Hello Ranger community!!
I have a 1991 2.3l 4 cylinder ranger that has 8 spark plugs (for a double burn) I have been driving it since 1996. Its been an awesome little truck. Now that is has 246k on it, problems seem to be occurring more often, and the few mechanics that will work on it out here in California always want crazy $. Here is my current problem.... when i am on the highway going up a slight grade in 4th or 5th gear, the truck starts to loose power, seems like i have a governor and then starts to get jerky as i loose power and slow down. No check engine light comes on. When im on the street in gears 1-3 truck seems to run fine. The Truck Prrrrs when it Idles, no hard starts, starts on the 1st try. when i accelerate in the lower gears things seem pretty normal for a car with sooo many miles on it but when i accelerate to get onto the highway there is no real power and like i mentioned above when i am climbing any type of incline at highway speeds (4th 5th gear) it starts loosing power/speed fast. Any suggestions? Seems like a fuel issue, Fuel filter, fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, a friend said maybe the EGR valve which was replaced 3k miles ago but it looks like a generic cheap part. Thank you all in advanced for any help, I am hoping to take this truck to 300K on the original engine :)

 

Welcome to the forum

Yes, what you describe reads like a lack of fuel during higher demand
Change fuel filter first

Next would be fuel pump

If you can get/rent a fuel pressure gauge you can try testing pressure by holding RPMs at 3,000 and see if its slowly dropping, not really a great test but might show a weak fuel pump
1991 2.3l should run 30-35psi fuel pressure consistently while running at any speed

 

UPDATE: Thank you RonD for the reply and the options to try. The problem ended up being the catalytic converter. It was not totally clogged, and even the muffler guy was not sure if that was the issue, but when he cut it off, it was obvious. Immediately took it out on the highway and opened it up, no more problem, all the power had returned. Thanks again to RonD and the entire Ford Ranger Forum community

 

Good stuff

Thanks for the update, it WILL help some one else down the road

 

You might want to start looking at your accelerator pedal cable Easy fix Put some small zip ties down there to take up the slack