1995 Ranger/running sluggish and burning WAY TOO MUCH GAS. Please help if you can.

[SixStringSlayer]

Hello Folks,

I have a 1995 Ranger V6 with about 47000 Miles on it. The problems that I'm having with it are, running sluggish and it's burning a LOT of gas. I am in no way a technician, more of a parts changer. As far as it running slow, it's not really sputtering or cutting out on me. It just feels like it has no power. The gas situation is, It's burning way too much gas for a V6. I mean it's like I've got a big block thrown under the hood. I've taken it to two places and had it hooked up to a computer and it's not throwing any codes. So I don't know what to do here. I'm just afraid that the cost of what may be the problem will exceed the value of the truck. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated. This was my grandfathers truck that was given to me when he passed, so I would love to get it up and running good. Just let me know.

~S~

 

[burtonbrd138]

did you look at the plugs or test them. Spark plugs can misfire and cause slugish and limited power to the engine.

 

[SixStringSlayer]

That was one of the first things that I did when I got the truck. I changed out the plugs and wires. So....Maybe i didn't get gaps right on the plugs or something???

 

[burtonbrd138]

did you get copper or platiums when you replaced the plugs?

 

[SixStringSlayer]

I pretty sure they were platinum.

 

[burtonbrd138]

well i am not an expert by all means but most plugs today dont need gapping. May be you need a new fuel pump if the new plugs didnt do the trick.
What company plugs are they?

 

[SixStringSlayer]

Yeah, when I checked the gap on them most of them were spot on. I'm not sure what brand the plugs are but I purchased the at Advanced auto parts.

 

[burtonbrd138]

Ya you should check out your fuel pump and fuel filter that could be the problem

 

[SixStringSlayer]

I will definitely give that a shot. hopefully that will work. Thanks!

 

[Tbars4]

...Just because you do not have a check engine light on, you may still have codes..

..Have you had your codes read???

..From what little you have stated, to me, it sounds like either a cat has gone bad or your FPR (fuel pressure regulator)...

...Are you having any electrical issues as in low voltage or even your coil pack???...Have you checked the grounding on your coil pack???

...If you search you will find great info about these items here...

 

[Retread]

A couple of practical suggestions

Tbars4 is giving you two good suggestions. Maybe I can help with two practical ideas. You didn't mention which V6 engine it is, but I still think there is going to be a vacuum line on one side of the fuel pressure regulator. Engine Vacuum is working against a 50 pound spring to regulate the fuel pressure which is about 50 pounds also and diaphragms in the regulators can go bad. (I fought one of these to learn.) The bottom line is there should be no hint of gasoline in the line on the vacuum side of the fuel pressure regulator. If there is, its bad. The other hint is that all engines are basically air pumps so if you don't have much exhaust coming out of the exhaust pipe which you can compare to other vehicles, then Tbars4 suggestion about the catalytic converter being clogged could be the problem. I went through the trouble of removing the catalytic converter and checking it visually, they look like a screen door about a foot thick, and should be pretty clear. Of course there still could be other factors, like engine timing being way off for instance. With only 47,000 miles, you should be able to straighten this truck out, so don't panic yet. The fact that it only has 47,000 miles on it, the fuel pressure regulator and catallytic converter wouldn't be the first things we would have thought of, so it can still turn out to be something simple, ... and I just thought of one ... don't forget to check the Throttle Position Sensor, it feeds the throttle position back to the computer. The computer has to be kept satisfied by all of the sensors and this one is a prime suspect to cause problems. The Throttle Position Sensor is basically like a volume control on a Radio and you know much use the throttle gets repositioned during driving. Another culprit for burning a lot of excess fuel, and 47,000 miles is enough to have caused it to be bad is the Oxygen Sensor. when an Oxygen Sensor fails, they fail to the rich side of the fuel air mixture, whick cause more fuel to be injected. (If they were designed to fail toward the lean side (if even possible) a lot of engines would be run lean, overheated, and burned up. Hope this helps you get in the ballpark..