this is my first post as i usually can fix the problems i run into by reading the other postings here, but i can't find anything on my problem and i need a fix ASAP.

I bought my wife a '91 Explorer XLT about 3 years ago. It has 215,000 miles and is on it's 2nd motor. Back in October my father-in-law and i rebuilt the motor as it developed a bad bang that sounded like a collapsed lifter. Imagine a Explorer that sounds like it has a Power Stoke in it. After the rebuild there was still a small tick but not real bad. The tick got worse over time and was really bad when it was cold out. I changed the oil (5w30) and filter and the noise level dropped by half but was still there.

Friday my wife called me and said the explorer was banging again like it did before the rebuild. As she was pulling over, in order to pop the hood and let me hear what it sounded like over the cell phone, the explorer stalled. When she tried to restart the engine it turned over like if the battery was dead (a slow erratic rotation and dimming of the lights).

Today we took the car trailer over to bring it home. When we got there the explorer started right up and and had the ticking as before not the loud banging my wife reported. We loaded it up and brought it home. After unloading it I left it idle while we ate supper to see it would do anything. An hour later (got side tracked) i checked the explorer and found that it had stalled. I tried to start it but it turned over again like the battery was dead. I load tested the battery and it was fine. All the conections are clean.

I just went out and tried to start it and after some slugish revelutions it started up. I reved the motor a couple of times and then shut it off. I turned it over again and left off the key before it started and then turned it over yet again and let it start. The 1st turn over was fine but the 2nd was a little slugish.

I am thinking that a cylinder is loading up and causing the slugish turn over and the stalling. I have never incountered anything like this before and am only grasping at straws. What should i look at first, valve, valve spring, lifter? Could we have missed a piece of dirt in a lifter oil passage. The cam and lifters are new.

I don't have a lot of time to work on this and don't want to dump much more money into it.

Thanks for any help.

 

Hard to tell without seeing the car what the clunking noise could be. Start up issues sound like a bad starter to me. Starts when cold bu not when hot.

Obviously we'd like to see any computer codes you might have.

Then, have you done a compression test to test out your cylinder error theory? - spark plugs will also tell a story.

 

Well....I let the wife drive it to work this morning seeing that it started ok, but she only made it about 3 miles before the thing stalled. We just towed it back and it wouldn't start at all. It truned over better than before but not well enough to start. No i haven't looked at anything yet. I'll pull the plugs and do a compression test tomorrow.

I don't think it is the start as it wouldn't turn over that well tonight after sitting for 10hrs. I am leaning toward the cylinder theory. I am just not sure what the cause could be. My wife just wants to blow the thing sky high with a stick of TNT.

I guess i am a glut'in for punishment as we are buying 2 '95 Windstars and combining the 2 to make 1 good one. Both run great it just that one is perfect interior/exterior wise but it doesn't have rear a/c and has more miles. The other one has a rough interior/exterior but has 20,000 miles less and has rear a/c. We plan on selling the rough one after the conversion and hope to recoupe some of the money.