I'm new to this forum but I've read at least 100 threads trying to figure this out. I recently traded for a non-running 97 Ranger 2wd ex-cab with the mighty 2.3 under the hood. This thing has a miss at idle that I can not get to go away, stumbles when I shift, doesnt quite run right, and it smells like its running rich. It does pretty good on the highway at steady speed and drives really nice compared to what I traded for it. The guy I got it from thought the fuel pump went out so he changed it with a used one, not sure if it was the right one. I checked the pressure at the rail and its at 35lbs running. The reason it wasnt running in the first place was a bad timing belt. I changed that and the timing is good with a timing light, 10 deg/tdc. When I changed the belt the aux sprocket timing marks were close but did not line up perfect, crank and cam marks are perfect. I had it scaned at tardo'zone and I think he said it had a missfire cyl 4 and lean on cyl 1. I have put on new bosch wires and bosch plat 2 plugs, no help. New bosch o2 sensors, no help. I went to a junkyard and bought a MAF, IAC, TPS, ECM, and a few others I dont know the name of right now. I changed them out one at a time, no help. I have cleaned the IAC with spray carb cleaner and I removed the injectors, took out the little screens, soaked the over night in chemtool injector cleaner, cycled them while blowing compressed air through them both ways, and re-assembled with more chemtooling. No help. New pcv valve, no help. I did a compression test on 2 of the cylinders becaue the were easy to get to, 160lbs. The comp tester I rented was kind of boogered up so I had to inset the the adapter first, fun trying not to cross thread then try to screw in the rest of the tester into that, even more fun. thats why i only tested 2 cyl's. I've also done a vacumn test coming off the fuel pressure reg port on the manifold and it is a little shaky and around 16lbs idle. If I revved it up a little it held around 20-25 lbs. I checked for vac leaks by spraying carb cleaner everywhere as well as visual inspection of evey inch of line and even plugged them one at a time at the source, no help. I even made a gasket to block the EGR in case that was bad, no help. I hooked the timing light to all 8 plug wires. All fire but are kind of eratic. They fire fast then slow for a second or two then fast and so on. I dont know if this is from the way the light gets the signal or not just thought I would include that. I have alot of hours and money in trying to fix this. Have I missed something? I really dont want to pull the head and Im open for any suggestions.

 

use motorcraft wires and motorcraft plat plugs.

 

x2 on the motorcraft plugs/wires but I think it still might have something to do with the timing belt. Mine was starting to act the same way b4 I changed it. The off the line sputtering disappeared as soon as it was done.

 

Welcome to FTE.

My you've been busy on this one!!!!

I'd go back & resolve the fuel pressure quetion, as 39 psi is low. Has the fuel filter ever been changed????

 

It had autolite wires/plats in it when I got it and had the miss. Thats why I changed them. The tardo'zone online manual says the fuel pressure should be between 30 and 45 lbs. I read that for the '98 model the pressure was bumped up from 40 to 60 lbs. Can I use that pump/reg or is it a different system than my '97? I was thinking if I bought new injectors, I would like to go with the 19lb. Do they require the higher pressure? What does the aux timing sprocket do anyway? And yes I have been busy. The other half has been missin out on her tender time and wallet plundering.

 

Oh yea, the fuel filter is new as well.

 

Well seeing as how it had the miss before the new plugs & wires, right now without more clues, I'd probably be inclined to look more toward a fuel injector problem, but you could have more than one problem, so it could be a valve or compression problem too, I suppose.

Good feedback on changing the fuel filter.

OOOPS, yup, your right, it was 98 up, that the fuel pressure was raised.
On the 97 fuel pressure, my manual shows 35-45 psi.

98 up it's 64 +/- 8 psi.

When you did the KOEO pressure test, did it hold it's pressure ok for a time, after the key was turned off????

You'll not want to mix the two fuel systems parts.

The aux timing sprocket drives the engines oil pump.

 

Working in the automotive field I have never seen more plugs and wires fail RIGHT out of the box than Bosch...

Tardo'zone sells bosch- I asked a bosch rep why their plugs were garbage and he look at me like I was retarded- Untill I showed him the error codes and fouled plugs he JUST sold me... And it was him... That looked retarded.

 

I did a compression test again on all 4 cylinders. No. 2 had a valve sticking. The compression test didnt really show it though. After I got two different readings from cyl 2 I put my finger over the hole and for 4 or 5 revolutions it had good compression then it just stopped. The valve would slowly close on its own while it sat and work like it should until it started moving again. It might have worked itself out eventualy but I picked up a good "clean" head at the junkyard for $25. It runs good now. I got a CEL and I'm pretty sure its from a missfire. Havn't had it checked yet cuz I need a break from Da'Zone. I'll go with the autolites if thats the case. Man it sucks to spend 35 bucks on plugs just to find out they wont work right. Anyway my hands are beat to hell, swollen from all kinds of chemicals in my cuts, and have a layer of grease that no amount of fast orange will remove, but I fixed it myself. Now I'm goin to sleep.

 

Good trouble shooting find & feedback & to hear you seem to have your problem resolved.