91 ranger ROUGH/DYING idle, STRONG gas smell under hood, gas dripping from headers

[Killtime8]

91 ford ranger 2.9
The other day on a 3 hour road trip the check engine light came on for 15 minutes, and then shut off for the rest of the trip. While driving the other night it came back on; no real loss of power just seemed to be a slight "caming" effect at idle. I ran the obd1 self test on it and got codes 67 and 41 with key on engine off. 67 is something to do with the clutch pedal ...and irrelevant for this issue I believe. 41, However, says something about "HEGO sensor circuit indicates system lean (right side)." From what I gathered it meant something about the o2 sensor...so I replaced it and now the truck has no check engine light BUT the truck runs WORSE. ROUGH idle, will die if I don't rev the motor, cab/motor bay smells like gas...with gas leaking from where the ds exhaust pipe connects to the headers I believe. Pulled a spark plug and its covered in gas as well (duh of course...just saying). I run the self test now and it gives me 11...which is system pass...umm no....I have checked for vacuum leaks, I don't have a way to test fuel pressure but I will note that a few days ago it started randomly busting off the L shaped fuel line plug on the top of the fuel pump lid....(forgot the clip but it never did it before, had it like that for a month). It has a new fuel pump, temp sending unit, o2 sensor, thermostat, fuel filter.

I REALLY would like some help, thanks

 

[RyanL]

91 ford ranger 2.9
The other day on a 3 hour road trip the check engine light came on for 15 minutes, and then shut off for the rest of the trip. While driving the other night it came back on; no real loss of power just seemed to be a slight "caming" effect at idle. I ran the obd1 self test on it and got codes 67 and 41 with key on engine off. 67 is something to do with the clutch pedal ...and irrelevant for this issue I believe. 41, However, says something about "HEGO sensor circuit indicates system lean (right side)." From what I gathered it meant something about the o2 sensor...so I replaced it and now the truck has no check engine light BUT the truck runs WORSE. ROUGH idle, will die if I don't rev the motor, cab/motor bay smells like gas...with gas leaking from where the ds exhaust pipe connects to the headers I believe. Pulled a spark plug and its covered in gas as well (duh of course...just saying). I run the self test now and it gives me 11...which is system pass...umm no....I have checked for vacuum leaks, I don't have a way to test fuel pressure but I will note that a few days ago it started randomly busting off the L shaped fuel line plug on the top of the fuel pump lid....(forgot the clip but it never did it before, had it like that for a month). It has a new fuel pump, temp sending unit, o2 sensor, thermostat, fuel filter.

I REALLY would like some help, thanks

Maybe the fuel pressure regulator is shot. Pull the little vacuum line off of the rear of the FPR while it's running and see if a little fuel leaks out of it. It sucks that you don't have any codes especially since it's running rich even with a new O2 sensor (you would think that you would get a running rich code). It might be case of the ECU adjusting to whatever temperature it thinks that it is according to input from the intake air temperature sensor. It should be fairly easy to see what that temperature sensor is reading along with the 2-wire coolant temperature sensor. They have the specs at www.fordfuelinjection.com and are fairly easy to check out with a multimeter. Good luck with it.

 

[chilsam]

RyanL

I think he is correct with his first statement,I had a 91 fs bronco that did EXACTLY the same thing.It was the regulator an easy but time consuming fix "screws were hard to get to".GOOD LUCK!

 

[RyanL]

I think he is correct with his first statement,I had a 91 fs bronco that did EXACTLY the same thing.It was the regulator an easy but time consuming fix "screws were hard to get to".GOOD LUCK!

Was it because of the O-ring wasn't going into the fuel rail right, because it was giving me hell. I was trying to grease it up and everything, it just did not want to go in right. Also some guys say that you can re-use the hard plastic gas line (I think that it's nylon), but could not get it on the new one to save my life. Luckily the new one from Autozone came with a little fuel line and 2 hose clamps which seemed alright. I was a little leery about putting hose clamps on a higher pressure system, but I've checked it several times since then and it's not leaking.