Hey guys, i just bought my daughter a 97 ford thunderbird, to drive to school. The car has 71,000 original miles. the car appears to be in great shape, however it does have a miss, and runs rough a low speed. the service engine light come, as soon as the car starts... then about 20seconds later it will flash a bit, then come back on solid, then repeat the cycle. I took the car to autozone to have the "code read." According to the autozone guy, cylinder #2 has a mis-fire. That was the only code he could find. This car has the 4.6 V8. I am surprised that one mis-fired cylinder would make the car run so rough, of course I'm used to the old V8 motors. Anyway, where should i look first. The car appears to be in great condition with only 71,000 miles, so the car has been sitting in a garage most of its life. Your best guess on what could be causing this problem? bad fuel injector ? bad plug / wire? Does this car have coil packs? The car idles rough, maybe 500 - 600 rpms, so i think the cylinder is pretty much not firing at all. I know very little about these cars, or what potential problems to look for. At highway speed, the car feels better, but at idle... its rough.
Thanks guys for any / all sugestions...
mach

Update.. Today i installed 8 new autolite irridum plugs, and a set of Borg warner plug wires.(approx. 120.00 worth of parts.) This fixed about 90% of my rough engine problems. The engine now idles at 800 rpm instead of 600. However, the car still has a stumble to it. I cleared the service engine light, and drove it pretty hard for about an hour. Eventually the service engine light cam back on. This time the code says, mis-fire in cylinder #5. So, after installing new plugs and wires, i feel like its got to be either an injector, a power pack, or computer issue. Any idea's on how i should precede from here? Should I look at an injector, or do i look at power packs or computer, or am i missing something obvious? I've never changed an injector, whats involed in removing and installing a new one ? Thanks guys for your help... we are getting much closer
Mach

I had the same problem with #3 and it was the injector plug. it now idles smoothly at 850

Check to see if it has the Stock, Composite / Plastic, Manifold, if it does replace it they're junk. Go on eBay and buy a replacement manifold for a 97 thunderbird 4.6, they're made by Dorman, $205 shipped. Ford lost a class action law suit because of these manifolds, they crack and could cause serious engine damage. The ports on this modular motor are flat or horizontal and if there is any leakage it will leak into the spark plug well, and the slightest moisture will cause an engine misfire. Install the manifold yourself, go online and look for installation instructions. It's something you'll have to do sooner or later, so you might as well do it now.

My car does have the plastic manifold, but i was told somebody had fixed the issue with my car. I was told there was a bypass tube that usually broke, on the manifold. Mine has already had the bypass tube changed. We tried listening for exhaust burble in the intake, but found none. Also injected smoke into the intake, but no smoke leaked out?