Ford E150 Van, Multiple Misfires After Changing Radiator

My wife drives a 1997 ford e-150 van and a couple weeks ago the radiator blew out. At this point it was still running good minus the rad blowout. I changed the radiator and refilled everything and when I started it back up it was chugging real bad and acts like it doesn't want to shift gears. I hooked a diagnostic. I hooked a code reader to it and it gave me codes for the original overheat and misfires on cylinders 4, 5, & 7 so I disconnected the battery to clear the overheat code and poof the check engine light is off, but its still running really rough and doesn't want to shift (but no check engine light so no codes) any ideas?


Steve Says,

Thanks for visiting my website. Anytime that someone says that they have misfires after any cooling system problems it makes me think that they might have a blown head gasket. I don't know if your van overheated or not when your radiator blew out, but I'm guessing that it might have. If that is the case then there is a good chance that you have a head gasket that has blown. The only other thing that I can think of that might cause all of these misfires is if you messed up any of the wiring (especially spark plug wires) when you were replacing the radiator.

A good way to test this is to use a block tester to see if there are any exhaust gasses in the coolant. This tool is available at most auto parts stores or you can get them online. Most of the time if you have a head gasket problem you will notice other things too. You will probably see some white smoke out of the exhaust and many times you will have overheating problems, but not always.

Even though the misfire codes are not there right now they will most likely come back. Clearing the codes generally is not a permanent fix as they usually just come back because the problem that has caused them has not been fixed. Since it sounds like it is running the same I'm guessing that the misfires are still there.

I hope this has helped and I hope you don't have a head gasket that has gone bad, but that is the first thing that I would be checking. Feel free to leave me a comment if you have more questions.