Help! "New" 1986 Ranger woes

[piperpilot1363]

Hello All,

I picked up a new-to-me 1986 ranger, 2.3l the other day and its already giving me hell. Inspected clean, but after a 100+ mile drive home it started smoking heavily out of the tail pipe. White smoke, head gasket right?

Well here is the catch

1. White smoke, but smells like burnt oil
2. No Oil Contamination
3. Idles a little rough at 1000 rpm, but no worst than my 96 ranger
4. Quit at idle once
5. No noticeable radiator contamination but will check again tomorrow.
6. Drove home doggish. Not sure if it was engine trouble, the 2 inch lift with tires, or just because its much larger than my 96.
7. Smoke lessens greatly after a bit of driving, but returns a little after a few minutes at idle. Worst is at start up.
8. Did not overheat, watched the gauges VERY carefully

Any ideas on whats happening? I can't tell if its loosing coolant because it has a overflow tube that dumps into a very hard to see reservoir that is sealed. Is it possible/ more practical to swap engines with my 1996 ranger for some one with relatively little experience working on the engines?

Very Respectively,

Andrew

 

[DandysRanger]

I would suspect head gasket but you really need to do a compression test to be sure.

 

[Mikel89us]

If it smokes at start up and after sitting at idle, it most likely has bad valve seals. Are you sure the smoke isnt light blue?? It looks white but has a blue tint i bet.

The reason im sure its valve seals is because at idle you are at high vacuum, and it pulls the oil past the intake valve seal. At low engine speeds it builds up and gets worse. Then when you drive you burn off most of the oil, and cruising is usually about 1/2 the vacuum so it pulls less oil and smokes less.

Seems to me that you should tkae the head off and have it gone through. Get the valve guides checked, have the valve seats redone with a good 3 or 5 angle job. And while the head is off have it shaved. At least .075" taken off to get yourself some more torque and HP, plus a bit better fuel mileage. Is this truck carborated??

 

[piperpilot1363]

No the truck is fuel injected. Hmm that would make sense although I might be loosing coolant, I had to top it off and then it went down so I topped it off again and we'll see where that puts us. Actually looking at it again it looks to have the faintest tint of blue to it. I am half minded to try and swap the engine out for the 2.3 in my 1996 ranger but I'm not sure how much the engine evolved...

 

[Mark_88]

Another sure sign it's valve seals is if you are cruising or shifting and you let off the gas you should see a puff of smoke out of the tail pipe...

 

[Mikel89us]

I would suggest rebuilding the engine. Head and block, just because if you re build it you will have a dependable engine untill you get rid of the truck, or it hits another 200k miles.

 

[wp23n]

is it an autmoatic??? if so check the fluid as i have seen transmission modulators cause this very same problem, i believe your 86 still has one.

 

[piperpilot1363]

Thanks for all the comments

Its defiantly not the head gasket. I've been driving it much more since I determined that and the smoke has more or less stopped altogether.... I've only seen it once since... not sure whats up with that, but thanks everyone for the advice.

 

[wp23n]

Thanks for all the comments

Its defiantly not the head gasket. I've been driving it much more since I determined that and the smoke has more or less stopped altogether.... I've only seen it once since... not sure whats up with that, but thanks everyone for the advice.

thats good news and if you arent low on any fluids is it possible that the crankcase was over filled?