Hello all, have a 97 ranger 2wd with the 2.3l 4 cyl and i have some problems i need help with. have been getting codes p0301 and P0303 and lean burn bank 2 for about a year now. finally now got to where i have no power and won't idle at all, runs crappy. only have 110,000 miles on it. generaly good conditin except for this issue. well started testing things, found both coils to have 0.9 v on the primary pins test center to either outside one, and secondary have 13,500 ohms on all the secondary pairs on both coils. are these ok? spark plugs are new and wires are new about 6 months ago. fuel pressure 35 psi 40 psi with vacuum hose unhooked. new fuel filter. compression test 30 psi cyl 1, other 3 cyl 180 psi, put oil in cyl 1 and didn't change compression still 30 psi, so i pull head figuring burnt valve. drain coolant and find oil in it, not a lot, but enough. no water in oil though. get head off and nothing looks real bad, seat on #1 exh seems like it wasn't seating good for a while, dark with soot. so what do you think, the chances are that a valve job will cure the no compression in cyl 1? cyl looks ok, what can i look for to see if the rings are ok? i put the oil in the cyl and when it didn't change the compression figured it was for sure valves, but now not so sure. please help if you can. thank you very much in advance.
micheal

 

I see you don't have any replies yet, so I'll see if I can get things started. I'm not a 4banger guru, but as you didn't have good compression on #1, have pulled the head & the #1 cyl bore & piston look ok, then I agree, seems your left with looking at/reworking the head. Let us know what's found & how it goes.

 

thank you for replying. after the head was off, i ran #1 piston halfway up the bore and put 1" of ATF in it and let it sit till next nite, when i checked it, it was only down by 1/64" so i would think that should be ok rings then? hopefully. well i pulled the head apart and took to local engine shop, he found crack between valve seats on #1 -pretty bad crack really and a smaller crack on #4 exh seat also. worst part was, all the exhaust seats were sunk way down. he says it seemed like way more miles than 110,000, but i am sure they are origanal miles, i hope! what now? cracked head like that i suppose is junk, right. cam had some dishing on the straight parts of the lobes also, spose where the rollers ride. i don't know, seems like that is alot of wear for 110,000 miles and i don't rod it either. that wear would have had to been started before i got it 55,000 miles ago. what are your thoughts. buy rebuilt head/camshaft and put it together and see what happens? i got the injectors in the cleaning shop right now, had the #1 and #3 misfires and lean burn bank 2 codes for a year or better. my temp guage always stayed centered like it should, so it didn't run hot, unless something happened to it that i wasn't aware of.....

thanks very much.
micheal