My new to me '99 Ranger seems to have a problem while accelerating. The engine sounds fine, but I can feel it kinda shaking or pinging in the gas pedal, if you know what I mean.
It's a 4.0L V-6, extended cab 4 door, with 60,000 miles on it.

 

Hi and welcome to FTE! Congratulations on your new (to you) Ranger.

I think you have to start with general maintenance. Do you know when the sparkplugs and wires were last changed? How about the air filter and PCV valve? Fuel filter? These are all things that you should consider for your new truck. 60,000 miles is about time change all of them, if that has not yet been done.

You should also be certain about your fluids. Aside from fresh engine oil and filter, you should consider changing your transmission fluid.

These are all relatively cheap things you can do and they will provide the most immmediate positive impact on your truck's performance.

 

rockledge,

Sounds like excellent advice, and I will take it to heart.

I'll stop by the auto parts place today and get the fluids and parts required, and start PM'ing.

I did buy a Haynes manual, and that seems pretty comprehensive, at least for what I plan on doing myself.
I also bought some repair manual on CD, off of ebay, although it has not arrived yet.

 

mike,

Sounds like your gonna dive right in. That's great!. With the manuals and a little common sense, you can get a lot done. Just wanna give you a heads up on the following:

1) Regarding the spark plugs, you want to get the double platinum type. Autolite and Bosch brands are popular with people on this board. Also, changing the plugs and wires on a 4.0L isn't exactly easy (but it is doable). I had a friend of mine who is a mechanic do mine;

2) Changing a fuel filter ain't exactly easy, either. Again, I had my mechanic friend do mine;

3) Avoid Fram oil filters.

Hope this helps.

 

Well, I'm diving in, but I have pretty much hit bottom I think.

I changed out the air filter with a Fram, before I read about Fram here on the forum.

Changed out the oil with Castrol GTX 5W-30 and a motorcraft oil filter.

Changed out the PCV valve.

Cleaned the MAF sensor.

The spark plugs are beyond me, I can see that right off.
I'm going to have to pay someone to change 'em out, and I think it will be worth it.

The fuel filter now...it looks doable, and I bought one, but mine came with some little plastic "fingers", but the one installed right now has some kind of metal clamps on it..

What do you do with the new plastic fingers?

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

 

Okay, after much thrashing,howling, and a bit of blood letting, I finally got the fuel filter replaced.
El cheapo set of plastic QD's cost me $9.00, but it was worth it I suppose.

At any rate, my Ranger is running much much better now, and it was running really well before I started.

I can't believe how nice it is to have a vehicle I can crawl up under and work on. My last car was a little Honda CRX, and not only was the engine compartment too small for me to work in, I also did not like jacking it up and crawling under it, even with jack stands.

The spark plugs are still beyond me, but I'm just glad I realized that from the start, rather than a few hours later.

 

Sounds like you had quite a productive day. Did some "bonding" with your new Ranger .

Fram air filters are fine, just steer clear of their oil filters.

P.S. Glad to hear you won your wrestling match with the fuel filter!

 

Rockledge, just curious, why u say stay away from fram oil filters? I been using fram oil filters on my 96 ranger (v6, 4.0 litre, ext cab, manual trans) from the first oil change on. am i missing something here?

 

DVLSH1,

Welcome to FTE! The issue of Fram filters and their questionable quality has been discussed many times in the Oil and Lubrication Forum. When you get some time, you ought to do a search in that forum and read through some of the threads relating to Fram filters. In the meantime, here are a few links to get you started:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...ht=fram+filter

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...ht=fram+filter

Also, check out:

http://minimopar.net/oilfilterstudy.html

 

Thanx, guess it time for a oil, filter, and filter brand change

 

Yeah, my father has almost 30 years experience as a mechanic and he told me growing up NEVER to buy a Fram filter for anything. So I've never personally taken one apart to see why they are so cheap, I just take his word for it.

I changed my tranny fluid, fuel filter, plugs, wires, air filter, etc. recently and my 4.0 runs much smoother, more powerful, and gets 1.5 miles per gallon more now too. Changing the plugs on a 4.0 really isn't that bad...all you need is a 5/8" deep well socket I believe, and you can do it in an hour or two.

Ford wanted $223.00 to change them for me, so I spent $74.00 to buy the parts at Advance and did it myself.

Good luck!

 

i work as a warehouse manager for an industrial supply company. We have 2 box truck trucks, one a 1999 GMC with a 454 vortec...currently it has 191,000 miles on it. Every change has been with napa filters and oils every 3k miles. It runs like a champ every day.

The other box truck is an 2001 f450 7.3 turbo(my truck when i make runs so i take care of her) all napa fluids changes every 5k miles..runs great at 65,000

Never bought a fram product, but enver heard bad stuff..i know napa seems to be a good product

 

It's bugging me more & more, about those spark plugs...

I'm thinking I am going to have to at least try to change 'em out, before I give up and pay someone else to do it.

Could someone please tell me exactly what tools I need to make the job as easy & painless as possible?

Also, how many plugs are there, and which ones are the hardest to change out?
I want to start with the hardest plug to change out, and work my way to the easiest.

Any help greatly appreciated, and of course, thank you to everyone for the help and advice already given.

 

The passenger rear cylinder will be the hardest one to tackle on the 4.0L, the rest will be easy.

A spark plug boot puller would be a great tool to have, but its not necessary.

When you pull your plug boots, make sure you get a firm grip on the boot and use a slight rotating when you pull it off. There will be some resistance then a good POP. They will come off hard.

BTW only do one cylinder at a time, so you don't mix the wires up.

Necessary Tools:

1. Spark plug gapper... I prefer the wire guage type, but the circular guage type will work in a pinch. You need to gap the plugs according to your owners manual.

2. 3/8 ratchet with some 2'' and 4'' extentions

3. 5/8 spark plug socket (different that just a plain ole deep well, it has a rubber boot inside that holds the plug in the socket, which will come in handy), a jointed socket works best.

4. vaccum cleaner or a air hose, to blow or remove the debri around your old spark plug so that it doesn't fall down into the cylinder when the old plug is removed.

5. Patience

Just a side note:

Your OEM plugs are supposed to go at least 100K, they should still be good, it just may be that they need to be regapped.

you have six cylinders... so that will equal 6 plugs.

Personally I would buy the motorcraft plugs from a Ford dealer and not mess with any other type, this is comming from someone who learned the hard way.

Have fun!

 

Don't forget to put dielectric grease on the wire boots and antisieze on the plug threads.