need help with 95 explorer

[Armyguydan]

Im at the end of my rope and desperately need help.

I have a 1995 ford explorer. Ive owned it now for 2 years. Since i bought it its had a check engine light on and a random problem where when warm it would ruff start and idle ruff for 5-10 seconds. Recently(past 30 days) it got worse fast.

After driving it 30 miles went into a store. Came out about 30 mins later and it wouldnt start. Smelled flooded. After about an hour sitting in it finally got it started but ran ruff. Had to gas it to 2k rpm to get it to run and it would surge from 1500-2000rpm for about 30 seconds. Smoothed out and i drove it back home.

Get home and decided to take a look. Checked codes and showed intake air charge sensor out of range. So went to autozone to get a new one and found out it was unplugged. Plugged it in. Check engine light went off. Drove to my wifes work and noticed smoking from a tube that runs from exhaust to intake and truck was surging at crusing speeds(like a bad tps sensor). Turned truck off at wifes work and when she finally came out...truck wouldnt start. Again smells flooded. Sat for 30 mins and started..ran ruff...gassed it to 2k rpm..cleared up went home.

Replaced tps next day. Still surged/missed at just crusing rpm at 25-40mph. On a whim unplugged air charge temp sensor..check engine light comes on...but crusing at normal speeds no more surging/missing....so replaced act sensor. Plugged in new one and...same problem.

I did notice something else strange as well. When i plug in/unplug the act sensor random dash lights dont work or come back on.

Ive cleaned maf and ran seafoam through to clean out the fuel. But no matter what i replaced/cleaned truck still has a hard time starting when warm.

My dad suggested it could be injectors or fuel pressure regulator. But i dont have the 500 to replace the injectors and dont want to put more money into this unless i can reasonably narrow it down.

What do you guys think?

 

[Explodr94]

Listen to your injectors with an old air hose and screw driver or mechanics stethescope. My guess is one of them is leaking. Listen for steady ticking. You will be able to tell which one is bad. Fuel passes thru regulator to the injectors, so I don't believe that is bad, but check it with a fuel pressure gauge. Finally, if nothing is apparent there, check resistance on the fuel injector harness. I am basing this on the flooded condition. If that has not shown you to the culprit, more information would be needed. Are you getting codes?

 

[Flash]

drippy fuel injector.

 

[Armyguydan]

Ok had this happen again today without smelling fuel. So...


Looking at asymptoms alone

Starts up fine when cold

Runs and drives fine

Never dies

Idles a little ruff

After driving it for a while and shutting it off has trouble starting

When it does start it will die if you dont put your foot on gas and raise rpm to 1500-2000rpm

During this time(with foot steady on gas) rpm will fluctuate 500rpm or so.

After 10-30 seconds evens out and again runs fine

So

Forget what i said before what would you think it could be?

 

[gmanpaint]

Might check for a lower intake gasket leak. If it is small, it wont be an issue until things heat up and separate, causing a vacuum leak.

 

[Armyguydan]

How would i check for that?

 

[gmanpaint]

Do a youtube search, as there are different methods used.

Shade tree methods: Smoke used gets sucked in, and you can see it. Volatile tests such as starting fluid sprayed gets sucked in and raises the RPM's.

If you don't want to keep throwing money replacing parts that do not fix the issue, there is another option, and sometimes the best option for issues that are hard to figure out...
A ford dealer Mechanic can diagnose with Ford testing equipment. If they find this to be the issue, and you hire them to do the repair, they normally remove the costs for the test.