Too much compression or head issues???

[Wilfred019845]

Hello all my name is wil. about six months ago my brother in law and i set out to build a unique car (1963 comet 4x4 aka vomit comet) we used a 1991 ford ranger power train (2.9L) and frame. well the car is 99% done and was running great till about a week or so ago. it runs fine for about 15-20 minutes then stalls out and the starter has a hard time turning it over. let it sit for about 2 hrs and it starts fine. did full tune up changed coil, starter, flushed tranny. but we noticed the engine oil smelled like gas so we ran it to get it to stall out then tried turning it over but still nothing so we pulled the plugs and it turns just fine. Any thought on what may be the cause? any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[adsm08]

That's a tough question. My first instinct is to say there may be multiple issues given the symptoms listed don't fit a single issue, but I can think of several common heat related issues that would likely be present in an engine that old.


The TFI module can work fine when cold but give out at temp. The starter, if it's getting weak, will not work as well when it's hot.



How does it turn by hand with the plugs in after it stalls?

How are the plugs? Fuel or carbon fouled?

 

[Wilfred019845]

the plug were bad but we changed them. the starter is new. what is TFI? sorry if thats a dumb question i'm a mitsu guy not to familiar with fords. a little tough to turn by hand after stall.

i did notice a slight miss right before stalling and a friend of ours that owns a repair shop said the stalling may be the ignition module, fuel pressure, or injectors. your thoughts? THANK YOU for the reply...

 

[Beef52751]

almost sounds like an electrical problem to me. something is warming up, lowering voltage, stalling the truck and making it seem hard to crank until everything is cooled... but its hard to diagnose over the net

 

[Wilfred019845]

I may be, after about a week of driving the battery does go dead. but when we test it thru out the week it shows full charge. we thought the alternator was causeing it and bought a new one but it still does it. i know that if a car is running and you disconnect the battery it should stay running, but when we do it, it will run for 10-15 sec and then it dies. could it be the voltage regulator cutting out after warm up?

 

[RustedRanger]

I have had a motor "lock up" after getting gas in the oil from a mechanical fuel pump failing...but it takes a lot of gas to do that. Cool car,I like that body style.

 

[TimR]

is there a manifold exhaust leak? If the exhaust hits the starter, it will swell the winding, causing the starter to drag.

 

[Mac]

I think Adsm08 nailed it with the TSI module going bad. Not working so I did a Google on TFI problems, sure sounds like what you have. Sounds like a very common problem. Good luck, like what you did to the Comet! Been thinking about that with my old F-1 PU, kind of like what DoorGunner did.
Dave of the Nord

 

[doorgunner]

Just a thought......gas in the oil/fuel injector leaking gasoline into one of the cylinders causing too much compression for starter to work correctly---gasoline slowly leaks past piston rings into oil pan allowing starter to work correctly again.

It happened to my 2.9 (before all the other TPS/MAP/PTSD stuff started going bad, one at a time!!!!!)

 

[Wilfred019845]

Hey guys i appreciate all the input haven't checked anything yet. its been raining here and its supposed to rain all week but as soon as i get a chance i'll let you know. in case someone else has the same issues later. they can at least know what to look for.

 

[doorgunner]

hey guys i appreciate all the input haven't checked anything yet. Its been raining here and its supposed to rain all week but as soon as i get a chance i'll let you know. In case someone else has the same issues later. They can at least know what to look for.

eggzakly !!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I may be, after about a week of driving the battery does go dead. but when we test it thru out the week it shows full charge. we thought the alternator was causeing it and bought a new one but it still does it. i know that if a car is running and you disconnect the battery it should stay running, but when we do it, it will run for 10-15 sec and then it dies. could it be the voltage regulator cutting out after warm up?

Unless you have a magneto (unlikely) it should need the battery to run.

I question the battery and/or connections, my 302 did that right after the swap. I had left the cable loose so I could jerk it off in a hurry if I had to and forgot about it. Combine that with a 4 year old 525 CCA walmart battery and it would turn over really slow when it was hot.

 

[fyre82]

Check to be sure that your crankcase isn't filing with gas from the pressure regulator being bad.

Could be it fills up, then you can't crank because fluid doesn't compress, then the fuel evaporates and allows space again.

I did have one fill a crankcase with fuel, when it got started there was a huge white cloud of fuel vapor that came out, fortunately it didn't ignite . . .