It is decision time, my 86 ford ranger 4x4 is on the bubble. It's been taking up space in the garage for a year and I have to decide what to do in order to maintain domestic tranquility. Something bad happened to the motor, 2.3 FI. Could be just a head gasket could be worse. No compression in the two center cylinders, they act like they are connected if I recall. Was going to do a leak down test but the truck got buried with crap so I have to un bury it. In the mean time I thought I'd ask for advice. The thing is if I don't just sell this thing, if I'm going to take the head off I feel like for the effort I might as well take out the whole motor. The last time I had this kind of problem back in 1989,(different truck,) I first got a junkyard motor which burned oil so I took it back and then rebuilt the original. It was the only time I rebuilt an engine and what I discovered was I was paying a pretty big percentage of what a rebuilt motor from a mass rebuilder would cost so that I could use plastigauge and I guess know that the parts were good. My question would be does anybody know a good ranger forum? How new a used engine would fit? Are any of the mass rebuilders any good? It was a work truck so it's nothing fancy but it,s grown on me to the point that I hesitate to have it towed off to the smelter.
those 2.3's are great engines. they suck for power, but they're generally very reliable.
what you describe sounds for sure like a blown gasket, or a cracked head. before deciding on anything, pull the rocker cover, and remove the cam followers on the cylinder you want to check the leakdown on. find where the pressure's leaking out. through the crankcase....wasted rings or cracked/broken piston. through the exhaust or intake....something wrong with the respective valve. through the cylinder next to it.......pull the head.
i don't think they went to dual plug in 86, but they did(i think) sometime during the use of EEC4. if so, you can swap in a dual plug 2.3, with the accompanying wiring, and ECU, for a little better mileage, and a little better power.
of course, the other thing that you could do that would be MASSIVE fun......find a wrecked fox body mustang that runs. take the engine, drop it in, and install the v8 EEC4 system. there's only 7(if i recall correctly) wires that you need to tap into the vehicles stock wiring system to make it work. remember...if you put a v8 in there though, you're gonna have to upgrade the tranny, and the diff.
or you could sell it as, 'cause there's probably a kid out there that'd want a 4x4 that he could work on.
