I am wondering I have a head gasket problem.The last couple of days when I start my truck it seems to misfire for about 5 seconds and the idles fine.I have owned it since new and it now has 192,000 miles and it has never done anything like this before.It smokes for a few seconds (white) at about 10 seconds after startup for a few seconds and goes away.It could be just condensation in the exhaust and not related to the misfire.Oil is fine with no signs of coolant and it doesn't seem to be losing coolant.My theory is a bit of coolant is seeping into one cylinder while the truck sits for awhile and it burns off when I start it causing the misfire.BTW,if I turn it off and start it a few minutes later it doesn't misfire.No CEL either.I have heard of the 4.0 OHV engines cracking the heads,I wonder if that could be it.Any input would be great.It has only done it since yestarday but I try to jump right on a problem as soon as it happens.

 

Check you oil and water levels, check for water in your oil(creamy white looking) thats a good sign of a head gone

 

I'm in the same boat as you Marc. My 97 does the exact same thing as yours but I am slowly loosing coolant. I need to add about a cup a week , but my oil still looks brand new. Blown head gasket is looking like what is wrong with both our rides.

 

you guys could also have a fouled out plug.....have you checked your plugs?

 

Sometimes a valve seal and guide gets wore out. And after shut off oil drips down into the cylinder.

Smell the white smoke. If it's got a burnt oil smell you might want to go to a thicker oil. If it's got a moisture type of smell it's most likely coolant.

Rich

 

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...stpost&t=43318

 

Well,I finally figured it out.Cylinder 4 fuel injector is bad.It is staying open and leaking fuel into that cylinder when the truck sits.Then when I start it there is a misfire until it burns off all of the extra fuel.I pulled #4 &#5 spark plugs and #4 was wet with fuel and #5 wasn't.I had someone crank it with the coil unplugged and it sprayed a fuel mist out of #4 but not #5.So I swapped the plugs from the 2 cylinders for now.I am ordering the parts tomorrow.I can get the injectors for $41 each so I need to decide if I want to replace one or all of them.I am also getting new plugs and wires,fuel rail gasket and upper intake o-rings.I may replace them all and be done with it due to having 192,000 miles.I would hate to replace just the bad one and have another one go bad shortly after and do all of the work again.Plus,it will still be a ton cheaper than the job I thought I was going to have to do,head gaskets.Thanks for all of the input.

 

You might try swapping the injectors around to see if the misfire follows the suspect injector. That would provide even more confirmation of a bad injector.

Also, you can get your fuel injectors professionally tested and cleaned which is a much better value than replacing them, IMO. I had mine done a few years back and after the cleaning and testing was finished, I ended up having to replace one of the inejctors. All the others came back to full 100%. You get the whoel package, too - new seals and screens, etc.

Do a search on the internet and you'll find a bunch of companies that do this.

 

Um,I now know it is a bad injector and which one it is.Kind of alot of work to swap an injector from cylinder to cylinder just to tell me what I already know.BTW,my truck is extremely well taken care of with the injectors being profesionally cleaned every 30K and I use Chevron injector cleaner every oil change (5K) and the fuel filter is changed every 15,000-20,000 miles.So it didn't fail because of neglect.Also,I had them cleaned the other day after I figured out it was a bad injector just to see if it would fix it,which it didn't.A friend of mine is a driveability tech at a Ford dealer and he assists me on my repairs.He said that the injector just failed due to miles.He suggested replacing them all because in his experience when he has replaced only one it usually comes back for others down the road.Just wondering,how much to have them cleaned like you did?It will cost me $246 for all 6 new ones,which isn't a bad deal IMO.