2010 ranger running rough, with p0320 code

[vroomzoomboom]

bought a 2010 ranger with a 4L sohc that has around 143K miles (230k kms). the guy that i bought it from was upfront about its problems.
he had told me he had the front chains and guides repaired, then after that he problems started. the original shop had told him it was not from any work they did, so they both parted on a sour note, and took it to a local ford dealership.

original shop

dealership, also notice the mileage between the 2 shops.

what i noticed was this (and yes i own it now). when the truck is cold it will run fine, and rev fine. i took it for a quick ride. i did notice around 3K it would shudder and stumble for a second then rev fine right up to red line.
this is from cold to being warm.
stopped, shut it off for 10 seconds. after restarting it, if you try to rev it in park around 1500 it will break up and act like its not firing all cylinders. same when i t drive, with a major loss of power. if i am reading the work order correctly, they tested but not change the crank and cam sensors.
anyone else have ideas to throw at me that has not been done? went i first looked at it, it did run rough but they had started it to move it before i came there (could hear a small amount of chain noise) when i went to pick it up and store it at a friends place (roughly 3 miles away) it ran fine with no problems. today, first start up when cold, ran fine. start it up after it has warmed up, runs rough. cleared the code it had, it would show in my hand held, but not throw a CEL.

 

[donalds]

I'd change the crank sensor to start with
If the harmonic balancer is rusty clean the rust off or the crank sensor will not get a good reading

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I'd change the crank sensor to start with
If the harmonic balancer is rusty clean the rust off or the crank sensor will not get a good reading

was going to try the crank and cam sensors. the rust on the ring however is something i didnt think of doing. good suggestion, thanks!

 

[410Fortune]

Why was the fuel rusty coming out of the filter? Check filler neck see if it has rusted through
Pretty sure 2010 ranger has plastic tank only place rust can enter fuel tank is from filler neck
Varnished and rusty fuel… something to look into

I would consider pulling engine and rebuild the timing… smart move when you have a sohc that still runs good sometimes and has good compression numbers
I bet they lacked oil changes

 

[410Fortune]

Here’s a Google for the p0320 and the sohc 4.0

Crank balancer suspect
I like the part about performing the wiggle test
Ford tested the wiring and sensors and they tested good… but it runs good most of the time so… could be very intermittent and hard to spot a bad sensor or balancer

Google Search

 

[vroomzoomboom]

neck looked ok. i had to add fuel to it today, it was close to being under the empty mark. trying not to pull the motor unless i absolutely have to, but if i do, my spare will go in, which is another thing i really dont want to do.
i did look into the p0320 code before i bought it. this is also why i want to change sensors because it sounds like they didnt try that. and who knows if the first shop didnt drop them to the ground or tread them like this.

 

[410Fortune]

From what I read it looks like they tested the cam and drank sensors and even bypassed the wires to the pcm and everything passed

The cam sensor on a sohc is on the drivers head I don’t think there is any way for the computer to know the timing on the pass head

If it has a rattle on the pass side then it’s very likely going to need timing cassette

I would Plan to pull it and replace the timing components and re install it… keep your spare. Keep the 2010 engine with the 2010
Then you can sell it for more with all new timing components