86 Ranger no power, cant get to 3rd gear

[ramzzhakim]

Hi all, I have an 86 ford ranger 2.3L L4. New plugs, wires, cap and rotor, low pressure fuel pump (in tank), and new timing belt. For the longest time I couldn't get it started because the cam was off 3 teeth, got the cam on point and have fine tuned the timing. It fires right up when I turn the key, doesn't crank even 2 rotations, one crank and its started and it runs perfectly smooth no chugging or lugging. As soon as I start to let off the clutch though it bogs down and I have to press the gas to get it moving. Once moving I can floor it and slowly get to 25mph but that's about as fast as I can go. advancing or retarding the distributor the engine will start to labor so that's how I know its in time. Aftermarket harmonic so it has no marks on it for a timing light. Any ideas? My guesses are high pressure fuel pump and/or fuel filter. Oh and it has brand new gas in it. Ran it for about an hour idle with seafoam in the tank.

 

[Big Jim M]

No timing marks is a new thing to me! Make some chalk marks on it and then with the light see if the timing is changing when the engine revs.
Listen to the exhaust pipe to see if it might be clogged and not allowing exhaust.
Cam three cogs off? How in the hell did that happen?

Big Jim

 

[ramzzhakim]

Its straigtpiped and yea it was 3 teeth of, blew me away. Tested my fuel pressure and it tested ~37-40 the needle bounced around like a sonofabitch until i disconnected the FPR then it sat at 37. Not sure if this means my FPR is bad or not though. Fuel pumps are good, which is nice, but now I have zero idea on why I have no power. I cant even climb a small hill in 1st gear.

 

[black_demon69]

its straigtpiped and yea it was 3 teeth of, blew me away. Tested my fuel pressure and it tested ~37-40 the needle bounced around like a sonofabitch until i disconnected the fpr then it sat at 37. Not sure if this means my fpr is bad or not though. Fuel pumps are good, which is nice, but now i have zero idea on why i have no power. I cant even climb a small hill in 1st gear.

egr?

 

[baconops89]

I had an 85 ranger which I know is different because it's carburated but we did the valve stem seals and when we put the spark plugs back in and put the wires on we accidentally swapped cylinder 5 and 6 spark plugs and it would idle fine but it could barely make it out of the drive way. We couldn't figure it out for a while but I then I checked the plug wires and those two were swapped and when I put them back right it solved the issue completly.

 

[ramzzhakim]

mine isnt carbd but im leaning towards thinking head gasket maybe? The timing is right and firing in sequence

 

[Big Jim M]

Huh?

mine isnt carbd but im leaning towards thinking head gasket maybe? The timing is right and firing in sequence

Ram you should save yourself some money and take this ride to a mechanic!

Big Jim