Naughtjosh
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2020
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 1
- Location
- Central Washington State
- Vehicle Year
- 1986
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger
- Transmission
- Manual
I've got a 1986 Ranger that has been on plow duty for the last 25 years or so. Its a 2.3L, 5-spd, 4x4 with no mods save for straight pipe post cat. It gets semi-regular oil changes and is forced to plow all winter and sit all summer. I'm sure if has a few hundred thousand miles but pretty sure engine still has less than 100K. It was replaced a few years before we took it off the road. A few years ago it started periodically acting like the description below and now it runs like this pretty consistently.
When its cold (cold like has not ran this day) it fires up plows like crazy, sounds good and when you stall it, it fires up and continues o run good until......... Until you shut it off to talk to a neighbor, go pee, get coffee or whatever. Then it starts and runs like you pulled a plug wire off. It's down on power, flutters when you stab the throttle and literally sounds like a plug wire (or two!) are pulled. It will continue to run like this for the rest of the day and the next morning will run perfect. Like clockwork! It does not appear to run rich when it does this. Nice hot rust colored tailpipe inside and out. If you don't turn it off and let it sit for a few mins, It will run perfected all darn day.
So far I've replaced IGN module (located on distributor), pick-up inside distributor (they made that way too hard!), cap, rotor, plugs, wires it has good clean fuel. Every once in a while it blows pieces of the CAT out the tailpipe. CAT internals are also rattling around pretty good in there, sometimes. I've also checked the timing when running good and running bad and seems to be do different. It also appears than once to get get timing close, the computer takes over and does its own thing....
Any ideas would be helpful, thanks.....Z
When its cold (cold like has not ran this day) it fires up plows like crazy, sounds good and when you stall it, it fires up and continues o run good until......... Until you shut it off to talk to a neighbor, go pee, get coffee or whatever. Then it starts and runs like you pulled a plug wire off. It's down on power, flutters when you stab the throttle and literally sounds like a plug wire (or two!) are pulled. It will continue to run like this for the rest of the day and the next morning will run perfect. Like clockwork! It does not appear to run rich when it does this. Nice hot rust colored tailpipe inside and out. If you don't turn it off and let it sit for a few mins, It will run perfected all darn day.
So far I've replaced IGN module (located on distributor), pick-up inside distributor (they made that way too hard!), cap, rotor, plugs, wires it has good clean fuel. Every once in a while it blows pieces of the CAT out the tailpipe. CAT internals are also rattling around pretty good in there, sometimes. I've also checked the timing when running good and running bad and seems to be do different. It also appears than once to get get timing close, the computer takes over and does its own thing....
Any ideas would be helpful, thanks.....Z