so.. I had a post about valve lash.. fixed that. seemed to wake the motor up a bit, and its a lot quieter, seemed like the motor had a very very low powerband. we're talking 20kmph in 1st gear max.
so I figured my ignition timing was out, checked it, and it was at around 20deg. so I set it back to 10.
now the truck has absolutely nothing in the low end, and feels like it has a turbo when it hits 3000rpm.
this truck is supposed to pull a trailor in a week or so, and I'm looking for some help on getting this thing running properly.
when it idles, it misses. and my ignition is all good. my smog pump is hooked up to a belt but the hoses are plugged and the "EGR" pipes from the exhaust are plugged and welded. I was thinking about "cleaning up" the vacuum hoses... basically ripping them out and plugging everything so there's no chance of a leak.
is there anything I need to know that I can't rip out?
also, I have an 89 Ranger, 2WD 4cyl w/ dual ignition. its not cool when the 4cyl spanks the 6cyl.
thanks...

 

so this is what I've done.
checked and rechecked the ignition timing. set between 10 and 12deg. checked wires, cap & coil resistances. coil is receiving a nominal 12.6V while running.
plugged, routed and tightened up vacuum hoses
flipped air cleaner lid to cut down on intake bottlenecking. (noticed a lot of oil in the aircleaner from the oil cap.)
forgot about the compression test.
noticed a connector was unplugged at the back of the carb, so I hooked it up. didnt seem to do anything.
in the end, the truck idles more smoothly and seems to drive without misses and hesitations, however, still has absolutely no lowend power. if I'm on a hill I practically have to floor the accelerator while releasing the clutch so it doesn't stall, or ride the hell out of the clutch.
while setting the timing, the mark isn't jumping around like crazy so I'm sure I have a good set of gears. looks like a huge job to check the cam timing.

 

I wouldn't worry about cam timing, it's practically impossible for it to jump and if it did, it would most likely be so bad that the motor wouldn't run at all (as in failure of the nylon cam gear.)

So you're saying that it had more bottom end before you reset the timing? I'm thinking there's a problem with the distributor advance not working properly (or at all), either the vacuum or the mechanical advance , or both.

 

ya maybe.. I'll yank the distributor off and see if its all good inside.
so it has a centrifugal and a vacuum advance? maybe the mechanism for the centrifugal is gummed up or something

 

Put a timing light on it and disconnect the vacuum advance, then start it and rev the engine slowly while watching the timing mark. If it advances as the engine speed increases then the mechanical advance is working. Then hold it at a steady speed and hook up the vacuum advance, if the mark moves still more then the vacuum advance is working too. (That's if the vacuum advance works off of timed vacuum rather than manifold vacuum. If it's manifold vaccum, then you'd have full vacuum advance right from idle.)

 

I think it might be all the emissions equitment screwing with your motor. I have an 84 and I have mad low end power, but I run out of steam up high. But I just rebuilt all my emissions equitment because I live in California. I think all the emissons equitment has to be working properly for the feedback carb to work. Since half you equitment is broken already i would highly recommend doing a duraspark conversion. Right now you do not have a Vaccum advance distributor if it is stock so its electronic advance, so therefore the computer is most likley freaking because all the sensors are not reading right.

 

whats involved in the duraspark conversion?

 

okay.
let's review my efforts:
the valve lash is perfect. the smog pump has now been completely removed. ignition timing, with SPOUT disconnected is 10BTDC, and my cap, rotor and wires have all been replaced with some good quality NGK bla bla bla.
things I noticed:
vacuum system completely destroyed. hoses cut, snapped, re-routed, and useless. however, the large vacuum from the intake to the MAP is still there.. wahoo. the other vacuum artery (it's red too!) which normally feeds from the vacuum reservior, which in turn is connected to the main vacuum supply via another red plastic hose, and a plastic piece in between. (some sort of valve I suppose).
from the reservior, the red line goes to each one of the sollenoids mounted on the passenger side fender. I'm assuming this is a fairly crucial part of the system.
also, I thought my rockers were noisy, but now I think I got a rod-knock. ofcourse, it could be anything at this point. I hear they spin cam bearings, too.
so what do you guys think? I will try to fix that red line then I guess plug the ones that lead to the smog pump.
also, there was no vacuum leading to the distributor, nor was there a can on the distributor. so I'm assuming it's all controlled by the sollenoids, anyone know which one is the one to hook up?
anyways. there ya go.

 

durispark convertion is not hard but it does need some research, what year is your truck?

 

Another item to concider is the intake gasket. After getting my super clean '84 BII 2.8 and going through it, maintenance wise, it still idle rough and backed fired occasionally. The intake gaskets are under the valve covers and emersed in oil. When I took off the intake manifold (valve covers too), there was oil on both sides of the intake gaskets around the intake ports, indicating to me that the engine was sucking in excesive crankcase fumes and engine oil in place of air/fuel mixture. Replacing the intake gaskets made the single most improvement to the overall performance of the engine in all of the replacing of parts I did to that engine (O2 sensor, fuel pump, valve lash,spark plugs, timing, new computer-old one fried by accidental application of 24V). Just another "tool" for the tool box.

 

So, the low-end power problem turned out to be a bad motor, and it basically turned to mush. It started burning coolant, and leaking it into the crankcase.. the rods got really noisy and the radiator deteriorated.
I bought a parts truck with a half-decent motor, rust-free box and good doors.. for $150!
I just finnished the swap of the motor the other day.. however, it's not exactly a rebuild or anything. I have a terrible valve cover leak, and was looking for some billet aluminum valve covers, or just some that are in good shape. Also, this motor, aswell, lacks in the low-end power.. not sure why. It pings like crazy under load.
Suggestions..!? My vacuum hoses are 99% in original configuration, but I don't have a smog pump.. and the black and pink vaccum lines (supposed to go to the valves, or whatever) that run off the smog pump, are cut and plugged.
Should I look into a functional smog pump?
-Terry

 

My undrstanding as far as the smog pump goes is that if it's working or not, it shouldn't have an effect on the actual combustion process of the engine, were the pinging occures, since it's job is to provide air (O2) for the exhaust gasses and the cat. converter and does this in the exhaust manifold or exhaust pipe (in some cases even staight to the cat. converter).
As I stated before, you may want to look at the intake manifold gasket(replacement) as one of the culprits in the lack of low end power, since your "new" engine is still in reality an old one. Like I said before, after installing the new intake gaskets, that little motor woke right up, specially in the low end. Doing this also took care of the leaking valve covers too. Make sure you staighten out the valve cover's mating surface, it doesn't have to be perfect, just close enough and some high temp copper silicon sealent should do it.
Still had a pinging issue though. This was taken care of by replacing the valve stem seals (thanks to FTE and other forums!). This is a farely easy process if you have a air compressor and fitting to go in the spark plug hole and a compact valve spring compressor that works by a **** you use to compress/decompress the spring with instead of a lever. No compressor? Use a soft nylon rope and stuff it in the buttom out cylinder you are working on. Bring that buttom out piston up to compress the rope and it will keep the valves of that cylinder from dropping when the valve spring is removed (bad dodo if the valve drops in the cylinder). Do one cylinder at a time. With these tools you can do it in a day with the engine still in the rig. Use Felpro seals, factory ones were made of rubber and are crap. Felpro's are of a neoprene type and are way better. Went from 4-5 qtrs. of oil in between 3500 mi. oil changes to 0 and no pinging except for extreme lugging of the engine. Best 2 things I 've done to the engine. Runs like new!

 

wow okay I'll start with the intake gaskets cause it's not burning any oil that I've noticed.
you say just silicone should work on the valvecovers? no gaskets at all just straight copper silicone?
the other problem I've noticed it runs like all holy hell in the morning.. the electric choke works but it doesn't have a fast idle
well, I'll buy the intake set for the weekend and go to town on the old girl.
thanks a bunch.
-Terry

 

No, use the gaskets but seal them with the silicone. Not too much though, if that crap gets into the pan and gets sucked into the oil pump you're looking at much bigger problems. For some reason, when it comes to silicone people seem to think that more is better.