O.K. i am going to start from the top, since i am new to this site. i bought my ranger in early spring for $600, it drove great. it sounded awsome, no noticeable problems, except for a little smoke from the engine bay. the owner said"it has been doing that for awhile" he though that it could just be some oil on the Exhaust manifolds. so long story short i bought it. drove it all summer no problems, except for a small oil leak. no problem just top it off every so often. over the summer i put 6,000+ miles on it.

no here comes the bad part. when fall came, that small oil leak became worse. like a Quart a week of oil. truck still ran fine. but i noticed a stutter when ever it got warm, i would just either hold it above Idle, or accelerate, and it would smooth out. I also noticed that i was going through 1Liter of cooliant a month. I though that one of the heads were cracked. but no white smoke from the exhaust.

Here comes winter. it was fine untill the truck was warmed up. then it would bogg down, and stutter badly. one time it shut off when i stopped at a light. heres the worst. On a Sunday in Jan. my father and I went to go see if there was possibly a leak in the Rad., we found nothing, but just to be safe we put some stop leak in. we followed the directions exatly. truck ran fine the rest of the day.

that following morning, i was awoken by my mother to drive my younger brother to school. i started up the truck, because it was really cold. came back out 5Min. later, no heat. i was surprised, but just thought that since it was cold, that 5min was not enough for the truck to warm up. got on to the main drag on my town, i puched it to pull ahead of a car. and it bogged down really really bad. i then noticed a trail of water on the road. hopeing it was the car infront of me, i looked ahead, it was not. i look down at the temp guage. and it was almost redlined!!! i quickly turned into the local Walgreens, and shut it off. i oped the hood, and there was cooliant pouring out of the overflow. i was for sure not going to pay for a tow. so i wated for about a 30min. bought some cooliant, put it in, and it fired right up. i then proceded to drop my brother off, and nurse it back home.

once i got home i drained the rad. and put new cooliant in. since that day i have had no loss of cooliant, still the same amount of oil was leaking. but the stuttering has happened alot more, cutting out, and almost dieing is also prevelent.

this weekend i plan on putting some new plugwires, and plugs in it, and changing the fuel filter. my question is, what could the problem possibly be? will the plugs and filter help out? also after the previouse loss of cooliant i am still able to get rid of the almost cutting out, and stuttering by just increasing the RPMs.

Specs.
2.9L V6
4x4 manual locking hubs.
Auto trans
single cab.
120,000 Miles+

It also has some BS air filter, no Airbox, just a filter at the end of the throttlebody. also has an odd exhaust too. two pipes going strait back at an angle, till the rear end, the it has side exhaust behind each wheel.

this truck seemed to be modified by a red neck. i am only saying this because it is Flat Army green, has a Confederate flag on the back window, and has a push par that you can tell is not made for the truck.

Thanks for any help, Harold.

oil leak sounds like valve cover gaskets as far as leaking onto the exhaust manifold. u are gonna have to take it to a competent shop and have them compression test each cylinder to verify if u have a compression leak which would cause the exact issues you are having and take it from there. Ask for an estimate upfront and you should get a good price. good luck. they will be able to scan your computer for you as well if the engine light is on.

I can borrow/rent a pressure device from my local Autozone to test the cylinder compression. I am not Afraid to do the work my self. I just hope it is the heads, and not the Block. if it is an external crack, could i posssibly use Stitch pins? also my Engine light is not on, the only light that comes on is my Check Oil light.

ok Harlod listen, my name is Matt i live in california. i too have a 87 ford ranger 2.9 auto transA4LD 4x4. i sort of have the same problem you have. it stutters only when it is warmed up enough but when i punch the throtle it clears up but shortly after it does it again. Now, i think your oil leak is irelevent. just a coincedence. now as for the stutter, i have replaced = map sensor, fuel regulator, fule filter, air filter, EGR sensor, spark plugs, plug wires, and still it does this stutter and i dont know about you but mine spits out alot of black smoke out the tail pipe only when this stutter occurs. if i dont hold the iddle up it will run like crap and yes will eventually die but runs perfect when the stutter clears up. but i do have go news. i THINK i know what it may be. the intake, the actual intake itself the part that says 2.9 litter on it may be clogged with a butt load of carbon and dirt and satan knows what. i think if i pop off the intake and clean it out it would fix the problem but as you probly know by now nothing is what it seems on this truck you can replace everything and it would still have the same problems. my advice is if your going to keep the truck learn it in and out cause it is a "mystery truck". dont get me wrong the truck has a strong motor and wheels like a champ and a half but somethings you just got to give the finger to. as for me i AM going to try this intake idea and WILL post any findings i may come across. i just hope there is people that check this so they can tell me more before i disect my motor looking for hopes and dreams . . .

let me know if anything you may find out does any good rather than the ultimate choice of BURNING THE TRUCK TO THE GROUND and moving on.

Matt, from California.

Wow, thank you Matt for that. what you said about the black smoke and everything else is exactly what is going on with mine. please let me know what happens, but i have pretty much broken down and decided to rebuilt the top end of the motor, i have a sneaking suspicion that one of the heads is cracked. so i got two lower milage heads froma Pick n' Pull. but when i do this i will for sure look at the intake and clean the crap out of it. i mean i was planning on cleaning just about everything i can just to make sure that i don't leave something behind and that could possibly be the problem. but since i am waiting a few more weeks for my buddys shop to be open up enough for me to get in, i think i might aswell try this. thank you very much.

Harold, from killinois

no problem man. and i dont know for sure if that will fix the problem but cleaning it out sure aint going to hurt nothin. i did some asking around and i herd from a guy that it could be the EGR tube that leads under the EGR. i was told to take off the EGR clean it out and then get a good drill and a speedometer cable and stick it down the tube and "let er rip!" i havent tried this but . . . . . could possibly lead somewhere idk. he said make sure the cable is running the full length of the tube and just have at it for a while and then hook averything back up and start it let it run for about 5 min. "it should spit out a S.H.I.T load of black smoke!" then turn it off and repeat one more time and then drive it see if it went away. again idk about this but . . . . im at my wits end with this truck man haha.

Matt, from California

I will for sure do that when i rebuild the top end. mine is getting worse, and now i a spitting out black water, witch i am assuming coolaint, so i am almost possitive it has to be a cracked head. i got two used heads from a truck with only 20,000 miles on it. so hopefully i will get her runnin good agian. i got alot of road trips planned this year, and my ranger gets better gas milage them my V8 Jeep.

Harold, From Killinois

I am having the same problem right now, i just put new gaskets on the whole top end because i was getting water in the oil.. come to find out i have a cracked head. don't have the money to fix it right now so i put some bars stop leak in it. well it stopped water from getting in the oil, but now i am getting a bad sputter and hesitation until u pretty much floor it. did you guys ever figure out what fixed it?

1987 ford ranger xlt
2.9l v6
175000

I figured it out it is the fuel pressure regulator.. put a new one on runs just fine

[Yeah, I know this is an old topic, but so what. It helped me out and that's what a forum is all about imho.]

This is a GREAT tip. You should've been THANKED by those above who were spinning their wheels on it. PATHETIC!!!

Even so, I've gotten to know this particular truck backwards & forwards over the past 4 years, or so I thought. Thank You, Skadoo.

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1987 Ford Ranger 2.9 4x4 AT, AC