the coyote continues to bite... resolved! :)

[Mastertech5]

What 2 things will affect one whole bank of cylinders? A power feed wire for the injectors or the coils as I believe each coil or injector has a separate ground to the ECM for operation. Injectors clogged on one bank is the only other thing I can think of. Sometimes us technical gurus get caught up in more technical aspects of things and forget about some more basic stuff, myself included, too many times! When I would get frustrated trying to diagnose a problem such as this I would start over with the basics first before jumping in too deep. Sometimes you find something and you say on yeah, how did I miss that. Good luck!

[toadster]

What 2 things will affect one whole bank of cylinders? A power feed wire for the injectors or the coils as I believe each coil or injector has a separate ground to the ECM for operation.

yes, we did a pretty in depth test on the engine harness - the last test was to test a break to ground, all 8 cylinders failed - which was even more odd,
here's the test methodology we used from Ford: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

you'd think if all cylinders failed, nothing would fire, but Ford said maybe it wasn't fully broken but just enough to carry electrical load to 1/2 the engine

the driver side is a bit odd, the cylinders #6 and #8 are sometimes warmer than #5 and #7 - but not always... but none of the cylinders get to >= 350F like the passenger side - it's a very odd problem

[Mastertech5]

yes, we did a pretty in depth test on the engine harness - the last test was to test a break to ground, all 8 cylinders failed - which was even more odd,
you'd think if all cylinders failed, nothing would fire, but Ford said maybe it wasn't fully broken but just enough to carry electrical load to 1/2 the engine

the driver side is a bit odd, the cylinders #6 and #8 are sometimes warmer than #5 and #7 - but not always... but none of the cylinders get to >= 350F like the passenger side - it's a very odd problem

There may be more than one problem. Yes a not broken but compromised wire can't carry enough current to operate a component. Check the female connectors on the coils and injectors on those two cylinders. They may be opened up too much to make good contact on the male side. I had added more to my post after you read it.