[eabrust]

Hey classic_trucks, besides a FICM issue, the constant hesitation and bucking all the time could be a bad injector or two. My truck had similar issues a few months back (prior to trying the upgraded FICM at all), and it turned out to be a single bad injector. It happened very suddenly, as the truck ran great and then suddenly on one startup, it was running bad, bucking, and getting poor mileage. I was still under warranty and had it replaced, fixing all hesitation issues. At the same time, Ford dealer also reflashed the PCM and FICM to what ever is current. I don't notice any change due to the new flashes, to me the truck runs the same and gets the same mileage.

Bill,
As far as the injector stiction and need for extreme inductive heat strategy, I can't say I know what my truck had in it for programming prior to my last shop visit, as I'm a recent second owner, and I saw no difference in before and after repprogramming to the latest ford strategies.

When I've started the truck on 80+ degF days and had issues with the tuned FICM, would the heating strategy (aggressive or not) matter that much? I have issues with startup with the PHP tuned FICM on fairly hot ambient temp days (starting in the afternoon), but I can startup in the morning on a 40 degF day with the stock programming and it runs fine from the second it fires. Can the heat strategy make that much difference that fast? I would think on cool mornings, if the injector stiction was an issue due to oil viscosity, even the fairly agressive inductive heat strategy would take some amount of time to heatup the oil in the injectors and the thermal-mass of the injectors themselves?