SheepDog
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- Jun 17, 2018
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2004 Ranger 3.0L Auto 4x2 Edge w/ 94k miles
Hi all, new to the site and Ranger's in general. Sorry in advance for the long post but I need some help rehabbing up a new-to-me Ranger I got. I got this truck for free from my grandma who wanted it gone from her driveway. It was my grandpa's truck before he died. He last drove it in 2014 when it started barely running so he parked it and never drove it again. Obviously he isn't around to ask him what was wrong with it so all I have to go on is what I can see today. All my grandma can say is that it ran really rough and would not move under its own power. I do know my grandpa was pretty lazy about maintenance so there's that. I think my grandma had someone look at it a few years ago and they told her something about burned valves or blown gaskets. They had the truck for a bit, and got it back to the point where it would at least start again. I have no way to verify or follow up with that person. My grandma said she couldn't remember exactly what they said they did to it.
Today I put 5 gal of fresh gas in the tank and put a new battery in it. The truck started right up but ran really rough. I put it in drive and it almost died. I gave it some gas and the motor bogged down and sputtered out. Truck never even budged. Towed to my house.
Started the truck back up, still rough idle. Left it in park, slowly revved it up to about 1500rpm and then it died again. Attempted to restart but cranked for about 10-15 seconds. I had to hold the pedal to the floor and then it eventually fired up. This time it idled rough around 650rpms and any throttle input at all would kill it. My first thought at this point is fuel issues, possibly clogged filter.
Then I checked the fluids. Oil and trans are full. Noticed the coolant tank was bone dry and I could not see any coolant in the radiator.
I started the truck and let it idle while I had my scanner hooked up to the port. I watched the coolant temp climb from 91* to over 225* in less that 2 mins. Shut the truck down and felt the radiator. It was cold. Lower hose was cold. Top hose was cold coming out of the radiator. The top hose coming out of the engine was super hot. Now I'm thinking no/low coolant/bad thermostat or possibly bad head gaskets. Still no codes being thrown.
Any ideas on where to start? I'm good with a wrench and can do all my own work, short of a full engine/trans rebuild. I need some advice on a good general place to start my trouble shoot. I'm thinking refill the cooling system and put a new fuel filter on and see what happens. Maybe check the fuel pump and its fuses. I just don't want to start throwing parts at this thing.
Again sorry for the long first post but hopefully we can get this thing running again. Its a super clean truck inside and out and would make a great DD I'm sure.
Hi all, new to the site and Ranger's in general. Sorry in advance for the long post but I need some help rehabbing up a new-to-me Ranger I got. I got this truck for free from my grandma who wanted it gone from her driveway. It was my grandpa's truck before he died. He last drove it in 2014 when it started barely running so he parked it and never drove it again. Obviously he isn't around to ask him what was wrong with it so all I have to go on is what I can see today. All my grandma can say is that it ran really rough and would not move under its own power. I do know my grandpa was pretty lazy about maintenance so there's that. I think my grandma had someone look at it a few years ago and they told her something about burned valves or blown gaskets. They had the truck for a bit, and got it back to the point where it would at least start again. I have no way to verify or follow up with that person. My grandma said she couldn't remember exactly what they said they did to it.
Today I put 5 gal of fresh gas in the tank and put a new battery in it. The truck started right up but ran really rough. I put it in drive and it almost died. I gave it some gas and the motor bogged down and sputtered out. Truck never even budged. Towed to my house.
Started the truck back up, still rough idle. Left it in park, slowly revved it up to about 1500rpm and then it died again. Attempted to restart but cranked for about 10-15 seconds. I had to hold the pedal to the floor and then it eventually fired up. This time it idled rough around 650rpms and any throttle input at all would kill it. My first thought at this point is fuel issues, possibly clogged filter.
Then I checked the fluids. Oil and trans are full. Noticed the coolant tank was bone dry and I could not see any coolant in the radiator.
I started the truck and let it idle while I had my scanner hooked up to the port. I watched the coolant temp climb from 91* to over 225* in less that 2 mins. Shut the truck down and felt the radiator. It was cold. Lower hose was cold. Top hose was cold coming out of the radiator. The top hose coming out of the engine was super hot. Now I'm thinking no/low coolant/bad thermostat or possibly bad head gaskets. Still no codes being thrown.
Any ideas on where to start? I'm good with a wrench and can do all my own work, short of a full engine/trans rebuild. I need some advice on a good general place to start my trouble shoot. I'm thinking refill the cooling system and put a new fuel filter on and see what happens. Maybe check the fuel pump and its fuses. I just don't want to start throwing parts at this thing.
Again sorry for the long first post but hopefully we can get this thing running again. Its a super clean truck inside and out and would make a great DD I'm sure.
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