84 Ranger running rough when cold

[MegaTrep]

Alright, first off, this is my friends truck, so bear with me on this.

Its an 84 Ranger with 140,000 miles, I dont remember the engine, but I know its a 4 banger with 8 plugs. (I wanna say its the 2.3). It runs really rough, sputters, jerks and stalls when cold, but gets better as it warms up. About a month and a half ago, I changed all 8 plugs, and ran Seafoam through the intake. It ran like a whole new truck, didnt sputter or anything. Fast foward to about 2 weeks ago,and it started running rough again. I was poking around on the internet and it sounds like the MAF sensor is fouled, but I must have cleaned it off a little bit when I seafoamed it causing it to run good again. But because I didnt actually take it completely apart, it just fouled again.

Also, do these engines have timing belts? Whats the maintenence interval on them?

Thanks in advance for replies.

 

[88_ranger]

Timing Belt

I have an 88 Ranger with the 2.3 and four spark plugs. It does have a timing belt. It's very easy to get to. Just remove the black plastic cover on the front of the engine and it's behind that. You may have to remove the drive belts to get it off. And I've heard that the timing belts are good for around 90,000 miles or so.
As far as the rough idle goes...how do your spark plugs look? My truck was running bad like that but didn't get better when warmed up. I replaced the spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor button, and ignition coil and then it ran great!

 

[MegaTrep]

Im gonna work on it this friday, so no idea how the plugs look on it.

 

[MegaTrep]

I was doing some reasearch again, and I think its actually an 85. Im almost positive its fuel injected.

 

[locovaca]

If it has 8 plugs, it would have to be fuel injected. But then it would have to be an engine newer than 85 because dual plugs didn't start until 89 and only were available with DIS.

 

[MegaTrep]

I looked and I think its a 92.

Anyway, I just ran some more throttle body cleaner through it and it runs good again. Only thing is, it has an intermittent misfire that comes and goes. I was thinking plug wires. Anything else?

I also checked the timing belt and it looks good.

 

[modelageek]

the history of the the 4 banger.
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/4cylinders.html

I think it has the year on the driver side door jamb or the door

 

[88_ranger]

Plug Wires

Try running the truck at night time and see if your getting any arcing coming from anywhere on the plug wires. I had this happen to me on a camaro and i couldn't see anything wrong with it but once it got dark outside I fired it up and I could see exactly where the problem was. A plug wire had melted on the manifold and was causing the wire to arc out of the exposed area. I swapped out that wire and problem solved.
Also have you looked at your distributor cap and rotor button? I've seen where the piece of carbon that is underneath the distributor cap was worn enough to wear it was barely making contact with the top of the rotor button and causing the car to run intermittently bad as well. That is until it gets to the point that it's too far worn and the car won't even run.