1996 Ford Ranger 2.3L 4 CYL badly missing

Son's truck, again; changed plugs with OEM and wires with top grade; changed fuel filter. When going down hill or with no load, does fine...even @ 55-65 mph, fine. But, put it uphill, starting out accelerating, any kind of a load, and it misses badly; to the point that the valves clatter.

Ideas?

Best regards,

--Bryant

 

Sounds like pre-ignition detonation. Bad timing or carbon in the cylinders. What color were the plugs you pulled out?: black soot?

Another possibilty is the opposite where you have an extrme lean-burn situation causing the plugs to get extra hot and maybe causing premature firing. In this case the old plugs would have indicated a very white color I believe.

 

try disconnecting your egr valve vacuum line, retest.
check your fuel pressure.
try unplugging your maf sensor, to see if it runs better(throws it into open loop, the car runs on fixed values)
you might also have a bad coil pack.
do you have a check engine light on? if so, retrieve the code. that will help narrow things down a little

 

Thank you both for your timely reply. It was missing badly prior to plugs, wires, and fuel filter change. Immediately upon completion, it seemed to be worse.

I'll try going through all the vacuum lines, as I can find them.....I hope.

By the way, the plugs were white when we pulled them; but this issue only started a couple of weeks prior to changing them all out yesterday.

Thank you again.

--Bryant

 

Any "direction" on finding EGR valve line and coil pack would be great, Fellas. I'm actually pretty good at solving/fixing, but nomenclature sometimes brings difficulty.

--Bryant

 

...to the professionals; I can fly the hair off of a $20 million BlackHawk....but I'd better leave this to the pros. This morning, same thing; idles like a dream...even when you rev it up at idle. But put a load on it.....misses, cuts out....I dunno.

Thanks, to all. GREAT SITE.

--Bryant

 

I had a similar problem with my 96 Ranger after a tune up. I ended up having to replace the new plugs and wires with OEM's only.

I did buy the better quality plug wires as well before, but the truck did the same things as you describe. The only fix was to replace with all OEM.

 

Could be fuel pump starving engine under load. I'm never sure about EGR malfunction and what it does but always a likely suspect especially with miles and years-old you have.

 

White as in real white as in brand new plugs looking white? Or not - like more like a tan-white?. How long were those old white colored plugs in there for?

And if there is something real odd going on with the mix, the color of the plug can be affected in minutes. For example, if there was a condition where the plugs should have been black, and you thought you changed them too soon to see them black, that would not be the case. They'd have turned black, in minutes.

Could be a hot lean condition going on as opposed to loading up with gas where the plugs would be black and sooty. Starving for proper gas/air mix when needed, to create big explosions under load conditions. Then, because there is not that delivery of fuel, let's say, and the missing starts this causes crank shaft to not be able to turn as easy as it normally would if all cylinders were firing and contributing with power. And now when it tries to fire in this weak state (note that for some reason, when cars either starve for fuel or have too much, often 1 or 2, and not every cylinder, is equally affected), the piston cannot get out of the way of the explosion fast enough and causes that rattling around sound you hear. (That is why high octane gas is a slower burn fuel so that a car that needs it does NOT get that real hard sudden all-at-once hammer blow-like effect, (especially noticeable under load conditions, like flooring it up a hill) off the top of the pistons.


Or something is going on in the engine that does not retard the spark under load conditions, the way it should.

If the pros service your car, please come back and let us know what the mystery is.

 

As some may recall, I was having issues with my son's 1996 Ford Ranger 2.3L 4 cyl; missing when accelerating, but idled smoothly. We changed plugs, wires, and fuel filter; to no avail; problems persisted.

Solution: dirty fuel in tank; dirty injectors. Dropped tank and cleaned with fresh gasoline and some SeaFoam; had injector service done @ local shop ($70). RUNS LIKE SCALDED APE! All is well.

--Bryant

 

If you didn't remember to do it at the time, probably a good idea to change out the fuel filter again.

Tow Guy
Retired Marine Air Maintainer