Help with Fiance's Ford Ranger

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straightlinespeed

straightlinespeed

Sometimes I pretend to be normal
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Hi guys, I need help figuring out what happened to the Fiance's 02 Ranger. It has a 4.0 V6. It started and ran fine yesterday. This afternoon she had to go somewhere and she got in and tried to start it. It started hard (turned over and would fire and die multiple times) Then when it started it was misfiring very bad. When I came home I threw my code reader on it and it came up with P0306 Cylinder 6 misfire.

Just this past spring I did plugs and wires on it. I decided to pull that plug and look at it It was black and smelled like gas. I checked the plug wire and that wasnt rubbed thru anywhere. I did have a new plug here for it so I installed that and tried it. Still no change. It sounds like a very bad vacuum leak from the intake area so I sprayed carb cleaner all around and couldnt find anything. So I ran and got a coil pack thinking that was it. Installed that and no change at all.

I had to blow some snow and of course the snowblower was in front of the truck so I started it and backed it out. The brakes where very hard but as I reved the engine they got softer. So Im leaning towards intake gaskets, but not sure because of the carb cleaner theory. Does anyone else have any thoughts because I would hate to have it towed to a dealership.
 
I am not sure about the carb cleaner test. Try something like wd-40 or something not so combustible for checking intake leak. Having said that, do you have a way to check spark?
 
pikewi said:
I am not sure about the carb cleaner test. Try something like wd-40 or something not so combustible for checking intake leak. Having said that, do you have a way to check spark?
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I have a test light I could hook onto that plug wire. Im sure that would work.
 
It sure sounds like spark problem. I could be wrong. What kind of coil pack did you get? Did it change anything at all. I have gotten them bad out of the box. Chinese stuff
 
I would say the intake. Ford's wisdom made plastic intake manifolds for the 4.0L. Is it the over head cam or over head valve? OHC motors also wear out the cam chains.
 
pikewi said:
It sure sounds like spark problem. I could be wrong. What kind of coil pack did you get? Did it change anything at all. I have gotten them bad out of the box. Chinese stuff
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Hooked up my timing gun and it is firing on that cylinder. I bought a borg warner coil pack. I changed the spark plug to a new one. I pulled it again after running it for a few minutes and there was oil on it.

Oklacarcollecto said:
You don't happen to be running Bosch plugs?
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No Im running AC

Drg racr said:
I would say the intake. Ford's wisdom made plastic intake manifolds for the 4.0L. Is it the over head cam or over head valve? OHC motors also wear out the cam chains.
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I tried the wd-40 deal also and no change at all again.

The exhaust has a very weird smell to it. Nothing like I have ever smelled before. It was also very white like a blown head gasket, but I dont see any water in the oil and the plug appeared to be dry with the exception of oil.

She wants to have it towed to a stealership. It sucks because we dont have a spare vehicle so we are going to have to make due with one truck right now.
 
Drg racr said:
I would say the intake. Ford's wisdom made plastic intake manifolds for the 4.0L. Is it the over head cam or over head valve? OHC motors also wear out the cam chains.
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All that is available on a 2002 Ranger with a 4.0L is a SOHC. It seems like only the upper intake manifold is plastic and the lower intake manifold is still aluminum on this.
 
If the compression is good I would lean towards a leaking intake gasket. I've replaced a ton of them on those motors. Spraying carb cleaner around you need a scan tool to read a change on the fuel trims. Newer cars can adapt to quickly to fuel and air changes.
 
WRB426 said:
If the compression is good I would lean towards a leaking intake gasket. I've replaced a ton of them on those motors. Spraying carb cleaner around you need a scan tool to read a change on the fuel trims. Newer cars can adapt to quickly to fuel and air changes.
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What would explain the oil on the plug?

What is also very weird about the whole thing is that it just happened from sitting in a garage. There was no sort of warning at all. Ran great yesterday and not at all today.
 
Is there only oil on the one plug? And how much like a little wet oil or dried up clumps?
 
straightlinespeed said:
What would explain the oil on the plug?

What is also very weird about the whole thing is that it just happened from sitting in a garage. There was no sort of warning at all. Ran great yesterday and not at all today.
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Do you have access to a SnapOn scanner or something equivalent? Many times the cheapo scanners don't pick up all the stored codes. I just went though this on a 2002 Taurus.
 
It looks like engine oil only. The entire end on a new plug was covered from running the engine for a couple minutes.
 
Oklacarcollecto said:
Do you have access to a SnapOn scanner or something equivalent? Many times the cheapo scanners don't pick up all the stored codes. I just went though this on a 2002 Taurus.
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I have a scanner but it only pulls codes and tells you what that code is. I dont have access to nice scanner. Although a few months ago I told the other half I wanted a really good scanner LOL. She should have listened.
 
I would do compression test then.
 
straightlinespeed said:
I have a scanner but it only pulls codes and tells you what that code is. I dont have access to nice scanner. Although a few months ago I told the other half I wanted a really good scanner LOL. She should have listened.
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I have a cheapo and an old MTG2500 SnapOn scanner. I was trying to be lazy and use the cheapo but was getting no where. I broke out the MTG and it zeroed in on the problem on the first run through.

The old valve in head 4.0L had head gasket and/or head issues but I don't know about the SOHC engines.

I would get on the Ford forums and start asking questions.
 
straightlinespeed said:
The exhaust has a very weird smell to it. Nothing like I have ever smelled before. It was also very white like a blown head gasket, but I dont see any water in the oil and the plug appeared to be dry with the exception of oil.

She wants to have it towed to a stealership. It sucks because we dont have a spare vehicle so we are going to have to make due with one truck right now.
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sounds like you may have a few things going on, the oil on the plug sounds like a broken ring, you really need to do a compression test, it also could be a blown piston, I worked on my friends ranger once, it was doing what yours is and the no#5 piston looked like some one took a torch and melted a hole straight thru the edge of it, right where the head gasket blew, not saying that's what's wrong, just giving you things to check, the compression testers ain't that much, if I couldn't get mine back I'd buy a new one, a whole hellva lot cheaper then having a dealer tell you the cylinder is dead after having it towed there, just my 2 cents.
 
A really good forum to try is therangerstation.com . That site has helped me out quite a bit. You could also check fortrucksonly.com . I'm sure Joey would appreciate the business, but I don't know how many people are on there yet. Good luck!
 
For what it is worth...and this got me into an argument last time I bought this up.....it has already been mentioned that you very well may need something beyond a basic scan tool. I have the Auto Enginuity scan tool software on my PC. It will only read what is called a Generic Powertrain computer. When I purchased the Enhanced Expansion option, for both Chevrolet and Ford, it became a very useful tool. It reads any and all sensors on both our Explorer and my Diesel truck. If I remove the fuel cap from either vehicle and run it thru the required start cycles the check engine light will come on. Plug in my OBDII reader I got from NAPA the only thing it will do is allow me to reset the CEL, it will not give me the code to what is wrong. It might have given me the code on the Explorer, but definitely on my truck now that I am thinking about it. So if you are only using a cheap Generic scanner that does not read all the Ford specific sensors you are not doing yourself any favors. One of those cheapo readers form Autozone just does not read all the sensors. Mine will read all the voltages from all the sensors, trigger the fuel pump for certain tests etc. Allows me to read the balance rates on my injectors etc. Turn injectors on and off, you name it. Basically does everything that the readers the dealers have. Someone on here argued with me in the past over the fact that there cheapo Auto Zone reader does everything that my software does....it does not, simple as that. I would suggest finding someone that has a real code reader, Snap On unit what ever. Every trans shop I have dealt with has a code reader that will do what you require.....transmission codes and sensors can not be read by one of the cheap readers so they need a good unit to diagnose trans troubles.....got a buddy that works at a trans shop?
 
Thanks guys for trying to help. We had it towed to the shop, they looked at it and it had a broken valve spring. They said we will get it back today. I could have fixed it but it would had been at least a week job for me. Its nice to get the truck back so soon. Strange that it happened with only 112k miles on the engine.

I will have to look for a good reader after xmas. Thanks again guys for the input. Much appreciated!
 
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