Hey guys,

Many of you might know how much I put into my little truck.

Lately it smells like gas when I am stopped at a light or something, when the heat is on, or right after I park it, but never when I am moving.

It doesn't leak any obvious gas leaks at all, but it is in fact gas that I am smelling, no mistaking that smell at all.

School is done for me in the next week so I am FINALLY working out a time where my mechanic is doing my suspension and brakes and I am going to have him add this in there, but I want to be sure I am thinking in the right direction.

I am suspecting the following:

1.) Failing fuel injector.

I recently had one fail this last Feb, so maybe they are starting to all get to the point where one needs replaced? It doesn't really sputter at all like it did when I had to get injector #4 replaced. Maybe one of them is stuck open?

If an injector is stuck, the corresponding spark plug will be wet with gasoline, right?

2.) Leaking intake manifold gasket.

I had my spark plugs replaced and had the intake manifold gasket replaced to give my mechanic an easier time with it as well as replace the current intake manifold gasket for the sake of replacing it. Maybe it isn't sealing correctly or is seated wrong?


3.) Hole in exhaust manifold.

I am pretty sure I have a hold in the header. It has gotten louder on acceleration and idle and most noise is coming from the front of the cab instead of behind it. It also has lost some bottom end to it, I've noticed. I've already looked into ordering one in A condition from a yard by searching car-parts.com, but also believe the hole could be causing the truck to run the wrong a/f ratio and also not fully burning up the fuel.



I don't think it is a head gasket as I just had a leak down test this last Feb and everything checked out good.


The truck still runs good for the most part, just not as best as it could as I notice my mileage has decreased even further and I used to get more, even with my 33's and 4.10 gearing.


Any insight?

 

2000 ranger will have a Returnless fuel system, 65psi of pressure.

At the end of the fuel rail there will be a Pulse damper, it will have a vacuum hose attached.
remove this vacuum hose and check it for fuel or fuel smell, if fuel is found replace damper

Also after engine is warmed up turn engine off and pop the hood.
Cycle key on and off a few times, this makes sure pressure is at 65psi.
Then see if you can locate a smell or leak in the fuel system on the engine.

Also check in the frame rail under drivers seat area, that's where the fuel filter, is located it's connectors can leak

You generally won't smell fuel from a stuck open injector, as the intake manifold is sealed up pretty tight.
Simple test for open injector is to use Clear Flooded Engine routine found in all fuel injection computers.

Turn on the key
Press gas pedal to the floor and hold it down all the way
Try to start engine, it should not start or even fire a little, fuel injectors are shut off.

With key on, engine off and gas pedal to the floor the computer "sees" 5volts from TPS,(throttle position sensor), this tells computer to enter Clear Flooded Engine mode.
So it won't open fuel injectors until foot is taken off gas pedal.
As soon as gas pedal comes up even a little injectors will start up.

So if engine tries to start in above test then fuel is leaking into the engine.

 

It actually ended up being a leaking fuel injector that was "stuck" open. The o-ring was cracked near the sprayer tip.