My son picked up this old Ranger with a 2.3 engine, 5-speed. It acts a little odd, so I thought I'd post and see if anyone can offer some helpful info.

Engine cycles from high idle to low idle quite a bit before it warms up. Fairly extreme, from about 500 rpm to 1800 rpm. Is this normal?

Gas pedal seems to go down quite a bit before engine responds. Seems to be play in the little linkage under the throttle body dust cover. Is this normal?

(The butterfly does open fully when the gas pedal hits the floor.)

I found 4 OBD2 codes:

PO171
PO136
PO141
P1443

The first one I may have fixed. It indicates a lean condition and whoever owned the truck previously, cut a hole in the rubber tube between the throttle body and the MAF for the valve covr vent tube. So lots of air was being sucked in without the MAF sensing it. I sealed the hole for now and will route the valve cover vent hose to the other side of the MAF.

Second two are for the rear O2 sensor, and I'm not even sure if there is one now. Looks like the cat conv is missing and probably the O2 sensor as well. From what I understand, a rear O2 sensor is only used to determine if the cat conv is doing its job and doesn't affect engine operation.

The last code concerns the canister purge system and it is apparent the canister purge valve (solenoid) is a rusted hunk of nothing useful. No click when 12 VDC is applied and no air passes thorugh it powered or not. So that's an easy fix.

I need to check the PCV valve and connections as well, but can't quite see where that stuff is. Supposed to be near the rear of the engine under the throttle body. I need to get a dentist's mirror and have a better look.

Any comments (other than tow it to the junkyard....)?

 

It will not be that hard to fix. I would start with actually replacing the intake tube, easy to find in a junkyard, our you can build your own with the Specter parts in the parts stores. A factory one would be better.

If the O2 sensors and cat are missing, are the connectors still there or was it butchered. If it was butchered, take this truck to the scrap heap, that will be way to hard to fix and even if you did it might have more problems. If the parts are simply unplugged, just buy new ones and get a universal converter and put it in.

You already know what the canister purge needs, that one will be easy.

I don't think it will cost too much to fix this, the 2.3L Rangers are known to be reliable almost to the point of legend. This one only has problems because someone has previously rednecked it (no offense to rednecks) and decided that they were smarted and cheaper than the engineers who built the truck.

 

the PCV valve is right in the center of the pic


Why is it trashed if the connectors are cut. Can't you get JY connectors and wire them together?

 

Thanks Guys. Did a little more looking around and found the following:

1/ It does have a cat convertor. I was expecting something a little different than this "bulge" in the front exhaust pipe. I don't see any O2 sensors or even a bung for one downstream of the cat conv. I havn't looked for the wiring yet.

2/ I see it has headers. Would those be stock?

3/ Someone removed the air filter box and installed one of those tapered Specter air filters. Long plastic tube from there to a shorter rubber corregated tube. Not sure what parts are stock.

Thanks for the pic of the PCV. I'm looking for another air leak due to the "lean" code still being ON. Must check the brake booster hose, etc. too.

Looks like a trip to the junkyard for some of these parts. Usually they crush anything over 10 years old, but sometimes not. Still one junkyard around that lets me take off parts, show them what I have, and says "Oh, about $10 ought to cover it". Probably up to $20 by now....LOL.

Brakes work very well. ABS light is on though. Not a major issue, but I may try bleeding them someday just in case, although there doesn't feel like any air is in them.

Yep, last owner did like to play around with things. Has Mustang rims and tires on it, some sort of red mesh grill, and the front amber turn lights have been replaced with clear ones.

Expensive stereo/CD player in it too!

Overall, in good shape. A bit of surface rust here and there, but solid. I guess for $800 he did OK. Darned insurance hasn't been firmed up yet, but could be as high as $2800 a year. Driver under 25 with two moving violations. One was a ***** move on the part of the police, the other was fair enough....speeding.

Hard to get too upset....if I had a ticket for every driving trick I did when I was young.....don't even like to think about it.

 

When wires are just cut and left hanging without discrimination, I have found all too often that electrical demons (upgrades from gremlins) plague the vehicle. Not specifically on Rangers, but when the converter thefts were at their peak and Toyotas were prime targets, the thieves were just clipping the wires, and when the converters and sensors were replaced, it turned out that the computers had been damaged. This happened in about 1 out of 3. On these truck which were newer, they had enough value to be worth fixing. In contrast, a 1996 Ranger can be had cheaply, and why mess with a butchered one?

 

Just trying to make the best of a deal that can't be undone.

Am working on exhaust today. I noticed the rear O2 sensor is installed and connected.

Frame looks good but fwd mount for right leaf spring is rusted badly. So there's another job.....grind off the rivets, replace the mount, probably with Grade 8 bolts.

Lots of fun............

 

Ok, if all the sensors are good, then maybe this truck isn't that bad a deal, it just needs a little TLC.