Hey all, I found a cheap alternative to replace a custom hose and thought y'all might like to know what I found out and a cheap way to fix it.

So I was on a business trip last week and I took the ranger. At the end of day 1 and about 250 miles I was on fumes & headed to a gas station and surprisingly I got a check engine light while rolling 70mph. The truck was running perfectly, the oil and temp gauge looked good, and no smoke in the rearview so I kept rolling and pulled in and shut it down.

I had a Bluetooth OBDLink with me so I checked the codes. It showed lean on both banks. (P0171 & P0174). I popped the hood and looked it over. Couldn't see anything out of place so I closed the hood, cleared the codes, and filled up with fuel. No problems and no codes for the remainder of the trip.... until I got about 10 miles from home. Same check engine light and situation. No observable issues so I just continued home.

Just parked it until tonight. I took a good look and found that the rubber hose between the oil filler neck and the PCV hose routing to the rubber intake hose was completely cracked in half. Also that hard PCV pipe was pressing pretty hard against the two small hard hoses right next to it?
I went to Adv auto and they didn't have the part or anything that would work. Went to O-Riley and they could order the part for $25+tax. Didn't buy anything and checked rockauto at home. Their price is better at $18+tax+shipping.
I don't need the whole hose assy... just the little rubber hose that's tapered down from a larger diameter to a smaller one.

So I'm home trying different things and just to see if it would fit, I tried a 7/16' vacuum hose. Luckily it fits! It's tight on the oil fill fitting.. but with a bit of moisture and some wiggling it'll slip on. Best part... I already had the hose laying around and so this fix was free.
Also, the hose assy looked to be completely original and it looks to me like the hose was put in backwards! I turned it 180 and now it doesn't touch against anything.
Here are some pics... (the tapered hose was stuck to the PCV pipe so hard that I cut it axially to remove it)

 

Good info

Hose on the oil filler tube is the Vent hose, also called Breather hose, it's part of PCV(positive crankcase ventilation) system, allows fresh, filtered, air to be pulled in to the engine when blow-by is low

I have use preformed heater hoses for PCV system before, it,ready has bends and elbows, just cut them as needed, insert smaller hose in the end if its too big

 

Been driving the ranger all week and thought I'd give a little update.

Prior to fixing this hose I noticed that cold start was inconsistent. I was thinking maybe fuel was bleeding back to the tank or maybe dirty injectors. Now realize it was also idling a bit rough in the first few seconds after starting.
Now it starts immediately and is very smooth. And oddly I also notice that shutoff is smoother. Interesting....

So the lesson learned... if your engine is not starting in a consistent and smooth manner.. check for vacuum leaks!