YAY - I'm Back! (New to Forum) Meet Luna, my Purple '98 Ranger

[Victorymike18]

Hello,

I've been lurking here for a while as I was hoping to get another Ranger someday. I used to have a '93 short cab 2.3L 5-speed RWD and it was a great little truck.

Well that day came this weekend! I was at the scrap metal yard and this Purple Ranger was sitting up front. I asked and it was for sale.


So here's the rundown:

'98 short cab with about 245k miles
3.0L Vulcan
4x4 & 5-Speed
Rubber floor, vinyl type seats, one-piece rear window. *So I guess it was a base trim level of the V6 4x4?

The Good:
Straight body (top edge of passenger door was pried on though)
Virtually no rust on body.
Frame is in good condition
I got it for under $1k.

The Bad:
Burns quite a bit of oil, especially when cold.
Motor runs rough, It seems to be a misfire.
Clutch grabs high, and first gear is a little hard to get into so I'm assuming the clutch is on its last leg...
Interior is pretty complete but very rough.

The Plan:
Change all the fluids (Oil, Trans, Transfer & Differential), bleed the brakes & clutch.
Give it a full tune-up and figure out the misfire/rough running. Hopefully plug/wires related.
Clean it up (the bed cap is going), and find some better seats and interior trim parts...
I hope the tune-up will help with the oil burning (pretty smoky out the tailpipe). Maybe a bad PCV or a leaking top-end gasket? My gut feeling is that the motor is tired and will need to be replaced.

Oh, my Wife hates it already, so this is going to be an uphill battle... My 5-year old daughter thinks it is awesome though and is the one who named it Luna (Yeah, it's a My Little Pony reference).







I guess the previous owner couldn't be bothered to get a replacement lock... And the circle mirror is being removed...

 

[Mark_88]

Welcome to TRS~!

Well, the wife probably hates it because there is barely enough room to squeeze two people in...three makes it close...four is illegal...so if you're planning any more children you should consider the extended cab...or a minivan...lol

Looks good and it can last a long time with a bit of care...

The oil burn is a major concern though...these engines can last a very long time...I had one with about the same mileage with the 3.0 but I sent it to the scrapyard because I found something better...but that engine did not burn a drop and ran smooth as can be...

I would look around for an engine to replace what you have...and if you've been lurking you will know already that they do not exchange with anything other than what you've got...but you can probably find one easily...

A good project to get the family involved with...

 

[hoosier1104]

Welcome to TRS and 3.0L Vulcan club. Great engine if they are taken care of. Your misfire could be a couple a things; MAF is dirty, coil is going/has gone bad, plugs need changed, PCV valve, AIC valve. I would start simple and work your way up.

 

[Victorymike18]

Thanks!

Well, my Wife isn't into pickups and we have a couple of other vehicles in the family so it's really not a matter of day to day family use - She thinks it is going to sit around most of the year and get used once or twice... My Father-in-law and I know that we'll use it a lot more often now that we finally have it.

We (My FIL & I) also have a bit of a history of dragging out projects too, so there's that... However, we cleaned house of old projects a couple of years ago (I was into 80's VW's and my FIL had a '67 Mustang) and we have been itching for something that can serve as a project while being functional. Once we fix this up the main role will be for homeowner type duty: running to the hardware store, getting firewood, the occasional scrap metal yard or bulk-junk day drop-off's, moving furniture, etc.

For the motor: Thanks Hoosier for the tips! Those were along my line of thinking too, so I'll definitely start with the items that can be cleaned, replace fluids, plugs/wires, etc.

I will also take a look at the cam position sensor. I've been reading those are the one lingering issue with these motors. I can also see us sourcing a replacement 3.0L and keeping it on the side in case this one is truly bad. Pick & Pull yards are plentiful by me, especially with Taurus(es?)

I had a good 3.0L SHO motor years ago waiting for a vehicle... It's a shame I got rid of it as that's more my "cup of tea" when it comes to motors, and it would have been awesome in here.

 

[swifttony]

Welcome! Hello from Vegas!

 

[Victorymike18]

Well, it took me a couple of weeks (working a couple hours a night) to clean out the garage. It had years of neglect and junk piled up in it.

So I got the truck in and started poking around with pulling the spark plugs. I'm happy to say that I think my diagnosis on the misfire and oil burning is right. All of the plugs had oil on them, with one being completely gunked up. So I already bought a replacement PCV Valve and will get to replacing that as it was probably the culprit.

BTW: the plug wire ends by the plugs are a royal pain in the butt to pull off for three of the six cylinders!

I'll post up a pic of the old plugs...

 

[Victorymike18]

Buying some additional parts today to keep freshening up the motor.

I decided that I'll pull the upper intake manifold to ensure I give the PCV hose, throttle body and intake a good cleaning.

Here's a picture of her in the recently cleaned up garage:

 

[Victorymike18]

Kinda frustrated here...

Got it all buttoned up after doing Plugs, Wires, PCV, cleaned throttle body and did the gasket and intake manifold gasket & changed the oil & filter.

All that and I'm still getting a misfire...

Also, it is now not charging the battery... It jump starts fine and the battery light is on while running & doesn't charge... Maybe I bumped into the Alternator wire or something, so time to diagnose that.

Good news is that it isn't smoking anymore, so at least the PCV issue was resolved.

 

[Victorymike18]

I was able to mess around with the truck today & figured out the charging issue was that I simply didn't clamp down the positive battery terminal, it was very loose... I clamped it down and it started right up.

Also, I got an OBD II scanner and came up with P0306 "Camshaft Position Sensor" which I assume is the Syncronizer and ultimately the cause of my misfire.

Any recommendations on a good replacement syncronizer? Is Dorman Ok?

 

[chvlfrk]

Wherebouts you located???

CPS is VERY COMMON in the 3.0L's..........

 

[pjrhodes88]

I like to stick to the original and buy motorcraft parts. You can get them at a decent price from rockauto.com. I had a cylinder start missing on my truck and my e3 spark plugs only had 10,000 miles on them! Switch back to fords motorcraft platinum SP500 plugs and been running champ ever since!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Victorymike18]

Forgot to post an update.

I swapped out the Cam Synchronizer with a Dorman unit and the misfire is gone, and no more codes so-far. With that, I got it registered and insured since I am confident that it is roadworthy at this point.

I built a pressure fluid filler so tonight I am doing fluid changes in the Trans, Differential, & Transfer Case. If shifting is still a bit rough then I'll bleed the clutch. I really have my fingers crossed that the clutch has some life left.

If the pressure fluid thing works I will post some pictures to share - it's pretty neat.

 

[Victorymike18]

Just wanted to post this up. I made a setup to pump in the transmission fluid and it worked excellent.

My only improvement would be to add a valve towards the end of the hose right before it goes into the trans. When the fluid started dribbling out of the fill hole I opened the pressure release on the pump bottle which immediately stopped the flow of fluid, but the residual fluid in the line made a mess when I forgot to keep it higher than the bottle...