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- Joined
- Nov 14, 2022
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 3
- Location
- NC
- Vehicle Year
- 1989
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger XLT
- Engine Type
- 2.3 (4 Cylinder)
- Transmission
- Manual
- 2WD / 4WD
- 2WD
- Total Lift
- N/A
- Total Drop
- N/A
- Tire Size
- 225/70r14
- My credo
- 1-40 CAV B Trp
Thanks in advance for reading this long ass plea for help. I have been using TRS as a resource since high school and have never had to post thanks to the ridiculously knowledgable and responsive members of this forum. Keep up the tinkering!
I was cruising along at about 15mph letting engine cool down some after a long drive (not sure if that's a thing that is actually helpful to the engine or not? Made it up and it made sense in my head so started doing it) when the engine suddenly gave a very small cough and died.
When attempting to start, everything sounded like it was moving as it should. Started by testing spark and fuel pressure, all good. Half-heartedly tested a boatload of sensors (that I've replaced 80% of) with my multimeter to no end. Had been having some symptoms that I associated with a partial head gasket leak (misfires under heavy load mostly) so decided to do a compression test and got 0psi in cylinders 1 and 4, ≈35psi in cylinders 2 and 3. This told me I had bad rings, bad head gasket/cracked head (highly unlikely), or something wrong with timing (the belt/tensioners are parts I already have on hand if that tells you about my confidence in the OEM ones from '89). Pulled the valve cover off to find a very small puddle of coolant on the exhaust side between cylinders 3 and 4:
This gave me no specific idea of what the problem might be besides bad.
Started taking the head off to find that the timing belt had ripped about 5 teeth out and had very little tension.
This allowed the crank to spin freely even with belt still installed. Timing belt gave me the solution to my no-start problem, however, decided that I ought to pull the head anyways since I had suspicions of a bad head or head gasket and wanted to ensure pistons hadn't made contact with anything they shouldn't.
In my very limited knowledge the pistons look fine (although caked with carbon from the silly little EGR on these motors, long gone).
I have done a little bit of cleaning so far but know that I have lot more to go. The first photo of the deck is prior to cleaning and I THINK gasket still on.
The head gasket looks decent to me, though it's clear that the area that holds coolant has a fair bit of rust in there because the openings to allow coolant to flow had oxidized metal in them. Also thinking maybe someone put some radiator stop leak in here? Have heard that can cause issues with coolant flow.
As far as the head is concerned I am going to have to remove all valves and such and have it deck mating surface flattened, valve seats restored, and intake ports matched (based purely off of the amount of carbon in those valve seats, no way those are sealing properly). Here are photos of the head after initial cleaning just for due diligence:
Since everything seems to be mechanically intact my intention is to make sure the rings are good (don't know how to test that, am working out of town for a few days though so have some time to research) and if so re-assemble the cleaned up head and put everything back together with new gaskets. The one thing there that I have no idea how to do is be 110% sure as I'm installing the new timing belt that my crank and cam are both at TDC. I have not been able to find any sort of mark on crank pulley, though cam sprocket is clearly marked. Regardless of whether the gears have marks or not, what do I even line those up with?
PS: Thank you very much for any response or input you may have!
Update: Ended up purchasing a reman head from Allied Motor Parts in GA so that I could keep the old (wanna disassemble and get a better understanding of parts/functions). After cleaning up the deck surface with up to 220 grit sandpaper, and removing as much carbon as possible without damaging metal, checked deck level with feeler gauges, as well as ensuring pistons were seated dead center in bores and rings were snug to cyl walls.
Placed head on and torqued.
The channels in the front and rear passenger bolt holes were destroyed, but decided that they were unnecessary after ensuring that no coolant or oil used them as a passage, they're purely for aligning block-gasket-head as far as my driveway experimentation told me. Replaced all gaskets with new ones as well as wrapping any wire or hose near heat sources with exhaust wrap. Removed the EGR tube (finally) and sealed the bung using RTV and a quarter.
Ran an old EGR vac line through the wiring harness (as well as inserting other tubes into harness just to give engine bay a cleaner look) to give ECU the idea that it's stuck closed rather than nonexistent, we'll see if that has any effect, previously I just had it all unplugged and capped. Cleaned, port matched, and painted all intake parts (not TB, honestly was just too lazy to take it apart to the extent that it'd be paintable).
After this; primed oil pump, immediately installed timing components (that spring is STRONG), and put on valve cover
time for start-up! At start-up I put some ZDDP additive into the oil and instead of coolant had the radiator filled with a coolant system cleaner (brand is escaping me), followed the instructions for this cleaner (in N smoothly rev from 1500 to 3000 and let it back down, repeatedly...) for their recommended time of 20min, then went on a 50mi drive, never allowing RPM above 3000. Parked and immediately began draining oil while allowing engine to cool. Once engine had reached a temp where I could press palm against it no problem, filled it with oil/fresh filter and performed a cooling system flush, refilling with proper 50/50 mix. Since start-up I have driven ≈550mi, the longest trip in that time being about an hour.
Differences I have noticed: The fuel economy is slightly worse (≈30mi/tank) though the vehicle's ability to maintain ANY speed in the "correct" gear has been greatly increased. This holds true on a hill unless below 2000RPM, and accelerating up a hill is a bitch n a half. It now idles significantly more smoothly, although I am still noticing a random misfire that I have not had the time to hunt down. The torque band seems to have shifted from ≈1500-2500 to ≈2000-3000, an (as far as I know) unplanned but expectable outcome of matching, kinda annoying when accelerating but the truck was crazy slow to begin with so really have no right to complain. When under load the motor sounds as if it is having a much less difficult time pushing the vehicle, though this could be because the massive exhaust leak I created is not allowing backpressure to happen (that's more of a question than educated guess) or the leak is masking any odd noises that may have appeared. Overall, should have just found an older VW TDI motor and thrown it in there so I can actually break 85mph, but the truck runs significantly better and I would hop in it and drive anywhere if needed (only if needed cause it'd start burning my wallet instead of gas at some point). Thank y'all for all your help, hopefully this will help someone else out there, time to measure for some f250 struts/leaf shackle flip!
I was cruising along at about 15mph letting engine cool down some after a long drive (not sure if that's a thing that is actually helpful to the engine or not? Made it up and it made sense in my head so started doing it) when the engine suddenly gave a very small cough and died.
When attempting to start, everything sounded like it was moving as it should. Started by testing spark and fuel pressure, all good. Half-heartedly tested a boatload of sensors (that I've replaced 80% of) with my multimeter to no end. Had been having some symptoms that I associated with a partial head gasket leak (misfires under heavy load mostly) so decided to do a compression test and got 0psi in cylinders 1 and 4, ≈35psi in cylinders 2 and 3. This told me I had bad rings, bad head gasket/cracked head (highly unlikely), or something wrong with timing (the belt/tensioners are parts I already have on hand if that tells you about my confidence in the OEM ones from '89). Pulled the valve cover off to find a very small puddle of coolant on the exhaust side between cylinders 3 and 4:
Started taking the head off to find that the timing belt had ripped about 5 teeth out and had very little tension.
In my very limited knowledge the pistons look fine (although caked with carbon from the silly little EGR on these motors, long gone).
The head gasket looks decent to me, though it's clear that the area that holds coolant has a fair bit of rust in there because the openings to allow coolant to flow had oxidized metal in them. Also thinking maybe someone put some radiator stop leak in here? Have heard that can cause issues with coolant flow.
As far as the head is concerned I am going to have to remove all valves and such and have it deck mating surface flattened, valve seats restored, and intake ports matched (based purely off of the amount of carbon in those valve seats, no way those are sealing properly). Here are photos of the head after initial cleaning just for due diligence:
Since everything seems to be mechanically intact my intention is to make sure the rings are good (don't know how to test that, am working out of town for a few days though so have some time to research) and if so re-assemble the cleaned up head and put everything back together with new gaskets. The one thing there that I have no idea how to do is be 110% sure as I'm installing the new timing belt that my crank and cam are both at TDC. I have not been able to find any sort of mark on crank pulley, though cam sprocket is clearly marked. Regardless of whether the gears have marks or not, what do I even line those up with?
PS: Thank you very much for any response or input you may have!
Update: Ended up purchasing a reman head from Allied Motor Parts in GA so that I could keep the old (wanna disassemble and get a better understanding of parts/functions). After cleaning up the deck surface with up to 220 grit sandpaper, and removing as much carbon as possible without damaging metal, checked deck level with feeler gauges, as well as ensuring pistons were seated dead center in bores and rings were snug to cyl walls.
Differences I have noticed: The fuel economy is slightly worse (≈30mi/tank) though the vehicle's ability to maintain ANY speed in the "correct" gear has been greatly increased. This holds true on a hill unless below 2000RPM, and accelerating up a hill is a bitch n a half. It now idles significantly more smoothly, although I am still noticing a random misfire that I have not had the time to hunt down. The torque band seems to have shifted from ≈1500-2500 to ≈2000-3000, an (as far as I know) unplanned but expectable outcome of matching, kinda annoying when accelerating but the truck was crazy slow to begin with so really have no right to complain. When under load the motor sounds as if it is having a much less difficult time pushing the vehicle, though this could be because the massive exhaust leak I created is not allowing backpressure to happen (that's more of a question than educated guess) or the leak is masking any odd noises that may have appeared. Overall, should have just found an older VW TDI motor and thrown it in there so I can actually break 85mph, but the truck runs significantly better and I would hop in it and drive anywhere if needed (only if needed cause it'd start burning my wallet instead of gas at some point). Thank y'all for all your help, hopefully this will help someone else out there, time to measure for some f250 struts/leaf shackle flip!
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