General Information
Name
Luis
Year
2016
Make
Ford
Model
F-150 Platinum
Color
Black
Hello everyone, this is my first post, first of all I want to tell you everything from the beginning. I live in Sonora, Mexico. And I have a 2016 F-150 Platinum (It's called “Lobo” here in Mexico) with the 3.5 Ecoboost. And I've had it tuned almost since leaving the dealership, for a long time with the Diablosport Trinity T1000 and last with diablosport for about 30K miles. As here in Mexico the only “premium” gasoline we have is 91 octane ethanol free, I frequently used the octane boosters sold in autozone just to be able to use the 93 canned tune on my diablosport, This was because I didn’t know that the MMT containing in the octane boosters can damage these engines especially if I used it for so long, obviously I stopped using the MMT as soon as I knew this and I started using only 91 octane gasoline with 91 canned tune.
After a while, watching videos on youtube of trucks with the same engine as mine, but with custom tunes, I was surprised at the power that could be obtained with a custom tune, so I decided to sell my diablosport and buy a SCT X4 to have a custom tune too, I bought some custom tunes from MPT and BCB and also some other mods(CAI,axle from 3.31 to 3.55, meth kit, all the exhaust system and a catch can). I noticed a huge gain in power with custom tune’s and mods compared to Diablosport, but I still couldn't get the times that I've seen on YouTube that these trucks can do at the track in 1/4 of mile. I've seen trucks that runs 12’s only with E30 tune, and I’m currently running an E30 Meth tune and I’m in the low 13’s even with all these mods... obviously I asked the same question to MPT and BCB, but the only thing they could notice in the log’s that I sent to them is that at WOT there was a big difference in the Fuel Trim’s between Bank 1 and Bank 2, in some points up to 8% and they said that they should be very close to each other, I tried everything to correct this issue, replaced the O2 sensors, looked for vacuum leaks, looked for leaks through the exhaust system, replaced fuel injectors with new OEM ones, replaced MAP and MAF sensors. I wonder if having had my truck tuned with diablosport and using MMT for so long has something to do with this. But besides that everything was going very well (except for the time at the track of course) until last week..
I was going on the boulevard at about 30 MPH and I hit the gas to the floor for about 3 seconds when I heard a weird “bang” noise coming from the engine bay and there it all started. Now every time I accelerate my truck makes a lot of little explosions into the intake manifold (backfires), they started very small and got worse by the time I got home. Again looked for any leaks in the exhaust system but nothing, no vacuum leaks either. If I look the Data logs in the X4, my fuel pressures are normal but the Fuel Trims at the Bank 1 (passenger side) its excessively high since this happened, and FT at Bank 2 is a little high too but just 5% or so. I disconnected the O2 sensor from bank 1 so the PCM uses the O2 sensor reading from bank 2 to the entire engine and the backfires were reduced. I checked my camshafts and they look good, the only thing that occurs to me is that a valve may have been damaged, but in that case, the engine should make a lot of knocking noise as I understand, and when idle everything sounds normal. Currently my truck has 42K miles and it’s out of warranty.
I want to take a look at the valves and I'm thinking about doing it by myself, I found a very detailed tutorial on YouTube on how to replace the timing chain, in my case I have to remove the cylinder heads to check the valves but this tutorial gave me a good idea of how to disassemble and reassemble the engine correctly and set the time correctly and I also downloaded the repair manual for this engine.
I have moderate mechanical knowledge, but I have never disassembled an engine to the point of having to remove the cylinder heads.
I’ve seen performance valves for these engines but I have seen engines like mine with many more modifications without using performance valves.
What do you recommend me to do?
Has something similar happened to someone?
After a while, watching videos on youtube of trucks with the same engine as mine, but with custom tunes, I was surprised at the power that could be obtained with a custom tune, so I decided to sell my diablosport and buy a SCT X4 to have a custom tune too, I bought some custom tunes from MPT and BCB and also some other mods(CAI,axle from 3.31 to 3.55, meth kit, all the exhaust system and a catch can). I noticed a huge gain in power with custom tune’s and mods compared to Diablosport, but I still couldn't get the times that I've seen on YouTube that these trucks can do at the track in 1/4 of mile. I've seen trucks that runs 12’s only with E30 tune, and I’m currently running an E30 Meth tune and I’m in the low 13’s even with all these mods... obviously I asked the same question to MPT and BCB, but the only thing they could notice in the log’s that I sent to them is that at WOT there was a big difference in the Fuel Trim’s between Bank 1 and Bank 2, in some points up to 8% and they said that they should be very close to each other, I tried everything to correct this issue, replaced the O2 sensors, looked for vacuum leaks, looked for leaks through the exhaust system, replaced fuel injectors with new OEM ones, replaced MAP and MAF sensors. I wonder if having had my truck tuned with diablosport and using MMT for so long has something to do with this. But besides that everything was going very well (except for the time at the track of course) until last week..
I was going on the boulevard at about 30 MPH and I hit the gas to the floor for about 3 seconds when I heard a weird “bang” noise coming from the engine bay and there it all started. Now every time I accelerate my truck makes a lot of little explosions into the intake manifold (backfires), they started very small and got worse by the time I got home. Again looked for any leaks in the exhaust system but nothing, no vacuum leaks either. If I look the Data logs in the X4, my fuel pressures are normal but the Fuel Trims at the Bank 1 (passenger side) its excessively high since this happened, and FT at Bank 2 is a little high too but just 5% or so. I disconnected the O2 sensor from bank 1 so the PCM uses the O2 sensor reading from bank 2 to the entire engine and the backfires were reduced. I checked my camshafts and they look good, the only thing that occurs to me is that a valve may have been damaged, but in that case, the engine should make a lot of knocking noise as I understand, and when idle everything sounds normal. Currently my truck has 42K miles and it’s out of warranty.
I want to take a look at the valves and I'm thinking about doing it by myself, I found a very detailed tutorial on YouTube on how to replace the timing chain, in my case I have to remove the cylinder heads to check the valves but this tutorial gave me a good idea of how to disassemble and reassemble the engine correctly and set the time correctly and I also downloaded the repair manual for this engine.
I have moderate mechanical knowledge, but I have never disassembled an engine to the point of having to remove the cylinder heads.
I’ve seen performance valves for these engines but I have seen engines like mine with many more modifications without using performance valves.
What do you recommend me to do?
Has something similar happened to someone?
Modifications
Exhaust
2 1/2” Cattless downpipes, 3” catback
Wheel and Tire
Stock
