Help - Sever Chattering/Dies/Won't Start Now

[mmisky87]

Hey everyone. I am new to Rangers and am learning as I go. I found a 01 Edge 4x4 MT that was sitting for about a year. I fired it up, ran great, and stopped at the gas station to put a couple of gallons to make it the rest of the way home. I make it about three miles and then I start getting a horrible stutter (almost sounds like a mechanical knocking) when I am shifting from 3, 4, to OD. During the time of this stutter I am loosing a lot of power until the point that I am having to staying in 4th or 3rd to keep moving and then the engine finally dies. The temp and oil are where they should be the whole time. About a hour of tinkering with the battery, a friend keeps turning it over for about 10-15 seconds and it starts running. I drive for maybe a mile and it does the same horrible chatter and dies again. Before it died, I put it in neutral and reved the motor and there was no knocking coming. This chatter sounded so much like an engine knock or maybe some severe fuel starvation? I was lucky enough to be close enough to coast to my house. Now all it will do it just turn over and over and over and No Fire. I have been doing a lot of research and think it may be a few different things, but I am so sure this such a simple problem that someone might know right off hand. No CELs.

1)Fuel problem? Clogged Filter or Bad Pump or Inertia Switch?

2)Ignition? bad coil, faulty plugs/wires?

3) Intake? MAF Sensor faulty?

 

[baddis]

have you checked to see if you are getting fuel/spark?

 

[mmisky87]

I'm having to wait until tommorow before I can get to the truck. So far the only thing done was replaced the coil and am getting spare from it. Tommorow I am going with a filter and pump

 

[mmisky87]

Update: I have replaced the inline fuel filter, plugs, wires, and borrowed a coil pack from my g/f's 3.0L Ranger. It has the same symptoms..turning over, but no fire.

I can hear the fuel pump kicking on and can smell the gas in the engine comparment. I turned the pump off with the inertia switch and turned the motor over. It started to take life, but of course dies because of no fuel!

Maybe there is not enough fuel getting shot in to fire, but enough stands afterwards that it can be burned without the fuel pump being on? ne ideas?

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

year-old gas eh....

thats not exactly good for the motor on its own...i have to wonder if maybe you didnt stir up a years worth of condensated water in the tank when you added fuel to it.

i think i would syphon the tank and blow out the fuel lines and start over with fresh fuel. even if this ISNT the cause of the problem, that fuel is junk and shouldnt be run.

aside from that, taking a fuel pressure reading would be useful, just because the pump is running doesnt mean it bulding up pressure...you could have a bad pump or regulator. spraying a small amount of starting fluid into the throttle body while someone cranks the engine will tell you if its a spark or fuel problem. it should start and run as long as you keep blasting short bursts of starting fluid into the TB; if it doesnt, you have a spark problem. if it does then its fuel related.

 

[mmisky87]

Update: I dropped the tank, pulled out the pump and the strainer sure looked clogged. I put in a used fuel pump and buttoned everything up. After some persuassion with cranking and pumping it came to life and sounded great. I was able to let it idle and rev it up. At first there was a lot of white smoke coming out (probably the excess fuel that was running through the system). I let it run a few minutes, shut it off, and tried to fire it again with no luck. I turned it over without fuel trying to burn the unburnt. I turned the fuel back on and now nothing..no luck..not wanting to come back to life. Do you think I fouled the plugs? When I took the intake off to spray throttle cleaner I noticed a white smoke rising to the air and had a hint of fuel in the cloud.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

excess fuel will produce black smoke. white smoke usually indicates water or antifreeze in the mix.

are you still trying to run that year-old gas through it or did you completely drain and re-fill the tank while you had it out of the truck?

 

[mmisky87]

I appreciate the help. I dumped the old gas and cleaned the insides of the tank with a clean-gasoline soaked rag. When I was able to get it to run, it blew out some white smoke for a minute then it ran fine, idled fine, and no smoke. It never got warm enough to overheat. I think it was the 2nd or 3rd time I was noticing an abundance of white smoke when I was turning it over (but wouldn't fire) and white smoke coming from the throttle body when I took the intake off. hmm.. I guess the good out of this is I'm learning something new!

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

we arent learning anything if we cant get it running

i still think you have a fuel problem. perhaps your used pump is no good, or you have a clogged filter, crimped line, etc etc. a fuel pressure reading at the fuel rail would be helpful...until then you can cycle the key from off to run a few times, then go poke the valve on the fuel rail and see if you get a nice strong spurt of fuel.

did you try running the engine on starting fluid to confirm a fuel delivary problem?

 

[mmisky87]

I did the starting fluid and did want to come to life when using the fluid. It would never continually run with me just spraying into the throttle body. I tried variations like throttle open to closed and intermediate/full-on spray. I am thinking the new plugs may be fouled from my few previous attempts with the old gas. I'll be hitting it again this weekend.