97 2.3L Misfire

[Tlee1412]

Hi all,



There is probably a thread for this already so I apologize in advanced.. my 97 2.3 out of nowhere started missing one day on my way into work. It’s a very dead miss as its continuous. After limping it back home and taking a different vehicle to work, I returned home from work that night to move it into the garage to inspect further. When I started it to move into the garage, there was no miss but after running idle in the garage for approx. 2 mins, it started missing again. Looking under the hood I saw that two plug wires were arcing back and forth from one another right on top of the coil. I thought that a new set of wires would do the trick and figured since I was at it, I would change both coil packs and plugs as well. After changing all that, still missing. I read on another forum that someone had a similar problem and changed the Crankshaft Position Sensor. I went and picked one up but have not installed it yet because I wanted some further input (and not from the kind of people telling me its time for a new vehicle). Will the Crank Sensor cause just a single miss or is it going to prohibit the truck from even starting? I also peeked at my timing belt behind the cover and thought that after poking at it, it seemed kind of loose so possibly a jumped time situation going on too. I’m just looking for anyone with similar experience or suggestions. I also used a multi tester and tested all of the injector harnesses and found that they’re fine.



The Ranger has 273,000 miles on it. I have not had a chance to bring it in for codes to be run but do plan on it. I also plan on checking the timing alignment through the inspection holes on the belt cover.



Thanks, TLee

 

[Tlee1412]

I checked the time in the inspection holes and it looks to be good. Also tried to run it with the cam position sensor disconnected and did nothing. I will compression test it tomorrow but thought initially that I could compression out because of it starting and not missing when moving it into the garage. Compression shouldn’t come and go..?

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Apparently a multimeter doesn't react quick enough to test the injector harnesses, you need a noid light.
I believe the crank sensor is a go/no go situation.
Compression shouldnt change from one day to the next. Its a good idea to do one so you can see if you have a bad cylinder.

 

[Dirtman]

Bad crank sensor will cause a no start, or intermittent stalling so possible issue. The cam sensor is for fine tuning and can flat out die and the motor will still run ok.

When your plugs wires were arcing together they could have damaged something else. Plugs take ALOT of volts. Way too much of a coincidence to have that issue and not be related in my opinion.

Checking compression is never a bad idea, but I'd be focusing on wiring to the coils (coils themselves even though you replaced them). Etc.

 

[Tlee1412]

So compression is 165-175 in all 4. Got it hooked up to a computer and it’s cylinder 2 misfire. Switched the #1 and number #2 injectors with no change. Going to pressurize the coolant to check the head gasket tomorrow just to rule it out. After that I’m probably going to end up going after the crank sensor.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Quick way to check if cylinder pressure is getting into the cooling system is use the "glove test". Search that term "+ RonD", who first gave the first explanation of how to do it.

 

[Tlee1412]

I found a few things posted by RonD talking about the glove test but cant seem to find how exactly to preform the test

 

[Dirtman]

You just take the radiator cap off and put a latex glove over the opening. Start the engine and see if the glove flops around wildly. If you have a bouncey glove then your head gasket is blown. Obviously you do this on a cold engine. I recall Ron having a procedure to tell exactly which cylinder is leaking but I dont remeber it.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Remove and replace sparkplugs one at a time. In between each removal fire the engine up again. When you get to a point where the glove no longer moves that is the bad cylinder. Complete the test, there could be more than one bad cylinder.

 

[Tlee1412]

Glove didn’t flop.. just filled with coolant after running for 5 minutes. When I have the #1 wires disconnected from the coils, both the coil ports arc out onto the wire harness that feeds each coil. I’m not much of an electrician but that can’t be good. I’ve cleaned the ground plates and the ground wire has good ground.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

If your disconnecting the wires from the coils the spark will have to go some where. Leave the coil end connected and disconnect the other end of the wire and ground it so spark goes to ground.

 

[Tlee1412]

Pulled the valve cover and found the #2 intake valve spring broken. Hopefully get the fixed and be back on the road. I appreciate all of your guys’s input.