Ok went from a blazer fan to ranger fan love the old ones. Here is my problem bought on the cheap 94 manual 5 speed 4.0 have to start with starting fluid. After that will start on its own up to 6hrs, loss of power in 4th and 5th gear. Seen some bubbling coming out of driverside manifold, nothing in oil and only white smoke after starting fluid. Checked fuel pump everything over 35psi. Please give me some pointers or am I screwed?

 

If you have to use starting fluid to start your engine after sitting the fuel pressure may be bleeding down.

Your problem could be a bad pressure regulator, leaking injectors, bad check valve in the fuel pump or a internal leak in the tank from a bad connection seal or line.

Perform your fuel pressure test with the key on engine off and note fuel pressure, then test with the engine cranking and write down your findings.

Then let the truck sit and see how long it takes to bleed down.

If the fuel pressure is good and holds pressure you may have a injector reference pulse issue. to diagnose this possibility you would need a Noid light set to start with.

Crank the engine over with a noid light connected to each injector harness connector one at a time and make sure the light pulses when cranking.

If you do not get the noid light to flash until you get the engine running with starting fluid this means you may have a bad PCM driver circuit that controls the injector reference pulse during cranking.

Of course your problem could be a number of other things, but the test above is where i would start.

You will only be screwed on this truck if you start hanging parts on the truck.

 

I am having the same exact problem did you figure out what was wrong