Barely Running!

[auto117584]

... but the internals are fine and timing is good.

What do you mean "the internals are fine". You mean mechanically the engine is fine? How did you check that?

I've thought about what happened. There was definitely "an event". You were driving trails through the woods, on ice-encrusted snow, and you bottomed out. couldn't get traction to the ground. Your friends dragged you out, with you revving the crap out of your engine. Do I have this right?

So you have a big chunk of cast iron generating a crapload of heat from the inside, and immersed in icy cold snow on the outside. BIG TEMPERATURE DIFFERENTIAL, HUH? What happens when you have a big, sudden temperature differential? Stuff made of glass explodes. Metal will expand/contract unevenly and either warp or crack.

I'm thinking you cracked your block.

You can do a visual inspection, but an easier way might be to dump your oil and see what's in it. If there's coolant as well as gas, then that would be good evidence for a cracked block. You ought to dump it anyway to get gas out of the oil. Let us know.

 

[Vanner1993]

Hmm, your pretty good at that, there is no coolant in the oil, or oil in the radiater. But why would 3-6 not fire? the plugs on 1 and 2 keep fouling but 3-6 just are getting gas on them and they are brand new and did'nt fire.

 

[auto117584]

are they getting good spark?

 

[TomB1269]

ARe you sure you did not over heat the engine? As asked; How are you sure the engine is still mechanically sound? If you were hammering the throttle I will bet that at a minimum you have blown a head gasket, better bet dropped or slapped the valves, spun a bearing etc. That much abuse can lead to mulitple internal issues. As for the 3 thru 6 plugs not "firing" you could have cylinder/valve damage on 3 and head gasket damage on 4, 5 & 6. Your bes bet maybe to get the heads off and look at them and the cylinders. If the engine has been mis-firing since you backed out of the gas, then you have very little chance of being absolutely sure that you have no bottom end noise or valve damage.

 

[auto117584]

Two things: first, I'll paste this from googling 86 Ford 2.9L V6 -

Known Problems:

Cylinder Heads:

The 1986-1988 heads were known for cracking. Usually caused by overheating the engine. The cylinder heads underwent a redesign for the 1989 model year, receiving additional material in problem areas, largely eliminating this specific failure. These head casts are commonly printed with the "89TM" designation.

Most common symptoms are clean spark plugs, white exhaust smoke when warm, low compression on one or more cylinders, and "snot" on the oil cap or dipstick. Sometimes the "Snot" can just be condensation, so make sure the Engine is warm before checking.

Best course of action is to park the truck, drain the oil, pull the heads, and have them magnafluxed to make sure you have a crack. If you do, do not run the truck. Coolant in the oil destroys crankshaft bearings requiring a total rebuild. If the truck isn't run to long than you can probably get away with just new heads.

Second: you said that after you put in a new distributor that 3-6 did not fire. Are you sure of this? How can someone tell if a spark plug fired or not? Is it possible that they fired, but there was no combustion, thereby leaving plugs wet with gas? Before that entry, you had said all the cylinders were getting spark.

Are you getting spark to every cylinder now? I guess you'll have to check by holding each plug to ground and have someone crank the engine (or use a remote starter button) to see if each cylinder is getting blue/white spark in the plugs.

 

[auto117584]

A simple thing to do is to reset the computer. disconnect both battery cables for 5 minutes. the computer coordinates fuel and spark for existing conditions. Maybe your trail ride messed up its thinking.

 

[Vanner1993]

All plugs have spark, There was white and black smoke coming out of the exhaust today, and white is oil. I put my hand by the exhaust and it is sprinkling oil out onto my hand. I have to get a compression tester.

 

[Duane867]

Your heads are more then likely cracked then my man.
Now...... the good news....
You can use the Econline engine, Maybe the manifolds, oil pan and mounts to transplant the 302 from the Econoline into the Ranger
You'll need an adapter plate if you want to use the stock driveline in the ranger, you will definitely need an oil filter relocation kit, if the manifolds from the 302 wont work for you then use shorty swap headers, and you'll need a large electric fan and a 4.0L rad. If you go carbed its as simple as it gets.

 

[Vanner1993]

Yup, well, I am hoping the engine isn't bad bottom end wise, I tested compression and all were above 100 except #6 which was 0 compression. I'm gonna pull the heads off tomorrow.

 

[Vanner1993]

Your heads are more then likely cracked then my man.
Now...... the good news....
You can use the Econline engine, Maybe the manifolds, oil pan and mounts to transplant the 302 from the Econoline into the Ranger
You'll need an adapter plate if you want to use the stock driveline in the ranger, you will definitely need an oil filter relocation kit, if the manifolds from the 302 wont work for you then use shorty swap headers, and you'll need a large electric fan and a 4.0L rad. If you go carbed its as simple as it gets.

I'm really thinking about it but I hope I can make do with a 2.9 still.

 

[auto117584]

I feel for ya, man.

 

[Duane867]

I'm really thinking about it but I hope I can make do with a 2.9 still.

You can I'm sure. But if those heads are cracked, depending on over all damages... then at this point it may be cheaper to do the swap.
Did the same thing in my old 88 BII for the same reason.
Also had a junker econoline with a 302 I used for a swap donor.

One refurbed head is gonna set you back any where from $200 - $500.
So your looking at potentially anywhere from $400 to $1000. Plus gaskets and bolts ( another $100 + probably).

 

[Duane867]

Any progress reports ?

 

[Vanner1993]

Yeah I am gonna make a thread in 2.9, got it down to the block. Driver side head is cracked, bent a valve. Besides that it looks ok.

 

[Duane867]

Depending on where the crack is and how deep you may be able to have it welded.

Now that you have it to the block though... I would rebuild the entire engine. Your only a few more turns of a wrench away any way dude.
May as well do it up right. at the very least I would change the crank bearings, connecting rod bearings, and cam bearings while it was a apart.