98 Ranger starts but runs extremely rich.

[neufeld07]

Hello, so I have a 98 ranger 4.0, auto. she has some quirks, fuel pump has been cranking three times before starting for a year. but it starts without fail on third or fourth time. for an entire year my truck ran rough. I was just waiting for the fuel pump to die, but a year and a half later it still won't. but recently I changed my fuel filter out, because the exhaust was getting so rich you would cough if you stood outside while running. but now maybe a week our so after installing it the smoke has gotten almost twice as bad. I checked my engine, and the pigtail connector clip for coolant temp sensor was broke. Im trying to buy a new one, but both clips aren't interchangeable apparently, the gauge clip is hard to find. my question is if this could be why its running rich all of a sudden? I didn't think the connection to dash panel adjusted fuel ratio. if this isn't the reason for the idle and excessive white smoke? has the fuel pump finally had its day? because the fuel pump has zero issues turning the engine over once fuel gets in the lines. any ideas on what is happening? thx

PS: I should add I noticed when replacing my fuel filter that it wasn't what other 98 4x4, Splash models have. my filter that I switched out has one line in and one line out. but it appears splash models have 2 lines especially if they are extended or club cab I believe? does that mean previous owner blocked the secondary line, and installed a filter from a different model instead? I've heard of guys doing this as a really quick fix to mitigate the rough idle instead of fixing fuel pump issues.

I might be wrong but the top is what I swapped out temporality, but bottom is what I think comes with all extended 4x4 cab models. lmk thx

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

If the coolant temp sensor isn't hooked up, I'll bet the computer will default to cold fuel map.