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Let's wildly speculate about why a 95ish Ford Ranger I bought was parked!

IowaOffRoad

IowaOffRoad

King shit of turd island
BRC
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Feb 19, 2021
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3513
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Under the apple tree
Bought an early second generation Ranger (it's TTB with a pushrod 4.0L, sorry I didn't get the year... yet) for scrap price. Good body, 5spd manual, manual shift t-case (IIRC) that's been parked for a decade plus due to unknown to the current owner why. I'd figure blown head gasket/cracked head due to previous experience with these engines, but I don't know for sure. Could be anything. Going to pick it up this weekend sometime.

So, what's broken? Winner get's my undying (well, about a week anyway) respect:flipoff2:. (semi-troll way of fishing for weak points that I need to look at:laughing:, my experience with this era Ranger is somewhat limited)

I'm going with my first guess, cuz why would you park a fairly clean and relatively rust free X-cab 4x4 Ranger for anything less.

ETA: I'll document me resurrecting this thing here if y'all don't run me off for not being a 'true' "FORD guy":grinpimp:
 
Could be a head gasket. I don't remember the 4.0 being prone to cracking heads like the 2.9. I don't really remember many issues from those exfept for being thirsty, even though I used to spend way too much time on the ranger station.
 
Had a 94 with the 4.0. Bought it with a near dead fuel pump. Chnaged that. Had a random issue with a relay that would let it turn over and not fire. Only when warm. changed all relays, problem went away.
 
Jbevs said:
Could be a head gasket. I don't remember the 4.0 being prone to cracking heads like the 2.9. I don't really remember many issues from those exfept for being thirsty, even though I used to spend way too much time on the ranger station.
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Did the 4.0 use the same head casting as the 3.0? I hadda replace the heads on a customer's '96 3L about 10y ago due to cracking. Exhaust manifolds were busted too.
ETA: I'd always assumed they were in the same engine family... too lazy to google, IBB will take care of it!:lmao:
 
It's always possible to just stop driving it.

Happened with my 84 GMC, Grandpa parked it in the backyard treeline for the winter as the body is in great shape. He just didn't drive it out in the spring. I drug it out around 8 years later when he finally agreed to sell it to me.

It needed tires and fresh batteries, but I didn't do any work to it until the 700R4 blew up 3 years later.


My random guesses are clutch job or brake work.
 
I honestly can't remember if I had the OHV or SOHC 4.0. Think it was a 99 or 2001. But what I do remember is buying it as blown motor because it was blowing oil everywhere.

Found the oil filter had 2 gaskets on it.

New oil filter, fresh oil. Probably still running today where ever it is.
 
More background:

I think there "must" be something wrong with it as where it came from had a line of vehicles that all had something wrong with them, and this was in the line. Already bought the rolled '87 4Runner that ran right up to the accident. Was a '97 Dak with the engine removed, clean body otherwise. Cleanest bodied (for midwest) '90 GMT400 Xcab dually around with a big block and missing the front tires/rims (thought the trans was out). That and a ski boat that looked like it would float but had just been sitting, and some unrelated farm equipment (all with parts missing). Hood was popped the first latch, only safety latch holding it. IIRC the battery was out (could be a withdraw from the meth ATM :laughing:) and some of the intake ducting was disturbed. Other than that, everything was there. So I'd assume that there was something wrong with it, but who the hell knows.
 
Heads are known to crack on those 4.0L The manual trans and manual transfer case in Socal would fetch around $7-800 fairly easily since people blow up the 5 speeds and want to ditch the push button electric t-case
 
TTMotorsports said:
Heads are known to crack on those 4.0L The manual trans and manual transfer case in Socal would fetch around $7-800 fairly easily since people blow up the 5 speeds and want to ditch the push button electric t-case
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Planned to fix and sell after driving a while. Rangers are American Tacomas when it comes to desirability (ant least in these parts) especially when in manual trim. Won’t get taco money but will do better than any other compact truck of the era.
 
IowaOffRoad said:
First thing I will check:lmao:
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I've actually seen something similar (minus the dildo) in an ASE competition to troubleshoot a car. One trick that the judges liked to do was stuff a tennis ball into the intake tube. Pretty much everyone failed to do something as simple as check for obstructions in the intake... But mice/rat/squirrel nests are serious issues.
 
What relay is this?
posford said:
Had a 94 with the 4.0. Bought it with a near dead fuel pump. Chnaged that. Had a random issue with a relay that would let it turn over and not fire. Only when warm. changed all relays, problem went away.
Click to expand...
 
I have the same problem with a 1999. Thanks
 
Tiha said:
I honestly can't remember if I had the OHV or SOHC 4.0. Think it was a 99 or 2001. But what I do remember is buying it as blown motor because it was blowing oil everywhere.

Found the oil filter had 2 gaskets on it.

New oil filter, fresh oil. Probably still running today where ever it is.
Click to expand...

Was it blowing out around the oil filter or was it causing some other issue? I have a 22r that blows oil everywhere when revved high, seems to run fine otherwise. I might have to actually change the oil and 🤞
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Was it blowing out around the oil filter or was it causing some other issue? I have a 22r that blows oil everywhere when revved high, seems to run fine otherwise. I might have to actually change the oil and 🤞
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It was just blowing out around the double stacked oil filter gasket
 
Put battery and make sure gas is in tank. Turn key and push schrader valve on fuel rail to see if it has fuel pressure. It it does and the oil is dirty but not milky try and start it. If it doesn't start check the basics with spark. If no spark could be crank position sensor OR coil pack. You can research how to test those with google and prob a youtube video of that. They are pretty durable trucks and if heads arent cracked or head gasket is blown theyre pretty hard to kill.
 
I vote window in block. :flipoff2:

TTMotorsports said:
Heads are known to crack on those 4.0L The manual trans and manual transfer case in Socal would fetch around $7-800 fairly easily since people blow up the 5 speeds and want to ditch the push button electric t-case
Click to expand...
No wonder M5OD prices on car-part are jacked up. Yet another thing assholes from that state have ruined.

IowaOffRoad said:
Did the 4.0 use the same head casting as the 3.0?
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No. Totally different engine family.

Projectjunkie said:
Clutch hydraulics/ throw out bearing
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Those never fail unless you touch them.
 
arse_sidewards said:
No. Totally different engine family.
Click to expand...
I knew IBB would pull through! :laughing:

I couldn’t remember if it was in the cologne family or not. I just remember as a teenager that all the kids who had the 2.9-3.0 had head and head gasket troubles, and the Richie Rich’s that had the 4L had head gasket troubles. Never dove too deep on a 4L, thought the superficial similarities from the outside might mean they shared some architecture.
 
IowaOffRoad said:
I knew IBB would pull through! :laughing:

I couldn’t remember if it was in the cologne family or not. I just remember as a teenager that all the kids who had the 2.9-3.0 had head and head gasket troubles, and the Richie Rich’s that had the 4L had head gasket troubles. Never dove too deep on a 4L, thought the superficial similarities from the outside might mean they shared some architecture.
Click to expand...
2.8, 2.9 and 4.0 are one family of engine.

The 3.0 is a completely different engine architecture. The 3.0 doesn't have head issues like the 2.8/2.9 do. But, it's still somewhat of a turd that isn't really amenable to abuse and is prone to valve issues later in life. It's not really that bad all things considered but it compared really poorly against every Ford engine of the era that isn't a V6 and it doesn't have the "biggest engine installed stock in this vehicle" allure that the 4.0 does to make all the casual users forget it sucks. Also doesn't help that the installed millions of them in sedans and minivans both of which tend to get neglected because they only have to last "until I ditch this stupid commute" or "until the kids are teenagers".
 
The inertia switch would be hilarious but, I'm gonna go with shit slave cylinder and clutch.

After sitting though, bad gas is also on the table.
 
Broken clutch pedal plastic push rod.

Had some raggedy Scrap man's Ranger towed in pedal on the floor, owner said "needs a clutch, it's on the seat, stick it in"

I ignored the fact that I couldn't push it into the garage in gear. I ignored the busted ass teeth on the flywheel. I stuck the clutch in and told the guy to pay me and pick it up. Was not a repeat customer :laughing:
 
arse_sidewards said:
2.8, 2.9 and 4.0 are one family of engine.

The 3.0 is a completely different engine architecture. The 3.0 doesn't have head issues like the 2.8/2.9 do. But, it's still somewhat of a turd that isn't really amenable to abuse and is prone to valve issues later in life. It's not really that bad all things considered but it compared really poorly against every Ford engine of the era that isn't a V6 and it doesn't have the "biggest engine installed stock in this vehicle" allure that the 4.0 does to make all the casual users forget it sucks. Also doesn't help that the installed millions of them in sedans and minivans both of which tend to get neglected because they only have to last "until I ditch this stupid commute" or "until the kids are teenagers".
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Huh, never had a 2.9 and 3l side by side. :homer:

I will say that most of the early 3ls I’ve been around busted the heads, was there a revision in the later trucks (say, around ‘99)? Seems the later trucks didn’t have an issue…
 
You get it home yet?

I did a top end gasket set on one a handful of years back. Friend was driving home from work and it started streaming white smoke. Lost all the coolant but no coolant in oil pan. Thought head gasket but when I got the intake manifold off it was obvious that it was just an intake manifold gasket. Stupid design and when it fails it main lines coolant straight into the intake port. Easy fix, I think it took 4 hours after work one night.
 
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