1985 Ranger 2.8V6 coolent issues......

[pony4896]

lmao~
I just went 34miles from full tank of gas to empty!
What a crappy situation to say the least...
Carb?
Vac Leaks?

 

[strvger]

i'd think the gauge is bad. 15 or more gallons in 34 miles, you'd either be spraying it all over the engine and the road, or have tons of smoke coming out the exhaust, no? did it take a full tank (15.6 swb, 17+lwb) when you filled it up? i really don't think that carb could handle that much fuel in so few miles. good luck with this and keep at it. i really like my 2.8, especially after the duraspark conversion was done.

 

[pony4896]

The more that i think about it i had only put $15.00 in gas, so that would be about 5 gallons of gas..
Guess i didnt think about it much.
Just seen that the gauge said (full) when I put the $15.00 in.
I drove it for a little over 30miles, then i changed the oil, and did a radiator flush and refill, new hoses and thermostat.
When i first started the radiator flush project the gas tank gauge said almost half tank.
I had to run the engine for about 30 minutes to get the engine warm enough to kick open the new thermostat so that i could get the water flowing to top off the coolent. During that 30 minutes the truck some how went from almost half a tank to sitting on E....
There was a horrible smell of raw gas while it was sitting there idleing for that half hour..
The engine was kind of serging up and down and was idleing alot lower than what it should be.
What could this be?
I know that it has at least one vacuume leak, and im not sure but i think that the carb needs rebuilt too. The engine is always shakeing violently from side to side. Not so much that it feels like its going to blow up, but pretty damn bad. It seems to stop shaking violently when i drive it. It never dies at stop signs or anything, so i dont know.

 

[strvger]

i'm betting a carb rebuild and new vacuum lines will cure most of your truck's problems. check the classifieds here for a duraspark ignition set up and that will clean up your engine bay as well as make it a better runner. the conversion is also in the tech library here on trs. good luck with your truck, and keep us posted on your progress.

 

[enginepaul]

lmao~
I just went 34miles from full tank of gas to empty!
What a crappy situation to say the least...
Carb?
Vac Leaks?

LEAK - and maybe carb, too. My truck - stock smog - gets about 18 to 20 MPG depending on city or highway = so you should have needed about a gallon and a half.

 

[pony4896]

yea, i knew that 5 gallons was way to much fuel to go thru in 34 miles.
Weird that the gas gauge registers full with just 5 gallons of fuel..
Or maybe there is really way more fuel in there than i know?
So when i add the 5 gallons, it registers full, and when its saying empty it is really half full???
Do you guys think that it could be a bad sending unit in the tank, or is it most likely a bad gauge..
Im thinking sending unit, or bad float in the tank.. Maybe float has a pinhole?

 

[strvger]

those gauges were known to go bad. jy replacements are about your only hope and there's no guarantee there either. mine is working now, but who knows how long that will last. i just rely on the odometer and fill accordingly. good luck!

 

[kimcrwbr1]

The more that i think about it i had only put $15.00 in gas, so that would be about 5 gallons of gas..
Guess i didnt think about it much.
Just seen that the gauge said (full) when I put the $15.00 in.
I drove it for a little over 30miles, then i changed the oil, and did a radiator flush and refill, new hoses and thermostat.
When i first started the radiator flush project the gas tank gauge said almost half tank.
I had to run the engine for about 30 minutes to get the engine warm enough to kick open the new thermostat so that i could get the water flowing to top off the coolent. During that 30 minutes the truck some how went from almost half a tank to sitting on E....
There was a horrible smell of raw gas while it was sitting there idleing for that half hour..
The engine was kind of serging up and down and was idleing alot lower than what it should be.
What could this be?
I know that it has at least one vacuume leak, and im not sure but i think that the carb needs rebuilt too. The engine is always shakeing violently from side to side. Not so much that it feels like its going to blow up, but pretty damn bad. It seems to stop shaking violently when i drive it. It never dies at stop signs or anything, so i dont know.

Did you check that the choke was all the way open

 

[Eric Kropp]

Sorry for the late response. The red vacuum line is the supply to almost all the solenoids on the fender. It looks to me like one or two of them towards the rear of the fender are operated by a signal from a front solenoid. When new, the red line had "tee's" providing "supply vacuum" to the bottom of the solenoids. All of the solenoids are controlled by the throttle position sensor (tps) and/or the engine control unit (ECU). When the engine reaches a certain rpm the solenoid is opened and vacuum is sent to the appropriate devise, i.e., the egr valve, air control valve, the air valve above the air control valve etc. The EGR solenoid makes a snapping sound when you increase the rpm's, sounds almost like a short on a spark plug wire. The Ranger I have has more vacuum lines then the '85 model I sold a while back. So yours is not going to be quite the same as mine. I went on to Autozone.com one time and found vacuum diagrams online if the one on the radiator cowling is unreadable. Where I live there is some bone yards that have some Rangers with good vacuum lines. I think the best thing to do is: A. Decide how long you are planning to keep the truck. B. Do you have to have the smog control on the truck to get and keep it registered. C. If you need to have it smogged, try and find a reference vehicle to check out and repair your vacuum lines to match it. D. Or do like me and buy both the dealer manuals on line, one for the whole truck and the other for the emissions system. AutoRepairManual.biz or AutoRepairManual.com or call 866-553-8116. The manuals I got are the big thick Ford manuals that the Ford Mechanics used. Where I live I have to have correct smog equipment operating and the stinkers make us get it checked every two years or we can't get it re-licensed. I have had my Ranger 20 years and now has some 350,000 miles on it and it passed smog....again. I will never sell it and will continue to drive it until parts are not available or I can't make it pass smog. It has been the best most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. I will try and find a vacuum diagram for yours and get back in touch.
Eric<><

 

[Eric Kropp]

I just went to the web and punched in "1985 Ford Ranger 2.8 vacuum diagram" and it came right up from autozone.com


Eric<><

 

[Twister]

So what is a normal operating temp for the 2.8L. Since it got cold it now wants to run at 195* to 200*. In the summer it would run from 190*- 195*.

 

[Big Jim M]

Sounds totally normal from here..
Big JIm

 

[redranger85]

water outlet

Did you ever find that water outlet( thermostat housing) for your 85 for ranger 2.8/ I'm having the same issue

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Mine runs a little cooler with the heater set to cold for some reason. I found putting a coolant flush fitting on the heater core hose that goes into the upper radiator hose fitting on the intake. hold the hose up high enough to add coolant in the fitting until it runs out the radiator. that primes the heater core and the bypass hose. I was able to find the two piece thermostat housing for the upper hose. It actually has a larger bypass hose and just plugged the fitting on the intake manifold.

It is on the right of the pic