Hello, I believe I have a crank position sensor problem after the research I’ve done on here & Google, but I’m looking for someone to weigh in with a second opinion. There’s one detail about it all that makes me second guess my diagnosis.

1989 ranger
2.3L fuel injected
manual w/4 wheel drive

new parts:
-In tank fuel pump
-fuel filter
-rebuilt trans
-driveline ujoint
-replaced bad wiring at coilpack, intake side
-recent spark plugs

short story:
-Starts/Runs great cold
-misfire when warm w/throttle open
-idles warm, but only for a minute & dies
-hard to start until cooled down


Long story:
Terrible misfire occurs with any throttle movement only when the engine has warmed up completely. Either going down the road or sitting in the driveway, given any throttle it will misfire heavily. It’s like I’m twisting a distributor by pressing the pedal (just a way to describe the problem, I know there’s no distributor). Even if I just let it idle, it will eventually putter out and die, given maybe 45 seconds. Once it’s that warm & giving me issues, it doesn’t want to start. It kicks & backfires (through the exhaust and intake), and won’t start until it’s sat for 20min.

What I find strange is that it will start up great if it’s cold. I was able to drive it 50 miles before it started the misfire, and now I can’t drive more than 10 minutes. I’ve read that a bad crank position sensor will cause a no-start situation. I don’t get that situation until the engine is hot. That led me to believe that the coil packs were bad, so I replaced them but the problem persisted. Had to return the new coil packs to save money.

My question is, is there something else that could cause this misfire if it’s only happening after it’s warmed up? Trying to not tear it apart just for that stupid crank sensor lol.

Any input is a big help, thank you

 

Ah, just realized there’s a sub forum for this particular engine. My fault. I could use some help moving this thread there.