New to the forum here and i have a few questions for you all. I have a 1989 Ford Ranger handed down to me until i can afford to buy a new truck. It has a 2.9 Liter V6 in her and its headed downhill. When dad bought the truck about 8 years ago the engine had a pretty bad tap to it. After taking a 2 hour drive to the cabin it was tapping pretty bad. But it never let us sit and has never really shown a really horribly bad sign of doing so. Lately, the oil pressure gauge, when i'm creeping up the driveway in 1st gear, the oil pressure gauge will start to go low and come back up and repeat this. Is there anything i can do to help the ol' girl make it to June when i buy a truck.

 

Don't knowthe 2.9 at all-but, sounds like oil pump is pooping out or pick-up is clogged. I'm not sure if the guage you have is like an idiot light, or really is an oil pressure guage. If you're tapping, sounds like an oil control problem-and where is the tapping coming from?? Top or bottom of engine?? How many miles?? Last oil/filter change?? Wish I could help more-as someone will help you out!!

 

1st off, get a compression gauge. I'm no smarter than you guys with this one, but the simplest notion might be a broken valve spring or something like that. The gauge will make it clear. Actually, if you have a vacuum gauge handy, that may give some clues, too. Note the readings at idle & when you rev it. And grab a hose or paper towel tube to use as a stethoscope to listen to the engine point blank. Just keep hair, clothing, etc out of the fan blades, alternator, etc. while you inspect it. O yeah, a small hard plastic PVC pipe around 2 feet long may be most helpful here. If you need to go to a store to get something, just get a mechanic's stethoscope. They're really cheap. Murray's, Harbor Freight - they're everywhere.

 

Is the 2.9 a pushrod engine ?? Once I did work on an old Buick for a guy, and he had 2 collpsed lifters-and all the pushrods were packed with oil sludge..oilpump took a dump-never did find out what he did with this car???

 

Check the oil before every start up. Change it every 1000 miles.

Don't go over 45 miles per hour. No jackrabbit starts. No drag races on Saturday night.

Only drive when you absolutely have to. (use mass transit).

Get your bailout money from uncle bushie and buy a new car.

 

Yep, 2.9L are pushrod. The thing to be most careful with is keeping it from cracking the heads. These probably are, esp with g_k's opinion chiming in with extreme drain intervals. So check the coolant & the radiator flow frequently too. OTOH, it's survived a long time, which is why I figure it could be run. Maybe. Getting the heads rebuilt might not cost that much, but not worth it if you don't care about it. And World Products heads might make it tougher than a Vulcan's legendary toughness. These bare heads can be found for a couple hundred bucks or so on ebay.

 

It sounds like another case of the infamous cam bearing wear that the 2.8 and 2.9s are known to have. The bearings wear and result is decreased pressure on the lubrication system to the top end. So the lifters start ticking and you get the symptoms you describe. Use a high quality conventional oil in 10w 40. It should help with the pressure at idle and help the top end stay lubed better because thicker oil wont blow through the cam bearings nearly as fast.

 

Thats not a bad idea-if you don't live north of the Mason/Dixon line..I had a high mileage Dodge van, and oil pressure would suffer in the summer(10w30 dino), so I used to put straight 30 weight in the crankcase for the summer-in the winter, back to 10w30, so I could start it...

 

Probably wouldn't hurt to pull a valve cover, just to see whats up??? See whats slopping around under there-maybe a bad valve spring or 2-or a bad lifter???????

 

I vote for worn cam bearings. It will be somewhat quiet when you start it, and then develop tapping as it warms and the oil thins. The multi-viscosity oil uses long chain polymers that uncoil like a spring when heated, thus increasing (in theory) the thickness of the oil flowing through the system. They quit working after a while, and it will develop taps earlier and earlier in its warm-up cycle.
You can use STP type viscosity improvers until you decide enough is enough, and repair the root problem. ... or trade it for another truck.
The 2.9 was developed from the Cologne (German) v6 that started as a 2.6, went 2.8 and finally 2.9 with hydraulic lifters. The lifters had to fit into the space designated for solid tappets, and must be Veeery Smallll. I think that doesn't leave a lot of room for the lifter to hold any volume of oil below the internal piston, thus the sensitivity to oil flow.
That's my theory, anyway.
It is a good engine, subject to cylinder head cracking if allowed to overheat, and tapping if the cam bearings wear too much. You could take it apart, and get new bearings installed...
tom

 

Alright thanks for the replys! I'll check out some of that stuff tommorow see what I can come up with.

 

2.9's are notorious for lifter tap.

I would hook up a mechanical oil gauge to that engine before I tore anything apart. The stock gauge is no more than an idiot light with a needle, that will tell you what is really going on in there.

A quart of Marvel Mystery in the crank case will clean out some of the gunk.

I definitely would look at some clean and maintenance before mechanical repair. That is unless of course you know you have cracked heads etc.

Good luck

Rich

 

If a guy was to tear down to get to the lifters, might as well pull the cam, and replace the bearings..My .02..I 'm kinda partial to Marvel myself....