uhh ohh need help bad!

[Young_unn]

Here my deal. 94 ranger 2.3 ltr 5 spd,

my cars runs very rough when its cold. its starts fine, makes it down the block fine then starts running terrible. it wont go over 15 mph in 1 st gear, it misfires, and in general runs terrible. after a little while it'll warm up and all of a sudden ( when driving holding down the gas ) pick up and have full power, and then run great. maybe sometimes skip a beat or two but nothing you would notice normally.

It eats a little coolent, half a gallon every 500 miles[

Now i replaced all the plugs and wires and still doesent run better. but the old plugs show that i have been running Very lean, they were almost dead white.

Now my check engine light comes on after driving for a while. well the light comes on will stay on for like 5 minutes or even 30 seconds, and then turn off. so it on and off while i drive. i think it for the most part stays off when i idle.

also may also be of interest to this.
sometimes, ( maybe 1 in 5 times ) when i start the truck it'll smoke like mad for a minute. but my oil is about an inch over the full mark in the dipstick. so i believe its just to full and getting oil in places when it sits.

This is my daily driver and my work truck, i really cant afford having this truck like this much longer. i need help. what cant i do to see if i have a vacuum leak somewhere. like intake or something. could it be a bad sensor?

I really need help, im quite fed up with the truck being like this at the moment. and i kinda few up with the mechanics ive gone to.

one said my valves are gone, when all he did was start it, see it do its occasion smoking thing, and then turn it off when the check engine light was on.

and one guy said it was a head gasket

Other guy said theres nothing wrong. and i really dont want to pay a mechanic again money i dont have for them to give me a bulls*£t story and fix something thats not broken.

 

[Young_unn]

uhh fuel filter? i havent tried that. the car has 108k on it and i dont know if it has been changed, the only thing i have known to be done to the truck was that the wire were replaced in 97, plugs were probably done more recently than that before i redid them.

 

[Dave R]

The smoking 'thing' and the loss of coolant are directly related. Most likely it's a bad head gasket. That would also partly explain the spark plug color, one or more of them were/are being steam cleaned.

The check engine light indicates that the computer has found a problem with the engine management system. You should either go buy a cheap code reader ($20) or have some place (Autozone) pull the codes for you and find out what the problem is.

 

[skippy]

the oil is an inch over full on the dipstick?are you checking after the engine has been off a few minutes or with engine running?check with engine off,truck parked level and it should NOT be over the full mark.had 2 pennies to spare.

 

[pillen140]

the oil dipstick being an inch over could mean your getting a crap load of coolant into the oil... smell it to see if you can smell antifreeze. a cracked or blown head gasket could cause this. the running bad when you start could be coolant sitting in the cylinder, trying to burn its self out, could ruin your o2 sensors too. you can usually tell if your exhaust is a lot of white smoke(moisture being burned) and sometimes you can smell antifreeze in the exhaust as well.

was the smoke blue or white or black? black is carbon, white is moisture, blue is oil.

 

[Young_unn]

the oil dipstick being an inch over could mean your getting a crap load of coolant into the oil... smell it to see if you can smell antifreeze. a cracked or blown head gasket could cause this. the running bad when you start could be coolant sitting in the cylinder, trying to burn its self out, could ruin your o2 sensors too. you can usually tell if your exhaust is a lot of white smoke(moisture being burned) and sometimes you can smell antifreeze in the exhaust as well.

was the smoke blue or white or black? black is carbon, white is moisture, blue is oil.

Oil is Perfectly clean, smells and looks good

I accidently added that inch of oil, a couple weeks ago, i didnt notice it smoke before i added the extra oil

now sometimes its a blueish cloud, on a daily basis it puts out a good bit of white when i start it in the mornings
.

now after i start it in the mornings and drive it 2 blocks and it runs fine, then drive if for 3 minutes after that with it running like crap, it starts to run great.

when i get out the car and walk around it after its been started and running for 5 minutes , it smells kinda hot ( i cant desribe it, its not oily, it smells like its extremely hot, maybe smelling antifreeze.


NOTE dont know if i mentioned this, The car runs fine when its warmed up, but whenever you let it sit overnight or more than 2 hours when you go to drive it, it has its problem


I thought it was a head gasket before, but wasent sure, someone told me that this didnt sound like a head gasket.

How come the car will run great when you first start it, but it'll run rough only after the engine has ran for a minute or 2

I dont burn alot of coolent, but i know on badly gone head gaskets you can see coolent drip out the exhaust, you think that would happen with mine?

 

[pillen140]

humm, sounds like you do have a head leak, but doesnt sound like that is your running problem. any noises? check engine lights? try to siphon the extra oil out with a piece of vacuum hose and pump. maybe a fuel delivery problem? could be you have enough gas in the line when you start it, then maybe your fuel pump sucks up dirt in the tank and makes it run like crap. some times crap will settle in the tank when it sits.

 

[Young_unn]

humm, sounds like you do have a head leak, but doesnt sound like that is your running problem. any noises? check engine lights?

no unusual noises, i have a little bit of faint ticking, which is usual for most 4 bangers,

check engine light sometimes comes on, it has a mind of its own. today i didnt notice it once, but other days ill notice it stay on for a while

if i run a computer on it, can it see past codes, or codes that went off without me clearing em?

I was wondering if there was a sensor or something that controls fuel/air mixtures, or if i can adjust it at all?

 

[pillen140]

yes, the computer will store the codes. autozone does the scan for free, i think someone said that already, but i would do that first.

 

[Silverado]

I'm going to go with head gasket as well. Perhaps the rough running starts after the ECM leans the mixture from the cold start...

Drain that extra oil out of there at your earliest opportunity. Actually, for the minimal cost just do an oil change, and have a good look at the used oil. You'll be able to see if there's coolant in there. A half gallon in 500 miles is a lot of coolant. If it's not on your driveway, it's going someplace.

 

[Young_unn]

I'm going to go with head gasket as well. Perhaps the rough running starts after the ECM leans the mixture from the cold start...

Drain that extra oil out of there at your earliest opportunity. Actually, for the minimal cost just do an oil change, and have a good look at the used oil. You'll be able to see if there's coolant in there. A half gallon in 500 miles is a lot of coolant. If it's not on your driveway, it's going someplace.

ill do that tomarrow, i have some other bits im putting on too

 

[skippy]

having the oil to high could have the crank slapping oil,when cold this could really cause lack of power and rough running.i also vote for oil change.

 

[Jonboy]

Have you pulled the codes yet? It sounds like possibly the EGR valve is getting stuck.

 

[Young_unn]

Have you pulled the codes yet? It sounds like possibly the EGR valve is getting stuck.

hmm im gonna have to go buy a code computer, all the places ive gone dont have em for use

 

[Silverado]

The EGR solenoid should only send vacuum to the valve under cruising conditions; partial load, partial throttle.

I just did my EGR; the symptom was a muffled knocking sound, but no effect on the 'smoothness' of the engine.

I still think this is likely to be a blown headgasket myself.