91 explorer starts hard

[wildstang]

I have a 91 explorer that is used to just plow my driveway. Before I took it off the road, it would need to crank over more then my 92 ranger 4.0 to start. As the years have gone by it has gotten progressively worse. I probably need to crank it over for a minute longer, especially as it gets colder, before it will start. It has gotten so bad last winter that I installed an inline coolant heater to plug in, would throw old towels over the engine and then squirt gas through the throttle body to help it start. I checked the fuel pressure at the schrader valve yesterday and got around 38psi. My Hayse manual says it needs to be 40psi. I tried to check it at the filter but I didn't realize I needed to turn the key on/off 4 or so times to get the pressure up. Should I have to do that or should it pressurize the first time the key is turned on? The filter is new last fall, I changed it hoping it would help but didn't seem to affect it. Thanks for any help.

 

[Tbars4]

...Just my thoughts but I would look into getting a new pos and neg cable for the battery...They get corroded on the inside of the sheathing and you have the symptom's...

 

[wildstang]

I replaced them last winter.

 

[boggs1227]

fuel filter..... off topic but may help .... my father had new chevy truck not to long ago and had it about a year and then katrina hit ...soon after that he noticed that he was haveing a hard time starting the truck ...took it in to be serviced and found out he had black sand like material in the tank .so after a tank cleaning and a new fuel filter all was well .what i'm trying to get at is maybe you may indeed need a new fuel filter because 2 psi lower pressure i would not think would make that big of differance trying to start the engine but i could be wrong tho .

but you said it's doing this year after year and gets worse as time goes on.

so.....


when i bought my explorer the intake was SO crapped out with carbon deposits that when i took it off to clean it... 2 big golf ball sized chunks of loose carbon fell out ( no joke) ...let it sit in a large plastic tub with 4-5 gallons of gas over night and used a toilet round brush and was cleaner than a whistle ...could be that yours is needing a over due cleaning ,i dought seafoam could have cleaned it like this ...it really got all the hard to get to areas in the upper intake plenum clean .

hope this helps if any .

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

Yeah, get that thing seafoamed and run some damn good injector cleaner and high octane gas. Might just be so clogged the fuel isn't spraying into the cylinders as well as you'd like.

Have you replaced the starter as all? That may just be so worn down it's not turning the engine over

 

[wildstang]

I will see if I can find some of that sea foam and put some good fuel injector cleaner. Does sea foam go by anyother names or brands so I know what to ask for? Thanks.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

I know it's sold at walmart. But no, it's just called "Seafoam". It's in a can with a white background. Maybe around 6-7 bucks? I recommend the Lucas Fuel Injector cleaner, has a green cap, kinda looks like olive oil for the consistency. I use that about once a month and I think it works great.

 

[wildstang]

How do you use it, does it go into the gas tank? Thanks for all the help.

 

[JDraper]

You may have a fuel pressure regulator going bad and/or a IAC valve going out. The IAC is effectively what a choke is on carbureted vehicles. It controls airflow at idle. If it's not working properly, it can make the vehicle very hard to start and it will be grumpy when cold.

 

[91ROKKRAWLER]

not to rob your thread... my ex is doin a very similar thing. in the mornin or when its colder it'll crank for like 10 seconds before it hits. also when u punch the accelerator it almost wants to die before it moves. is that the iac? i just replace the battery, cables, fuel filter,air cleaner...