97 taurus cyclinder 2 misfire

I scanned this car tonight and it has a misfire for cyclinder 2. Idles good but when loaded under power braking for a short time engine mis appears randomly. Pulled all plugs and no difference from any of them in looks. Nice color to them. Gapped at .055 so a bit worn. Check ohms of the #2 wire and it was 6K wiggled no change. Sprayed wire with mist water and coil pack when engine is running and no change.

3.0 OHV 154,000 miles. Mis is intermittent. I just got the car tonight so I was not able to test drive it with the scan tool to set code and see what else happens at that time.

I am doubtful that plugs or wires are going to change anything. It will mis around 1,500-1,700 on power brake test but I do not feel real comfortable doing that much as this thing is higher mileage and I do not want to push the trans much that way:banghead:

Run a good injector cleaner thu it. Seafoam or Lucas are my choices. With that many miles It could be a sticky injector causing the misfire.

Are you getting other codes?

Do a compression check, a leak down check may show a bad cylinder.

I like the injector for this but I would try swapping the wire/plug from the offending cylinder for a cylinder not missing just to see if the wire only fails at higher speed. Costs nothing and does no harm so my kind of diagnostic :) Also check the fuel pressure and maybe a new fuel filter might be a good idea if not replaced in living memory :) The fuel pumps on the Vulcans are not so strong and a bad fuel filter or a tank full of varnish and gum will do one in pretty fast. The pump is not cheap and the joy of putting it in is also something to be avoided :)

If you have access to a high-end scan tool, and can feel the misfire when it occurs, get into the datastream mode and monitor the "sensor 1" oxygen sensors. Just after a felt misfire, monitor the oxygen sensor readings to see if they go high or low. With a code for a cylinder #2 misfire, you'd expect the B1S1 sensor to report an abnormal amount of oxygen in the exhaust. Depending on if it reads richer or leaner may help you determine if you are looking for a spark issue or fuel issue.

-Rod