I just picked up a 98 ranger that has been sitting for four and a half years. We got it to run on ether in the guys driveway and it sounded good so I brought it home thinking some fresh fuel and shed fire right up. So we drained the tank, flushed out the rail, added it some fresh 93 and turned over. Cranked but doesn’t run. Ok so we checked spark(even though it ran on ether) all good. Checked fuel pressure. All good. So we left it at that for the night and I came back the next day and hooked the battery up and cranked and she started up instantly. Purred like a kitten. No noise or anything. So let her idle for about 20 mins then she died. No sputter. Just died. No restart. So at this point I figured maybe a bad temp sensor somewhere when she got up to temp she shut off. So I let her sit and came back later. She fired right up again. Idles again for about 20 mins and died. Then No restart. For the rest of the day no matter what I did. I cleaned all ground points, the fuse box, everything. So I left her and then figured it was the crank sensor. So I replaced that and she started up cold again. Idled for about 10 mins till it got up to temp and I shut it off. And she restarted right up again. So I ruled out a temp issue. Then she died after another 15 mins like before. It can’t be a timing issue because it ran perfect when it ran. There has to be something with the computer that is no firing the injectors. The guy before me also put in an aftermarket cruise control so maybe that wiring can cause issues. I’m lost and kind of chasing my tail here. If anybody has gone through this what was your fix? Thanks
I forgot to mention also that the CEL stays on while cranking when it doesn’t start. On the few times it did start the CEL light when right off and it fired.