2.3L shot???

[Silver talon84]

Well, I have a 91 ranger 2wd, 5spd, and the monster 2.3 that seems to have developed a problem a few weeks ago. A friend of my wifes was driving it, and called us saying that the truck was running weird, shaking and idling funny, with less power than normal (hows that possible!?!?!? lol). She was in our area when it started doing it, and drove the 6 miles over to our house so I could take a look. When it pulled in, it really didnt sound good. Sounded like it had one cyclinder that wasnt playing nice. I first pulled the dipstick because I could smell hot oil, and low and behold, there wasnt any! I smelled the exhaust tip, and it didnt smell like it was burning it, so I had to look elsewhere. With a little gander under the truck, i found all the oil, it was my new undercoating. I couldnt track down the leak, and still havnt, but thats the least of my worries for the moment. My next step was to pull spark plugs and see if there was any poped head gasket signs to be had, and while I did find a sign, i dont think its head gasket related. The last plug on the passenger side, had about the quarter of the tip melted down into a ball. It looked more like a pin head instead of the normal straight tip. The other plugs looked fine. So I wrestled with getting the driverside rear plug out, and that tip is damn near entirely melted and gone! I dont think I have ever seen a plug melted down quite as bad as this before (Ill post pics when I get home). The plugs are really black with what smells like gas, but there dosent seem to be any oil on them from what I can tell. So I put 2 new plugs in, and it still runs the same way, like that cyclinder isint firing right or something. It soulds weird when its idling, but seems to go away when its reved up, but it dosnt have the power it used to. Any ideas on what is going on? Sorry about the long winded storie, just not sure where to go from here.

My money is on the rings being shot from getting hot without any oil in it.

 

[Silver talon84]

Here is the pic of the bad plug, you can see where it melted down to a ball, and another chunk of either sparkplug or something else melted to it also.

Any Ideas?

 

[hartwrenches]

Do a compression check, the last cylinder if it has any is probably a lot less than the others. Do a leak down test to isolate the mechanical failure. Maybe the rings, I'm guessin a burnt valve.

Chances are you're gonna havta pull the head.

 

[Hopman]

Lesson #1: Don't ever let a friend drive YOUR truck!

 

[dorman68]

Wow!!, they must have really overheated the truck. I have never seen a plug look like that before.

 

[Silver talon84]

Yea, im guessing that the oil sensor started to leak, or come out completely, and it evacuated the oil in a high rate of speed. I know that the fuel pump was a little on the weak side too, so that might have contributed to the fieasco. You couldnt lug the truck @ 2500rpm or less and it hitched and bucked pretty badly.

The good news in all of this, is I just got done doing a head job on my 86 Merkur XR4TI, and the rockers are shot, and has some frame issues, so it looks like I might have a nice donor sitting in the yard allready! I even have a good spare tranny from a different ranger, with better ratio's, so i could have the tranny on the Merkur motor, and just plug and play the swap! Its just too bad this happens just before the snow flies, and I dont have a heated garage!

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Yea, im guessing that the oil sensor started to leak, or come out completely, and it evacuated the oil in a high rate of speed. I know that the fuel pump was a little on the weak side too, so that might have contributed to the fieasco. You couldnt lug the truck @ 2500rpm or less and it hitched and bucked pretty badly.

The good news in all of this, is I just got done doing a head job on my 86 Merkur XR4TI, and the rockers are shot, and has some frame issues, so it looks like I might have a nice donor sitting in the yard allready! I even have a good spare tranny from a different ranger, with better ratio's, so i could have the tranny on the Merkur motor, and just plug and play the swap! Its just too bad this happens just before the snow flies, and I dont have a heated garage!

kerosene heaters are you friend when the garage aint warm.

even with an insulated, base board heated, 2 car garage with a lift. i turn the kerosene heaters on. get the garage up to a nice comfy t-shirt 85 degrees, then have at it.

 

[schlutzer]

Only time I saw a plug look that bad was on a turbo 2.0 volkswagon.

it was a high hp build...(dyno'd over 350)

he ran out of fuel during a 25PSI pull. and obviously leaned right out, also burned half the SS exhaust valve away....

head was junk when we pulled it.

I'm guessing your oil issue is unrelated, pull the head and take a look-see, not like its hard to do with these trucks,

 

[Silver talon84]

I have a kerosene heater, but with no insulation, and just bare framing, not even the ceiling is done, so its kinda hard for the heat to stay in the building. If I could just seal up the eve's with a little bit of insulation, it would hold heat alot better. But walls and vinal siding leave alot to be desired. On a non windy night, I might be lucky enough to get it up to around 45. But with the wind, it pretty much sucks everything out of the garage.

 

[Silver talon84]

Only time I saw a plug look that bad was on a turbo 2.0 volkswagon.

it was a high hp build...(dyno'd over 350)

he ran out of fuel during a 25PSI pull. and obviously leaned right out, also burned half the SS exhaust valve away....

head was junk when we pulled it.

I'm guessing your oil issue is unrelated, pull the head and take a look-see, not like its hard to do with these trucks,

Im not sure If I would even bother pulling the head at this point, as Id just swap the turbo motor out of the merkur into it. I was really just looking for a quick fix, or an idea of what to look for, to see about how agressive I needed to be about getting the swap together.

 

[Hopman]

Do you have a friend who'd exhange a heated garage in exhange for a few kegs of beer?

 

[Silver talon84]

Lol, working on that now. Might be doing it at the previous owners house! lol. He is and will be wishing that he didnt sell this to me after the turbo goes in there.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

if you cant get the previous owners garage. get some painters plastic and wrap the inside of your garage with it. seal it up with some duct tape. and staple it up.

that will help to hold some of the heat in.

 

[Silver talon84]

Where can i find that?

 

[RangerFabWorks]

home depot, lowes. sears, any hardware store.