engine starts, stalls on road

[babar24]

a buddy was leaving town and offered me his 83 4-speed ford ranger for $250. not bad for a running truck w/ good interior and body/tires. it ran alright for the first few days i got it, but it has trouble of late with stalling. i believe the engine is running too rich, i can smell gas sometimes and when i get it out on a main road and try to get it up to speed it will start to putter and die. due to a foot of snowfall this weekend and no garage, i haven't been able to look under the hood much. it very well could just be a clogged air filter. the truck starts good enough and idles well until driven, but starts to stall once its out on the road. this makes me think its an airflow issue as opposed to a spark plug or fuel line issue. i know that there is no intake duct leading from the grille to the air filter, so that the engine is breathing hot air from under the hood. do you think i would be able to find a replacement duct at an autozone, or is that more of a junk yard find?
also, the muffler seems shoddy and there is no tail pipe extending to the back of the truck. so exhaust is coming out in the middle of the truck behind the muffler, and on top of this the muffler sounds like crap anyway. this, i figure, is the real source of my problem. do you think i don't have enough backpressure to clear the engine? would this explain the stalling at higher speeds and puttering sounds at lower speeds? would you think a muffler/exhaust replacement is within the capabilities of an amateur like myself, or need to be taken to a muffler shop?

anyway, its about what i expected to deal with for $250. the good news is that its all registered and insured for the year, so after some repairs i hope it should make a good work/fishing truck for the summer. any suggestions as to what might get it road-ready soon?

 

[martin]

You'll need to post up a little more information about the truck, engine, transmission etc. Some of the earlier carburated trucks suffered from carb icing, so check that the hose on the air filter is still connected to the heat box around the exhaust manifold. Also check that the choke is actually opening fully when the motor is warmed up.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Well I figure you have a carbed engine since its an 83, and a 4 speed TK manual trans.

I would say it could use a tune up, with new plugs, wires, cap/rotor, fuel filter, air cleaner, oil change, carb tune up or cleaning. Then see how it runs.

But from the sound of it you have carb Icing, My 84 did it alot! I did a duraspark conversion to remove the electronics and wiring and a manual choke cause the auto one didn't work very well, didn't have the air cleaner tube and the aircleaner never sat quite right on the carb so if it was cold it would freeze up once I started moving and the cold air actually got into the carb.

There should be a dryer duct like tube that runs from an exhaust manifold heat shield to the air cleaner that would feed it warm air if needed to prevent carb icing.

 

[babar24]

its a 4sp manual, carburetor. there is no hot air intake from the engine right now, so the air filter is always drawing cold air. i will try to replace these ducts and do the tuneup as you recommended. hoping these improved conditions will fix it, will post more if it doesn't.


thank you.

 

[babar24]

was under the hood yesterday, and i cannot find a return heat shroud to run into the air system. the intake ducts are in tact, but have been disassembled by a previous owner and are just lying under the hood. was hoping to reassemble air system with the hot air intake in place to prevent carb icing. but the only exhaust i can locate goes straight to the muffler.

its the standard 4cyl, 2.0 i think?



any suggestions?

 

[n_grimm]

Good call on the carb icing up as I've had that happen on inline engines. I think there should be a metal shroud on the exhaust manifold that you would hook to. Maybe check at a wrecking yard.

 

[babar24]

no shroud to be found on the exhaust. if i found one at a junk yard, how is that installed into the exhaust system?

also noticed that a screw is missing on the piece that mounts the air filter to the carburetor. anyone know what size screw that would be?

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Yeah it not an exhaust tube its just a thin metal plate with a circular tube attachement. I bet that will help out ALOT with your trucks running.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

I would fix the obvious first put a good exhaust from the engine all the way back it sounds more like a restriction in the cat or muffeler. I didnt catch what engine you have but the preheater duct helps alot on cold starts. there is a metal schroud that fits over the exhaust manifold with a round fitting the size as on the filter housing that is connected by a piece of flex duct. the filter housing has a vacuum operated door that opens the preheater duct when it is cold and closes it when warm allowing cold ambient air to enter from the front of the truck. The door is operated by vacuum direct from the manifold thru a bi-metal valve on the bottom of the filter housing, or from a solenoid the computer controls vacuum to the door. Hopefully you can find one like yours at the bone yard with the parts you need and yea did you check that your choke is all the way open when the engine is up to temp. If your running the computer it helps alot to get all the emission stuff working properly or your computer will tell you to FO on a regular basis. It makes the engine run alot better if you have the preheater system working good especially on cold starts. I still have mine working after the duraspark conversion along with the electric choke and air diverter/thermactor and bypass and she runs pretty good. For a 28 year old engine if it is a V-6 If you can duraspark it now the 4 cyl already is and I wouldn`t have a clue how to eliminate the computer.