1989 ford ranger 4x4 2.3 distributorless ignition problem

[JoshErnst1074]

So my ranger is misfiring and running really rough. The guy I bought it from says it needs a coil. This is the 2.3 8 plug engine. I replaced both coils and it's still missing. The plugs, wires, and coils, are all brand new. Any ideas what could cause this? Maybe a compression leak like bad rings or head gasket? Thanks guys.

 

[Mikel89us]

Do a compression test first off, find the culprit cylinder. Then diag from there. Pull the valve cover and check for a rocker to have fallen off, or a collapsed lifter. If that's not it, you may need to pull the head, check valves, and piston for bad spots. And the valve seats.

 

[adsm08]

Could be a bad injector as well.

 

[Mikel89us]

True Adsm08

 

[JoshErnst1074]

It reaks of fuel so that's why I do to think its a bad injector. Either way I think the head is coming off soon. The only other thing I can think if is if the ignition control module goes bad. The truck does burn oil too. So the head needs to come off anyways.

 

[Mark_88]

I'd suggest a compression test before pulling the head. Burning oil could be that it is sucking oil in from the valve cover or pcv system and that may indicate blow-by from wonky rings.

There is a temporary fix for that, depending on how or when it burns the oil...if you are just seeing the oil go down but no smoke out the tailpipe then probably blow-by...check around the dipstick for spewed oil...

Changing the pcv valve and rerouting the vent from the valve cover can improve that quite a bit...but not fix it necessarily...would need to know more like do you see smoke out the tailpipe...if so, when does it occur...like when you let off the gas pedal and slow down or does it blow smoke when you start it and continuously from that point.

I would only pull the head after a compression test and if that is good I'd go with the pcv or vc vent tube drawing oil into the intake (causes smoke, obviously).

Main reason being that if it is rings then you need to rebuild the bottom end...if it is valve related or valve seals you can have the head rebuilt and/or new valve seals.

 

[JoshErnst1074]

Man you guys are awesome. It blows smoke only when I'm accelerating and when the engine is warmed up it doesn't really blow hardly any smoke at all. What I did was I found out the number 4 cylinder plugs were caked with all sorts of nasty and oil, so I put non foulers in and now the truck hauls down the road lol. So it was definitely the oil causing it to miss. Now I just need to figure out where it's leaking in from. I'll do a compression test as soon as I can. And it does seem to smoke a lot more when slowing down and braking.

 

[Road Angels]

smoke

bad valve guides if its worse when letting off the gas in gear, and bad rings for the rest, provided the pvc system in good clean operating condition, check if first

 

[JoshErnst1074]

Okay. Pcv is a crank breather system right? I'm not entirely sure how it works. I really have a feeling I have bad valve guides.

 

[Mark_88]

The smoke during deceleration is a pretty good indication of valve guides/seals, but that could also be due to drawing oil in from the VC and PCV...but the fouled plug indicates valve guides/seals.

The PCV system is usually on the driver side and there is a canister on the block that runs up beside the intake manifold. The PCV valve connects to a rubber hose that comes up from that canister and then goes up to the intake. If the PCV is working it will open under high vacuum and allow crankcase air to be pulled up and into the TB to help burn it off in combustion.

Best to just swap out the PCV valve with a new one and see if it improves things any since they are fairly inexpensive ($10 at the most).

But, again, the fouled plug indicates that you should be looking into finding a new head to rebuild or to consider the down time of having the one on the truck rebuilt. I wouldn't skimp on that rebuild either...like I did...and go with new valves and whatever else needs replacing...

I just had the seals replaced along with a little milling...but I now realize (after reading here) that I should have had the head milled a bit more aggressively to get a bit more power out of it...

 

[JoshErnst1074]

I really thinks it's a valve guide or piston ring. When the engine is still cold it burns after sitting at a red light then moving. When it heats up, it only burns oil when I give it a lot of throttle.

 

[Mark_88]

That does sound like rings...could be both...like mine.

I tried something called Engine Restore on my truck and it works pretty good...for about 100 km but I can feel the difference in power right away. If I had used that initially it might not have worsened as much as it did...to the point of using a combination of Lucas oil treatment and 20w50 oil.

My #2 plug is fouling something fierce now and it's just a matter of time before I won't be able to drive it...but should have my swap done in the spring some time.

 

[JoshErnst1074]

Yeah I wanna rebuild the head and put new rings in ASAP. The oil consumption is actually a lot worse than I thought. Dipstick read full this morning, just checked it and I lost half my oil....

 

[Mark_88]

Yeah, sounds familiar...that's why I moved up to a heavier oil but it still blows and burns it like it's free...a short 100 km trip costs me $10 in gas and $6 in oil...can't wait to get the motor swapped...

 

[JoshErnst1074]

Oh I know what you mean. I've been putting 20w30 in. I knew there was a problem when I bought the truck and there were jugs of oil behind the seat lol