The other night I was driving home and my temperature gage dropped down to the bottom as if it was cold and my engine died. I heard some noise coming from it as it was coasting buy it could have just been the drive line turning the engine over before I pushed the clutch in. Now it won't start it will start to crank but will not continue to do it. It almost acts like the battery is to dead to crank it over. But all of the lights and radio are working just fine. It has oil in the oil pan and it doest look burnt or have water in it. Still has coolant in the radiator without any trace of oil. Does anybody have an idea as to what might be going on? Does it sound like there may be something wrong internally? I'm going to hook the battery up to the charger tomorrow to see if it is charged or not. Thanks in advance.

 

Well today I finally had some time to tow the truck out of the field and over to my garage. I hooked up the battery charger and it said it was at like 40% but the truck has been sitting for a couple weeks now. So I let it charge for a while and then tried to start it. It cranked more than it did before but it will never start and continue to run and it is making some awful noises. I'm thinking I bent a rod or something. Here is a video of it.



I guess I need to take it to a shop and have them look at it and give me an official diagnosis but I don't think it is looking to good for this engine. So that leaves me with probably replacing the engine. My friend has a 2000 3.0 that he rolled in high school just sitting in a barn that I could probably nab fairly cheap and swap the motor in but then I would have to deal with also swapping in all of the PATS stuff or is there a way to wire in a bypass? Or I could find an explorer with a 5.0 and swap it in which would probably take some more time and money. And with the 4.88 gears and the 5.0 I bet traveling down the highway would be interesting.

 

I got it started tonight after cranking on it a few times and it ran. At first it didn't want to but then it smoothed out and ran for about a minute or so and we shut it off. Then I started it back up and it ran for another minute or so and it started struggling again and I shut it off. Then it wouldn't crank again. I've got a video of it running, it is kind of rough with some noise coming from the engine but not to bad.

 

If you have a 3.0l, and swap in another 3.0l you would use the same computer so no PATS issue.

Reads like you had an electrical issue to start with, check Ground cable from battery to engine, if this was loose or corroded temp gauge would drop, and engine would quit, also slow cranking.
Lights use a separate ground, and radio is a low draw so would still work.

Alternator would also not charge very well.

If there is nothing obvious I would just replace that cable, they can corrode under the insulation.


Could also be positive cable but less likely with the temp gauge drop.

 

Well finally got it to the shop and the engine is bad. Im not going to spend the money to put another 3.0 back in it so it looks like ill be saving up for solid axles and a v8 swap. hopefully the mice wont do to much damage to the while its sitting in the barn.