Ranger Rehab!

[SheepDog]

My immediate concern right now is making sure I got the Cam position thing in the right spot relative to the rest of the motor. I don't want to blow it up when I start it lol.

 

[Denisefwd93]

Years ago a friend taught me how to remove distributor on my Pontiac 2.8 it looks like the same type of deal, absolutely has to be marked before you take it out. Hey maybe the "guy" put it in wrong! Lol

My immediate concern right now is making sure I got the Cam position thing in the right spot relative to the rest of the motor. I don't want to blow it up when I start it lol.

 

[SheepDog]

Alright, so good news first. I got it all buttoned back up with no extra parts left over! So thats a good start. I started it up with my fingers crossed there would be no explosions. It started, make an awful racket for about 2-3 seconds and then it must have adjusted itself for the new cam sensor housing and then it smoothed out. I let it warm up while checking for leaks and luckily found none. Also good news is that it now has fresh coolant in it and the entire cooling system is working as it should now.

The bad new.... it still wont rev up or move. In fact it is running just like it was before, albeit much more smoothly now. As long as I dont give it gas or put a load on it, it idles better than it did.

I guess I'll be doing the cats now. I crawled under the truck as it was running and this time the cats were vibrating and rattling, something I did not hear last time.

At least I got that nasty gunky goo out of the heads and intake and have some fresh coolant and other parts in there. Also got some good experience in the process.

 

[Denisefwd93]

adsm and Ron describe a few ways to check for blocked cat converters without taking them out until you find out for sure
Good reading, advice and how to here : http://www.aa1car.com/library/converter.htm

 

[SheepDog]

Took the old cats and O2 sensors off and replaced them with Walker cats and Bosch OEM sensors.

Drumroll please.......

She is alive!!!! Turns out the cats were in fact destroyed and plugging up my engine. Thanks for the tip on that guys. I would have never thought to think about cats causing such a big problem.

I did run into a small problem with the new cats and downpipes though. For whatever reason, the passenger side downpipe wont line up correctly with the exhaust manifold flange no matter how much I play with it. As a result it has a NASTY leak right at the manifold flange. As a result, the fuel trims are WAY out of whack for bank 1, which I assume is the passenger side. Bank 2, the driver side which is all tight, has nice low and consistent fuel trims.

I also located a few drips of coolant coming from the water pump, right about where the lower radiator hose comes out. I cant tell if its from the water pump gasket or the hose. That will be further inspected after the exhaust is fixed.

Also the thing needs brakes. It bucks an vibrates like crazy when stopping. I've never felt such warped rotors before. Any idea what size rear drum shoes I need? I have the EDGE package but could not fine the axle tag anywhere on the truck.

 

[SheepDog]

I figured out the drum brake size. 10".

 

[Denisefwd93]

Nobody ever believes me when I say "check the cat/s"!

Can you heat the pipe and bend it slightly to fit the manifold connection? I don't think you need oxy acetylene for that.

Congrats!