1986 2.9L maintenance tips, could apply to other engines

[Earlyboomer]

This is about a 1986 great running Ranger 2.9L engine with 175,000 miles that slowly still leaks a bit of oil from those dam valve covers, but the engine really does not use oil between oil changes. 10 years ago I found that I could use a 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" angle to make a full length valve cover support for the bottom flanges of both valve covers and this helped quite a bit to stop the leaking valve covers. I installed a new timing chain, all 5 pieces, lately because I did have a spell where I was driving a 5 cylinder V6 and there was only a slight rocking of the engine, but it still didn't run well at all, with a noticeable drop in torque making it very easy to stall. The chain was to the point where Ford recommends changing it. The plugs had 27,000 miles on them and I had just checked and cleaned them, but sometime after that #2s ceramic center broke off and was leaning against the outside electrode, but luckily it was too big to fall down into the cylinder. So here I was checking everything, again. It had been a while since I had changed any sensors. I had never changed the air temp sensor so I got one of them. The coolant sensor had been changed, but since there was a noticeable change between hot and cold running, I got one of them. Still ran terrible. The EGR sensor was giving an error and I had changed that $$$ item. Now this truck had been sitting a while since I was doing some body work, then I put the timing chain in and a new front seal, of course because that was also a slow leak. I used a vacuum pump to check the EGR operating diaphragm in case it was bad, it wasn't, and when I put enough vacuum on it, it broke the EGR valve loose with a noticeable ping. The operating rod from the diaphragm controls a throttle valve similar to the one in a carburetor. The EGR valve has exhaust gas, and water vapor, going through it, so its get carboned up and rusty. I took it all off, and used Liquid wrench to clean it all up. If the EGR valve is stuck, the EGR sensor can not send a calibrated signal to the CPU. A lot of engines have EGR valve systems similar to this. Now the engine still wasn't running correctly, I had even solved a Manifold sensor problem before it started running on 5 cylinders, there was a leak between the exhaust manifold and the catalytic converter. I also had put a new Ignition module on the distributor, plus I already had good MSW ignition wires installed and had adjusted the valves. Dam, still ran bad, what now, so lets start over, I was thinking about a compression test. I pulled the number 1 plug, it was fine. I pulled the number 2 plug, it was as described, aha, I pulled the other 4 plugs and they were fine. I skipped the compression test and bought Autolite Double Platinum spark pugs. Wow, what a difference when I started it, it ran great, just about like when it was new. this seems to also justify my using synthetic oil, Mostly Mobil 1, 5W-30. Last year I had also installed the two fuel pumps, the two new fuel filters, and the year before that a fuel regulator. Now I can enjoy driving it again.

Now along comes a new gremlin, the last two times I filled up the tank, there was no power available in 1st and 2nd gear. Get into 3 gear and it begins to go, get into 4th and 5th and after 4 or 5 miles, its fine. This is something else needing solved, unless somebody knows the answer for this problem? It doesn't feel like I just filled it up, its like it ran out of gas! (I do have a new gas cap, that I will try.)

The truck has not repeated the no power in 1st or 2nd gear again. I must have gotten some water from that fill-up when that happened. If you get water at a gas tank, its at no extra charge. There is always water in filling station tanks, from condensation in the tanks, and it usually stays at the bottom, but if the station is running low on gasoline, then their floating pick-up line in the tanks can sink further down into the water level.

One other thing I remember is getting rid of the stock muffler designed for these engines, its restrictive, so I switched to a Turbo style but it is noisy, but again I got 27 mpg on a trip. Before that it got about 19 in town and 22 on the highway.

[Earlyboomer]

This is an addition to my other maintenance tips. After everything I did in that post, I still had a bad problem develop that was related to temperature. When cold it was OK, but looking back it WAS easy to stall the engine. It would also quit and only restart after cooling down. Now Its fixed and has more torque and pick up, plus it runs better all around.

This time what I did was replace the electrolytic capacitors in the computer. There are 4 of them. This is somewhat technical and electronic experience helps. You can easily ruin it. A buddy with experience could really help with this. Is it worth it, it sure is. This problem exists with many brands. After years of use these capacitors can go bad. Its common in vehicle ECUs.

It happens in TVs and other electronics also. Do a net search and you will find more than one vehicle owner is fixing their ECUs by doing this.