My 2.8 is on her last legs :(

[r1hatman]

So I went to get my 14ft aluminum fishing boat I had been keeping up at my sisters for around 5 years and no surprise it needs new tires, I go to Wallyworld to wait for 30 minutes while they screw around with getting the tires on and I pick up some axle grease cause this is a older sears trailer with axle bearings. I get back to my sisters house and pack the bearings, put the wheels back on and pull it out of the woods where it was. I had to borrow a 1 7/8" ball from her neighbor cause all I brought was a 2" ball. I check my fluids cause I have a small radiator leak and some oil blow by, which I made a catch can for,and make sure everything is tied down and take off. My sister lives in Dandridge which is about 38 miles away interstate wise. So I get to the interstate and everything is okay, I always turn off the radio when I'm towing to listen for trouble, and nothing. I notice while I'm on the interstate that my truck is getting hot, so I pull over and put some water in the bypass tank and check my oil. And pull back out. By the time I get to Knoxville in is seriously hot and I know something is up, it's never gotten hot before. I pull in to a gas station and see that the grease cap on one side is gone and the bearing is thrashed. And I knew if I keep going I would risk blowing up my truck loosing a wheel and wrecking the boat. So I chained it to a tree, and came home at about 11:00pm last night. Now I am waiting for a friend to go with a trailer and load it up and bring it the rest of the way. My truck acts okay. But since I got the bigger wheels it' been a noticeable power loss and a lot more blow by. I just hope it will last till I get my 289 ready to drop in cause I don't want to spend any more money on the 2.8 with either 185K or 285K miles on it. Anybody had any luck with pour in temp fixes for those motors?
Anyway, that's my rant.

 

[dp88]

Thats too bad. dont have any experience with that but I just saw I live about 40 min south of you.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

2.8's have a lot of legs.

I could have sworn mine was on its last set a couple times but it keeps finding more to fall back on...

 

[adsm08]

Might be time for a valve adjustment and water pump..

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Might be time for a valve adjustment and water pump..

Water pump is cheap (like $20)

Make sure you take the bypass neck off of the back side of the timing cover and get it really, really clean for it to seal.

If you have it, the power steering and A/C stuff has to come out to get to the backside of the timing cover... I tried working around it and I couldn't get it to seal, once that stuff is out of the way it is wide open.

That neck is aluminum and your steel bolts won't flinch at stripping out the threads. Not a big deal if you do, longer bolts with nuts will fix it.

 

[straycat]

So I went to get my 14ft aluminum fishing boat I had been keeping up at my sisters for around 5 years and no surprise it needs new tires, I go to Wallyworld to wait for 30 minutes while they screw around with getting the tires on and I pick up some axle grease cause this is a older sears trailer with axle bearings. I get back to my sisters house and pack the bearings, put the wheels back on and pull it out of the woods where it was. I had to borrow a 1 7/8" ball from her neighbor cause all I brought was a 2" ball. I check my fluids cause I have a small radiator leak and some oil blow by, which I made a catch can for,and make sure everything is tied down and take off. My sister lives in Dandridge which is about 38 miles away interstate wise. So I get to the interstate and everything is okay, I always turn off the radio when I'm towing to listen for trouble, and nothing. I notice while I'm on the interstate that my truck is getting hot, so I pull over and put some water in the bypass tank and check my oil. And pull back out. By the time I get to Knoxville in is seriously hot and I know something is up, it's never gotten hot before. I pull in to a gas station and see that the grease cap on one side is gone and the bearing is thrashed. And I knew if I keep going I would risk blowing up my truck loosing a wheel and wrecking the boat. So I chained it to a tree, and came home at about 11:00pm last night. Now I am waiting for a friend to go with a trailer and load it up and bring it the rest of the way. My truck acts okay. But since I got the bigger wheels it' been a noticeable power loss and a lot more blow by. I just hope it will last till I get my 289 ready to drop in cause I don't want to spend any more money on the 2.8 with either 185K or 285K miles on it. Anybody had any luck with pour in temp fixes for those motors?
Anyway, that's my rant.

Darn...bad luck follows you, Bro!!!! Just glad nobody got hurt or killed!!!

 

[Ranger Kip]

Oh yeah, 2.8's have a lot of legs alright, especially with mine runnin at 433k miles and still kicken like it hopped off the assembly like (minus the usual piston hole wear, needs boared and sleeved, might insert bigger pistons actually). The big issue with powe rloss for me was the piston holes being worn. also that, and the fact that it ran for 4 years prior to the 4 years it sat before we purchased it, without any fluid changes.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Oh yeah, 2.8's have a lot of legs alright, especially with mine runnin at 433k miles and still kicken like it hopped off the assembly like (minus the usual piston hole wear, needs boared and sleeved, might insert bigger pistons actually). The big issue with powe rloss for me was the piston holes being worn. also that, and the fact that it ran for 4 years prior to the 4 years it sat before we purchased it, without any fluid changes.

Just bore it enough to clean it up, if it is worn enough you need to sleeve it... you would probably be better off with a different block.

 

[Ranger Kip]

nah, I'll stick with my old iron block that came with it, its fine, just old.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

back flush the radiator and when you have the pump off flush the block out real good. just doing the valve guide seals and the duraspark brought mine back to life. If you dont need to pass emisions yank the computer and put a nonfeedback carb on with the duraspark conversion about $200 total but if your computer is working good just change the valve guide seals and adjust the rockers but do a compression test before you do anything and put a vacuum guage to it the engine will tell you if it is on its last leg but if the oil pressure is good run it till it pukes.

 

[mp3deviant721]

It's a Ranger. It will keep running for you until you get that 289 in there.

 

[r1hatman]

Actually, I might be savable for a while? I think it's the thermostat. My friend couldn't help, so I put the wheel bearing on the boat trailer and hauled it back myself. It got hot again, but when I got home and left it running it cooled back down, and the top radiator hose was tight, so I think it might be the thermostat not opening up, or the water pump, but how to diagnose either if them, I know if you take off the radiator cap and start it, you can see the water swirling if the pump is working, but it's hard to tell if the thermo is opening. Anybody got any tricks for that? Might as well put in the water pump too and do the valve stem guides to fix the blow by. but then that's it no more money on this motor except regular maintenance . How much would this motor go for when I pull it to put in the 289?
Actually Stray, I have pretty good luck most of the time. It was a miracle that the wheel didn't come off on the interstate.

Oh and thanks for all the info guys!

 

[r1hatman]

Thats too bad. dont have any experience with that but I just saw I live about 40 min south of you.

Where you at?

 

[kimcrwbr1]

If it takes a long time to warm up and start giving heat the stat is stuck open. I always hated the stat on the lower hose and I found two piece thermostat housing that is on the intake manifold. I am not sure what year it came out of but the engine runs cooler and steady at an idle I just plugged the bypass on the intake manifold and use the 1" nipple on the stat housing. Anyway I found the best way to get the air out of the system is with the flush kit in the radiator hose turn the water on slow and start the engine with the cap loose when it starts to run out the cap turn the water off and run it till the upper radiator hose gets hot. They get a air lock in the heater core and the bypass dont work correct. Heres a funny one the guy at the bone yard told me to put the thermostat in a pan of boiling water then when it was open put it in the engine real quick and add some water I laughed in his face and the funny part he was serious. Anyway I keep a spare water pump and The last one I got on ebay for $18 I think the higher engine temps wear out the seals quicker since I put the thermostat in the upper hose the guage barely reaches half on a hot day with A 195 stat in it I think the best thing was when I changed the last pump I flushed the block out real good with a hose and got alot of crap out the I backflushed the radiator real good if you take the nozzle off the hose and kink it you can get a good burst of pressure it take three hands tho hold the lower hose and blast it backwards from the fill cap or plug the lower hose and fill it with 1/2 and 1/2 bleach/water overnite then back flush it you can use oven cleaner also for the overnite soak it breaks up the crap that settles in the radiator without damaging it just be careful where you do the flush on either one and they both work good for heater cores also If the leak they were bad anyway. Yea water pump, backflush and t-stat total abut 40-50 dollars and just flushing the radiator for a few minutes backwards without a nozzle on the hose full blast can sometimes open it up enough to make the difference.

 

[Ranger Kip]

put the new engine in and part the old one out for some $ to make up for some of the cost of the new engine =) worst come of course.