92 ranger w/ 4.0L having multiple probs

I bought a 92 Ranger w/ the 4.0L in it about a week and half ago. The truck itself has bout 230,000 miles but has a brand new motor that only has about 50,000 miles on it. Since the day i bought, it has had white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Every once in a while it would actually stall out and die. It also has like a rattle sound from the engine compartment whenever its driving, not really at idle though. I have replaced the air filter, fuel filter, pcv valve, plugs(gapped at .054 which is what my local ford dealer, Autozone, Advance Auto, and O'reilly Auto said it should be), wires, and throttle position sensor(shop said it was bad). I also had a fuel induction service done. The truck did sit for about a year and half before I bought it. Yesterday my battery light came on and according to Autozone, Advance, and O'rielly my battery and alternator is good. The battery light will only came on twice because everytime I shut it down, it wouldnt come back on. Than today it the check engine light came on but that after I shut the truck off and restarted, the light wouldnt come back on, but it has a horrible miss as if it was running on 3 of the 6 cylinders. When I shut it off and tried to restart it, it just kept cranking but wouldnt start until the 5th or 6th time, and it has a bad miss again. Than a couple hours later I went to start it up and drive it to the shop, and no warning lights stayed on after starting but it had a bad miss to it but once I started driving it cleared up. I don't trust to any shops around here, but can't really do much work myself, so does anyone of any ideas what may be wrong for I can keep from being just totally snow balled the by the shop? Any thing thought of will help, so please help!

are the plugs wet with oil if you took them out now? sounds like you took care of replacing most of the spark and fuel parts.white smoke is antifreeze and a light blue smoke(wich is hard to tell from white smoke) is oil. what did the smoke smell like? oilly or sweet?did you replace the plug wires one at a time?

are the plugs wet with oil if you took them out now? sounds like you took care of replacing most of the spark and fuel parts.white smoke is antifreeze and a light blue smoke(wich is hard to tell from white smoke) is oil. what did the smoke smell like? oilly or sweet?did you replace the plug wires one at a time?

It smells somewhat like gas from the exhaust. When I changed the plugs, the old plugs did have a small coat of oil, but only on the threads...however when I first installed the new plugs I made a mistake of putting them at the wrong gap, and when I regapped them a couple days later the plugs did have quite a bit of carbon at the base of the ring above the threads, but the plugs itself looked liked they were burning properly.

Well I got the truck back from the shop today. Cost for $105 for them to change the ECT Sensor. That took care of the CEL light, roughness on running and all of the smoking. If anyone has any idea why it has a slight rattle though when accelerating please leave a pos because the shop said they couldn't figure it out.

Well I got the truck back from the shop today. Cost for $105 for them to change the ECT Sensor. That took care of the CEL light, roughness on running and all of the smoking. If anyone has any idea why it has a slight rattle though when accelerating please leave a pos because the shop said they couldn't figure it out.

When you say rattle, do you mean that it's spark knocking (pinging)? If so, you may want to check your EGR system.

no it doesnt sound like spark knock.....its the type of rattle as if ud get if somethings loose, however myself, my dad, and the shop thats worked on it couldnt find it.....i know some vehicles are prone to making a noise when driving due to the design of the vehicle, however I'm not sure if thats the case or not.

does the rattle sound metallic or dull like internal engine ? sounds as if something is loose ? under heavy load as pulling out or with light throttle ? try giving as much description as you can like rpm, vehicle speeds, type of sound like tensioner springing (worn/weak).....any thing will help

The rattle sounds more like a nut or bolt rattling around inside a can. It does it under hard or light acceleration. However the faster you go the louder it gets. There is one thing I just remembered I left out when talking about this online here, and that is, it isnt there if I rev up the motor, its only there when its actually in gear driving.