I bought a 97 ranger with a 2.3 and 5-speed. It has 99,000 miles. It idles rough and has no power. It wont do over 60 on flat ground. It pings pretty much all the time while driving. My mechanic friends and I have checked everything we can think of with no results.

I just put new plugs and wires in. We have checked the EGR, MAF, timing, air filter, and compression and all of them checked out. Fuel pressure is 32psi at idle and around 35 while revving. The fuel pump is ok and we replaced the filter and regulator and rail. The pressure is still the same.

I swapped both coil packs and the computer with my friends ranger which runs great, but nothing changed. I loosened the exhaust right after the headers but it ran the same, so Im assuming its not a plugged exhaust. There are probably other things I have done that I dont remember right now.

I am swapping the injectors on Wednesday but im not optimistic. Sorry about the long story, but I dont know what else to try and could use some help!

 

pinging sound looks like you have something wrong inside the engine itself, like a broken piston, rod, it could be anything at this point.
Did you check for ODBII codes ? When you said check EGR, MAF... did you test them with a multimeter ?

 

The truck is not throwing any codes. I unplugged the MAF and ran it but there was no change, and i cleaned it. As for the EGR we tested the vacuum. The pinging occurs when you give it throttle in any gear 3rd or higher. Ive read this can be caused by overheating, incorrect timing, or malfunctioning EGR.

 

BTW, did you check or replace the IAC valve. Might the culprit for the rough idle.

 

I have not but ill try that soon. Runs the same with different injectors.

 

Figured Id post the solution in case others are having the same problem. Some jackass who owned it before me had replaced the timing belt and really messed up the timing. The camshaft pulley was around 5 teeth off and the aux shaft sprocket was some ridiculous amount off too. They had lined the timing marks up with the bends in the pulleys instead of the diamonds stamped in them. Fixed and and it runs fantastic now.

 

Wow that sucks, timing belt timing kind of scares me since I've never done it. Glad you got it though. I would've thought it would throw a code or something with the timing off and pinging like that.

 

The Check Engine Light came on in May (after almost a year of driving it like that) the code was for misfiring and running lean. Im just glad it runs right. I hope no damage was done from driving it all that time plus however long the previous owner drove it