What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[Rick W]

Never worked the hardware store, but have handled a lot of aircraft grade hardware in my line of work. Seen bunch of this kind of stuff over the years. One of the most annoying things I've encountered was an unthreaded nut. Grabbed the amount I needed off benchstock. The nuts screwed onto fasteners inside a blind hole. A few went on great, then I just couldn't get one started. Tried and tried, but it wouldn't start. I assumed I just wasn't getting it lined up right, not an uncommon problem when working in a spot like that. Turned out there were no threads. I started checking them after that.



Verdict on the gauges... Electric gauge is not inaccurate, it just doesn't register below 10 PSI and for some reason they mark that as 0 on the gauge. Installed the mechanical in parallel with it to day and let the truck idle up from cold to operating temp. From a cold start they matched almost perfectly the same tick for tick. Cold they both read about 44 psi, they dropped the same all the way down to 10 (or zero on electric) as it came up to operating temp. Plan is to put a thicker oil in and start building an engine. It was going to happen eventually anyway.

Yeah on the gages, boo on the engine rebuild…

Question: if you add up all the gas back-and-forth to the parts store, the cost of all the gauges, and ten cents an hour for your time, could you just have bought an engine by now?

I’ve been down that road more times than I can’t remember……

EDIT: I don’t like the idea of any gage that reads “zero“ if it’s not really zero. I’m wondering if the intent of that is that below 10 psi the engine isn’t being lubed properly, so that’s the red flag. Is there some other kind of red light or warning for low pressure?

 

[JoshT]

Rick, I'm not even sure what you are getting at there.

As for the 0 thing. The electric gauge uses a stepper motor. Between the gauge and sender most likely it wouldn't have enough resolution to read below the 10 PSI accurately. Most gauges are installed for show on healthy engines so they aren't going to read that low anyway. Even the mechanical gauge, although it shows 10 and 0 there are no ticks between those numbers. I would guess that they don't figure that range is important on the application, because if it's dropping close to 10 you already know you have problems.

 

[rubydist]

Should I put my aftermarket pressure sender before or after the filter? I have a sandwich plate coming with the gauge, that would allow me to take the pressure reading right off of the pump, before the oil flows through the filter. Of course, filters have some degree of restriction, and thus there is a pressure drop after the filter. Is it enough of a drop to warrant moving the sender after the filter, i.e. where the OEM sensor goes in the main oil galley.

The oil filter has a bypass valve which bypasses nearly all of the oil at flows higher than idle, so it should not matter. A plugged oil filter will only result in no filtering at all, it will not cause a reduction of pressure/flow that the engine experiences.

 

[Rick W]

Rick, I'm not even sure what you are getting at there.

As for the 0 thing. The electric gauge uses a stepper motor. Between the gauge and sender most likely it wouldn't have enough resolution to read below the 10 PSI accurately. Most gauges are installed for show on healthy engines so they aren't going to read that low anyway. Even the mechanical gauge, although it shows 10 and 0 there are no ticks between those numbers. I would guess that they don't figure that range is important on the application, because if it's dropping close to 10 you already know you have problems.

I guess I digressed into academic thought, theory and possibilities, for the sake of theory and possibilities….

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

A picture is worth a 1000 words. I got this out of a box of 1/2x10 zinc coated steel bolts at Home Depot.

View attachment 110170

It’s perfect, except for, oh, wait, look at this, they never threaded the bolt. I actually have a collection of this kind of stuff back from when I worked at the hardware store as a kid. Sockets, round inside, that never had the hex put in, an SK wrench that is round on the box end, a couple nuts with no holes in them, and all kinds of smooth bolts like this.

And all of that is on a product that you can see. When they’re making something like oil filters, they can’t check every one. In the old days, the technicians would pull them off at random and check them. Today, they actually have computerized random number generators that take into mind when there have been failures before, and they select the specific filters in the run to be tested by the lab guys.

The assumption the oil filter, or really anything, isn’t a problem because it’s not usually a problem may not be a good assumption when you’re banging your head against the wall.

Hope it helps

As an auto tech, this happens more often than you'd think. The most common I see, and by far the most annoying, is lugnuts.

Yup. Brand new lugs, sometimes aftermarket and sometimes OEM, that just straight up had no threads. Just like @JoshT , I was very confused the first time it happened to me a while back. Now I check all of them.

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

The oil filter has a bypass valve which bypasses nearly all of the oil at flows higher than idle, so it should not matter. A plugged oil filter will only result in no filtering at all, it will not cause a reduction of pressure/flow that the engine experiences.

Good to know. I knew filters had the bypass, obviously, but I never knew they were open so often. I was under the impression the valve only opened if the filter was clogged, or at really cold starts when the oil is really thick.

 

[snoranger]

For the first time in her life, she gets to sleep inside:

I’m staying at the new house tonight and I haven’t brought all my crap here yet. I figured that there’s room in the garage, I might as well park in it.

 

[Rick W]

The oil filter has a bypass valve which bypasses nearly all of the oil at flows higher than idle, so it should not matter. A plugged oil filter will only result in no filtering at all, it will not cause a reduction of pressure/flow that the engine experiences.

I actually never knew that. I assumed all the oil flow through the filter all the time.

 

[JoshT]

Drove it home this evening and somewhat compared the gauge and engine RPM. That is actual rpm from ECU not guessing from the gauge needle. It looks like on 10w-30 I'm running about 10# per 1k RPM. Not good, but the engine would survive there for a little while. Thicker oil (or an addative) will be going in this week to see if it makes a difference. Rebuild before the Septenmber G2G is still the plan.

I guess I digressed into academic thought, theory and possibilities, for the sake of theory and possibilities….

Well I was referring directly to the post that I quoted when I said I wasn't sure what you were getting at. Particularly this part:

Question: if you add up all the gas back-and-forth to the parts store, the cost of all the gauges, and ten cents an hour for your time, could you just have bought an engine by now?

I've got maybe $60 in parts between the two gauges and installation material. If I were wanting to permenantly install a gauge I'd probably be in the $100 range on the gauge alone. These are more than adequate to give the information I wanted to know. It would be noce if I could have been more confident and avoided the second mechanical gauge, but I feel like I have a good cheap setup for testing future issues.

If not doing this, my time would likely have been spent sitting in front of a computer watching dumb stuff on youtube. I'd rather have spent it tinkering with the truck over at the parent's house. Seems to help encourage dad to get up moving around some too and not just sit in his recliner all day.

The back and forth was a good excuse to take the F-100 out for a spin. Finally got the brakes working well enough to drive and they seem to be staying that way for now. I drove it more in the last two days than I did all of last year. Hopefully I can get this engine bandaided long enough that I can wrench on the old truck some as I build my replacement engine. Got a few sheetmetal parts to replace among other things.

A replacement engine, you're looking at 2500-3500 for a reman short block. Closer to 6k for what I'd be looking for in a long block. I don't plan to buy a replacement, I plan to build one. For my goals I can probably do a stock rebuild on the bottom end, cam upgrade, and either aftermarket or porting work on the stock heads. Going to start looking for a head porter in the next weekto speak with. Probably get the spare engine on the stand and start disassembling in that time frame too. I have no idea how long I'm going to be waiting for the machine work portion though.

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

If not doing this, my time would likely have been spent sitting in front of a computer watching dumb stuff on YouTube.

Hey..... How'd you know??

 

[Rick W]

Drove it home this evening and somewhat compared the gauge and engine RPM. That is actual rpm from ECU not guessing from the gauge needle. It looks like on 10w-30 I'm running about 10# per 1k RPM. Not good, but the engine would survive there for a little while. Thicker oil (or an addative) will be going in this week to see if it makes a difference. Rebuild before the Septenmber G2G is still the plan.



Well I was referring directly to the post that I quoted when I said I wasn't sure what you were getting at. Particularly this part:



I've got maybe $60 in parts between the two gauges and installation material. If I were wanting to permenantly install a gauge I'd probably be in the $100 range on the gauge alone. These are more than adequate to give the information I wanted to know. It would be noce if I could have been more confident and avoided the second mechanical gauge, but I feel like I have a good cheap setup for testing future issues.

If not doing this, my time would likely have been spent sitting in front of a computer watching dumb stuff on youtube. I'd rather have spent it tinkering with the truck over at the parent's house. Seems to help encourage dad to get up moving around some too and not just sit in his recliner all day.

The back and forth was a good excuse to take the F-100 out for a spin. Finally got the brakes working well enough to drive and they seem to be staying that way for now. I drove it more in the last two days than I did all of last year. Hopefully I can get this engine bandaided long enough that I can wrench on the old truck some as I build my replacement engine. Got a few sheetmetal parts to replace among other things.

A replacement engine, you're looking at 2500-3500 for a reman short block. Closer to 6k for what I'd be looking for in a long block. I don't plan to buy a replacement, I plan to build one. For my goals I can probably do a stock rebuild on the bottom end, cam upgrade, and either aftermarket or porting work on the stock heads. Going to start looking for a head porter in the next weekto speak with. Probably get the spare engine on the stand and start disassembling in that time frame too. I have no idea how long I'm going to be waiting for the machine work portion though.

My feeble attempt to lighten your spirits. Sounds like you’re diagnosing it well, working with the team for feedback, going systematically and making progress, etc. but wouldn’t it be nice if it was just done and you could be having fun it it in stead of getting ready to have fun with it.

No criticism (ever), just food for thought and poking fun. Mirrors a lot of my endeavors over the years. I think it’s called life.

On a personal note, I truly admire you for the way you work with your dad. I’ve prayed and will pray again for you folks. I’m jealous too. Good man.

 

[Rick W]

Hey..... How'd you know??

You don’t have to watch dumb stuff. I watched Godzilla. Landmark entertainment! At least until
I dozed off….

 

[97RangerXLT]

Used it to haul all of the exes crap out of her storage shed so I can put all of my crap in the storage shed in preparation for selling the house

Also rolled 200k today

AJ

 

[scotts90ranger]

Since the '90 Ranger is in the shop and I went to an auction and found something I actually needed today it helped...

So far I set the new jack stands to the front frame height at ride height, removed the tires, removed the coils, removed the radius arm bolts and set some short jack stands under the lower balljoints at close to the right height and taken several measurements for reference for the new radius arms...

I've also found the following during the measurements:
-passenger side rear axle to front axle is 1" shorter than drivers side
-passenger side beam angle is around 8 degrees while drivers side is like 2 degrees...

that explains A LOT of the characteristics of the suspension on that thing... it likely all stems from hitting a tree that was in the ditch in the snow with the passenger side tire at like 10mph like 8 years ago... I thought I got things straightened out but I guess not...

 

[scotts90ranger]

I didn't take a pic of where I ended up for the night but here's the current shenanigan's... First pic is the makings of extended radius arms, next is my new jack stands set to the height of the framerails and last is the Ranger sitting on said jack stands ready for the radius arms to be removed... I ended the night with the radius arm crossmember with radius arms attached along with the drop brackets and everything removed from the Ranger... next step is to jack up the transmission/transfer case and do some measurements side to side and vertical to make sure I don't screw that up for making a new transmission crossmember with radius arm pivots included...

Oh and along with the drivers side outer U joint being rusted and sticky the wheel bearings are loose, have to deal with one to get to the other so not a big deal...