Engine Swap. Timing??

[Sharky146]

Hello everyone. I recently picked up a $500 1999 Ranger XLT 3.0L 2WD Automatic as a quarantine project. The engine was blown, so I picked up a good junkyard motor to swap in.

It’s my first engine swap, so I need a little help. I just put it in and started it up, however it runs ROUGH, but it does run. Doesn't really idle though. I had to keep a little throttle on it for it to continue running. It occurred to me that I did nothing with the timing on the new engine. Was I supposed to set a baseline timing setting before I tried to start the motor? If so, how do I do that? I hope I didn’t trash the motor by trying to start it without setting the timing.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

-Sharky146

 

[franklin2]

I have never worked on a 99 3.0. But I know a lot of the newer models don't have a distributor. No distributor means you don't have any timing to set. You could pull the codes and see if you have any.

 

[G8orFord]

Rough or no idle it's often due to a vacuum leak. If the engine smooths out at higher rpm, that's likely the problem.

 

[Dirtman]

There's no timing to set on a 99 3.0, computer does it all. Well technically you need to set the cam timing if you changed the gears and chain but thats pretty hard to mess up since all you do is line up the two dots.

 

[G8orFord]

I'm voting vacuum or swapped plug wires.

 

[stmitch]

Could also be incorrect fuel injector size if one of the engines is flex fuel and the other is not. If you can't find a vacuum leak, it might be worth installing the fuel injectors from the original engine into the replacement just to be sure they're correct.

 

[Sharky146]

Ok, good to hear that there is no timing to set.

I checked the plug wires, and they are in the proper configuration.

I looked over the vacuum system and everything seems to be in the proper place. However I’d didn’t do a smoke check because I don’t have the right equipment.

I pulled the plugs and did a compression check and all the cylinders are making at least 175 psi. Plugs (new) looked good too.

I also did a poor man’s ignition check by grounding a spark plug while turning the key. All six cylinders have spark. (New plug wires)

Its still running really rough and belching out a lot of white smoke.

I do have a bad exhaust leak where the passenger side exhaust manifold meets the Y-pipe. I tried to reseat it several times with no luck. It sounds like a poorly tuned Harley when I start it up. I’ll keep working this issue, but it shouldn’t be the cause of the rough running, right?

Also, this “new” motor came out of a wrecked ranger. It appeared that it rolled over, and possibly spent some time upside down or on its side. I suspect this because when I pulled the original spark plugs, oil poured out of the passenger side spark plug holes. I drained it good though.

Any thoughts on my way forward?

Thank you.

 

[Sharky146]

Could also be incorrect fuel injector size if one of the engines is flex fuel and the other is not. If you can't find a vacuum leak, it might be worth installing the fuel injectors from the original engine into the replacement just to be sure they're correct.

Good point. I think both engines are flex fuel. I pulled the junkyard motor from a 2007 Ranger EDGE 2WDimagine that trucks that new are all flex fuel, but I’m not positive. My truck is a 1999 Ranger XLT 2WD. It has the little green leaf on the tailgate, so I think it’s flex fuel.

The wiring harness is different from the 2007 to the 1999. So I used the block and heads from the 2007 and installed the rest of the top end from my 1999. Is it possible the the engines are different enough that my original top end isn’t compatible with the 2007 bottom end? (Lower/upper intake manifolds, valve covers, accessories and wiring harness)

Thank you.

 

[Dirtman]

White smoke is burning coolant so thats not good...

And a major exhaust leak before the o2 sensor will cause the truck to run rich since the o2 sensor is reading less fuel in the exhaust than is actually there.

 

[stmitch]

Good point. I think both engines are flex fuel. I pulled the junkyard motor from a 2007 Ranger EDGE 2WDimagine that trucks that new are all flex fuel, but I’m not positive. My truck is a 1999 Ranger XLT 2WD. It has the little green leaf on the tailgate, so I think it’s flex fuel.

The wiring harness is different from the 2007 to the 1999. So I used the block and heads from the 2007 and installed the rest of the top end from my 1999. Is it possible the the engines are different enough that my original top end isn’t compatible with the 2007 bottom end? (Lower/upper intake manifolds, valve covers, accessories and wiring harness)

Thank you.

There were minor changes to the 3.0 Vulcan over the years, but they're all interchangeable, so no issues with blocks/heads/intake manifolds being mismatched. Fuel injectors are the only engine differences that matter between flex fuel and regular fuel 3.0s. Your truck with the leaf should be flex fuel. A flex fuel engine has 23lb injectors while a non-flex fuel 3.0 has 19lb injectors stock. So if you aren't using the original injectors, the Flex Fuel PCM that's in the truck is struggling to figure out the air/fuel ratio and will never run we'll. Do not assume that the newer engine is flex fuel just because it's newer. I think they actually made or sold fewer flex fuel trucks as time went on after MY 2000 or 2001. If we aren't certain whether the injectors currently installed are flex fuel or not, I'd start by swapping the injectors back and fixing the exhaust leak.

Did you do anything to the cam synchro when you were swapping"top ends"? It's basically like an old school distributor, so if it's not properly oriented it could definitely mess up the ignition timing. If you didn't touch that during the swap, then it's less likely to be your issue. Even if you didn't touch it during the swap, they're about the only thing that will kill a 3.0, so replacing an old one with a new Motorcraft part might be wise once the truck is running better.

 

[Sharky146]

Excellent info. Thank you guys.

I can swap the injectors with the ones that came with the donor motor, but I think the electrical connector on top of each injector is different than my 99’s injector connections. I have the entire wiring harness from the donor motor. Would it be ok to cut and splice the injector connections from the donor harness to my old harness?

The cam synchro is the thing on the back of the lower intake manifold (where a distributor would be on an older truck) that has a bolt holding it in place, right? If so, I did not mess with that at all,

I’ll continue to work the exhaust leak.

Thanks again guys.

 

[stmitch]

Excellent info. Thank you guys.

I can swap the injectors with the ones that came with the donor motor, but I think the electrical connector on top of each injector is different than my 99’s injector connections. I have the entire wiring harness from the donor motor. Would it be ok to cut and splice the injector connections from the donor harness to my old harness?

The cam synchro is the thing on the back of the lower intake manifold (where a distributor would be on an older truck) that has a bolt holding it in place, right? If so, I did not mess with that at all,

I’ll continue to work the exhaust leak.

Thanks again guys.

If you're using the injectors from the original engine, don't swap. They're likely to be flex fuel and matched to the PCM. I was thinking you were using the injectors from the 07 engine.

Yes, cam synchro is on the back, slightly inboard of the passenger side cylinder head where a distributor would be.

 

[Sharky146]

If you're using the injectors from the original engine, don't swap. They're likely to be flex fuel and matched to the PCM. I was thinking you were using the injectors from the 07 engine.

Yes, cam synchro is on the back, slightly inboard of the passenger side cylinder head where a distributor would be.

Yes, I’m using the injectors from the original motor. But, if the donor is non-flex fuel, should I try the donor injectors?

 

[Sharky146]

If you're using the injectors from the original engine, don't swap. They're likely to be flex fuel and matched to the PCM. I was thinking you were using the injectors from the 07 engine.

Yes, cam synchro is on the back, slightly inboard of the passenger side cylinder head where a distributor would be.

I just thought of something. The cam synchro is on the lower intake manifold, which came off my old motor. I’m not exactly sure what that thing does, but is it possible that it’s not “sync’d” with the new motor? Should I replace it with my cam synchro that came with the new motor?

 

[stmitch]

I just thought of something. The cam synchro is on the lower intake manifold, which came off my old motor. I’m not exactly sure what that thing does, but is it possible that it’s not “sync’d” with the new motor? Should I replace it with my cam synchro that came with the new motor?

So, the cam synchro is driven by the cam gear at the back of the engine. It looks a lot like the bottom half of a distributor, but the cap/rotor have been replaced with a cam synchro sensor that sends signal to the coil pack and tells it when/where to fire. Besides controlling ignition timing, the synchro also has a shaft out of the bottom that drives the oil pump, so if the synchro fails, your oil pump stops pumping and the engine has no oil circulation. That smokes an engine in no time. Synchros have a bearing at the bottom that can get starved for lubrication and seize. It usually chirps before it seizes completely.

The cam synchro isn't actually on the lower intake. The lower intake actually contours around the synchro which is mounted to the top of the engine block. It's possible to swap intake manifolds without touching the synchro. If you installed the synchro from the old engine into the new donor, you should've matched the orientation of the new one with the orientation of the old one. There are special tools for this. If you switched out synchros between engines, and special care wasn't taken to insure alignment, then it's definitely possible that it's misaligned. If you didn't touch the synchro at all, and it's the synchro from the 07 that's still in the 07 block, it's less likely to be misaligned because it was probably running well enough when the donor truck met its fate.

I think the Haynes manual I used had a procedure for making sure the cam synchro alignment was correct, but it involved setting the engine to TDC and some other things that are easier to do with the engine on a stand than in the truck. It's been almost 10 years since I did mine so details are hazy. If you didn't touch the synchro, I'd look at other, easier things first before tackling synchro alignment or replacement.