roadrace events. All CTP did was retune the car. The damage was likely done from the procharger tune, and when CTP dialed it up, it just put more stress on it. How were they to know anything was wrong if there were no symptoms?

How can you know that there was something wrong with the procharger tune. It can go both ways. The Canned tune was most likely extremely conservative.

Most of those tunes are intended to get you from your shop/garage to a tuner, and not really best on them for 4 months...

They are made to run on, only put on about 700 miles on that tune actually. Both tunes are real safe, with spot on A/F ratios. I am about as safe as you can run as far as timing with the CTP tune and have full confidence. He has never had a car blow in him as his philosophy is tune at idle speeds to focus on driveability.

I had a rough start once I put the ProCharger on in the first place, at that point the plugs and injectors were changed. No issues with driveability before the supercharger. So, the chances of that being the problem could very well be it. I won't point fingers, I have full confidence in the shop. Until I know more, no one is to blame.

ProCharger still puts out there basic HO kit fits 2013+ Mustangs without trimming. It wasn't until this year where they finally realized that it won't due to the HID ballasts. Companies make mistakes all the time and I don't believe ProCharger has an in house tuner.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to blame you by any means. My apologies if it seemed that way.

I hope it comes down to a plug or COP issue.

I got ya brother, no offense taken. I would blame myself as I make this car earn its name as a sports car. Tomorrow is D-Day for diagnosis.

Sorry, but we can't have any of that rational thought, good judgement, and patience. Here on the interwebs, we expect instantaneous judgement on an incomplete set of facts with extreme overreactions. Throw in a little righteous indignation should anyone dare question or disagree and show is complete. ;)

How's the patient?

Haha, truth. I should become more erratic in my posts. That and make sure everyone knows I have the fastest car in the world lol.

Honestly, I haven't heard anything yet and I am too afraid to call and see what's up. I am trying to be patient and give the shop time to do things right and diagnose the issue. I will probably be giving them a call tomorrow that way I can have some peace of mind over the weekend or cry myself to sleep each night.

Finally got the balls to call the shop today. Well, it wasn't a spark plug, coil, injector, or something easy. Failed a compression check, but the rings were still good. Turns out I had a chunk of the #8 piston head broke off. Just gone, bare metal showing. So, it was the typical #8 failure, but the endstate is the same...catastrophic failure.

Right now they are tearing the engine apart to see if there is any other damage. If everything is good, I can simply replace the piston head in that cylinder and probably call it a day. Or I can go ahead, bite the extra bullet/$$$, and throw a forged rotating assembly (rods and pistons) and call it an engine. Right now I am just going to research the internet for forged internals and drink. Once I run out of booze in the house, looks like I am going to be sober for a while until I can afford it again.