frustrated

[WhiteWolf64]

greetings ranger pros,
i am trying to help out my brother. he owns 1998 ranger. thats what is posted on the door. he has been firing the parts cannon with no results. in a nutshell. extremely rough idle and no power at all. i hooked my fuel pressure guage to it and will give 30 psi at koeo. holds steady. cranks goes to 45psi. quick tap the throttle no more than 50psi. stumbles and knocks. if i can keep it running the fuel pressure is all over the map. needle bounces like crazy. backfires off and on attempting to crank. if yall any ideas please share. he spent a fortune at a local shop and was definetly ripped off. it is a 2.5 engine. please help. no trouble codes using a reader. i wish i had a real scan tool

 

[1990RangerinSK]

That sounds similar to my 2004 Focus before I bought it. The difference was, it wouldn't even rev when the engine was cold, and it didn't backfire when it was started. I demanded that they fix it before I would take delivery. It turned out the timing belt had jumped a tooth.

Have somebody check the timing. Better yet, have them take the front cover off, and make sure the timing chain/belt is set right.

 

[scotts90ranger]

You know it sure could be the timing belt being off... if someone didn't align the auxiliary pulley the cam sensor wouldn't be reading right and they don't appreciate that...

 

[WhiteWolf64]

Thank you men, I have been suspicious of that from the start. my brother put a new head gasket on. I asked him if he was sure he got the timing right when he put the belt on. Of course he was offended. Thats ok. He has spent a fortune on this truck already. I just showed him your responses. So before he dumps more money in it, he has agreed to let me double check his timing. That will happen this morning. I bet you it was not timed right.

 

[WhiteWolf64]

ok men and women. as suspected timing was as suspected. but you are not going to believe why. if i can send pics i will. my brother did not torque down the crankshaft bolt. the harmonic balancer was wondering around. crank position sensor had no idea.cam position sensor had no idea what to do. ladies and gentlemen double check your torgue specs. if i would have agreed to oh its ok with a lookey look in #1 cylinder. trust me. use a rubber hose. rise and fall. no brother, i am not doing this for failure. so, i pulled harmonic balancer off knowing there is true marks. low and behold the harmonic balancer has created its on keyway. the crank is chewed up. i hope you pros can view the pics. basically. lil brother questions big bro type B/S. dummy let the harmonic balancer walk toward the front. i guess it had to. im surprised it didnt shear the key. the only reason i can think of is because it didnt need to. oh now im his is the crankshaft worth trying to save. can a weld fix the channel created. Thank You folks, yall saved my brother a fortune.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

A friend told me he fixed a similar problem on his engine many years ago. The engine was still running a decade later with that fix. Used JBWeld to fill the hole. I would try that with a new balancer. Cant really hurt to try...

 

[Uncle Gump]

Yikes...

That's gonna be a tough fix...

 

[scotts90ranger]

I had similar happen once on my turbo 2.3L first time around... turns out the '85 blocks have a shallower hole for the crank bolt so the bolt was tight but a couple threads from contact... it broke the key and screwed up the balancer similar to that. There was still 1/4" of key sticking past the timing pulley so I went to the junkyard and got another balancer, shortened a crank bolt and just ran it... worked fine until I rebuilt the engine and fixed it better...

 

[WhiteWolf64]

we are going to try JB WELD. ordered a new HB. thank yall

 

[4x4prepper]

> my brother did not torque down the crankshaft bolt.
> low and behold the harmonic balancer has created its on keyway.

FWIW: On some Fords the harmonic balancer bolt is single use and torque to yield (example 2004 Explorer 4.0L), I would make sure I used a new Ford OEM bolt at this stage of the game.