kishy's 1985 Ranger

[DerekTheGreat]

You'll never hurt an engine by changing the oil too soon. Engine doesn't look sludgy but damn, that oil sure is black.

[kishy]

You'll never hurt an engine by changing the oil too soon. Engine doesn't look sludgy but damn, that oil sure is black.

It has pretty wicked blowby, so I'd attribute the blackness to combustion products.

Lost a LOT of oil around the valve cover yesterday after sealing it back up. Tonight I'm going to yank it apart again and re-do it with a cork gasket and a shit-ton of RTV, which should seal it up for now.

One might ask why I can't drive the Lincoln to the junkyard in Detroit Saturday to get the valve cover. It would be a good question. The issue is I'm bringing a couple sets of tires/wheels to be mounted/dismounted/swapped around at the shop my buddy works at, which happens to be in Detroit, so the valve cover and tire remounting are happening in the same trip, which means truck is necessary. It's losing enough oil right now that it's a legitimate fire hazard (plus running out of oil isn't cool), so fix it I must.

[kishy]

Well, that as a head-shaking moment, directed at myself.

The valve cover gasket has a raised section at the front that comes up over the cam. Despite having a locator bump to hold it in place, it slipped out when I put the VC back on, leaving a massive gaping hole conveniently right beside an oil gallery...

Oil was being pumped directly out onto the cam sprocket, and then flung literally everywhere, plus running all down the front of the engine. What a mess.

Gasket was not reusable due to a tear from before that got worse when I tightened it, so in went the cork gasket, lined with black oil-resistant RTV on both sides. Let it sit an hour then drove it a bit, everything is staying dry. Fingers crossed.

A new PermaDry rubber gasket is in the mail and between that and a replacement valve cover this mess should be sealed up for good, until the next mechanical crisis arises.

[DerekTheGreat]

Hahaha well, here's to rust prevention.

Oh and the blow-by sounds like our K1500's old engine... It was starting to turn black just 400 miles into a change. Throw a can of Restore in for funsies if you haven't already, should seal things up a bit better.

[gadget73]

friend of mine had a clapped out Rustang with a 2.3 at one point. It was so bad he started logging in miles per quart of oil. When it finally died I think he was down around 100.

[kishy]

Yeah, not there yet lol. 90-95% of the oil loss has been relating to the valve cover. The final 5-10 has been burning, and I'd say that's split between PCV system and getting past rings. It doesn't lose a lot, but enough to notice.

Highway (extended periods of continued standing on the go pedal - the truck's max speed is slower than the flow of traffic typically) really does it in.

The valve cover sealing job seems to have worked, drove it to work today and it didn't drip any engine oil. The stain I found yesterday was almost the size of a tire laid on its sidewall. Gasket did get squished out a little at the back but the RTV glued it in place and it seems to be holding. It only needs to be temporary but might be functional enough to go longer.

Carb is in need of some adjustments. I had tinkered with it so much to compensate for the sunken float way-back-when that it could really use some quality time with someone who knows carbs. But since that requires money typically, I'll kludge it like I do most things.

If the OHC 2.3 ever had CFI, I'd swap in a heartbeat. But since that was never a thing on these engines, no go. There was CFI for the Tempo 2.3 but it's a completely unrelated engine in all ways.

[gadget73]

SEFI or bust. And a turbo while you're in there.

[kishy]

Too invasive. Carb to CFI is nothing. Carb to SEFI is huge and annoying.

[DerekTheGreat]

friend of mine had a clapped out Rustang with a 2.3 at one point. It was so bad he started logging in miles per quart of oil. When it finally died I think he was down around 100.

Holy shit, how often was he fouling plugs or did he just get away with running hotter ones?

Yeah, not there yet lol. 90-95% of the oil loss has been relating to the valve cover. The final 5-10 has been burning, and I'd say that's split between PCV system and getting past rings. It doesn't lose a lot, but enough to notice.

Highway (extended periods of continued standing on the go pedal - the truck's max speed is slower than the flow of traffic typically) really does it in...

...Carb is in need of some adjustments. I had tinkered with it so much to compensate for the sunken float way-back-when that it could really use some quality time with someone who knows carbs. But since that requires money typically, I'll kludge it like I do most things.

If the OHC 2.3 ever had CFI, I'd swap in a heartbeat. But since that was never a thing on these engines, no go. There was CFI for the Tempo 2.3 but it's a completely unrelated engine in all ways.

Perhaps maybe an adaptor plate could be fabbed up to mate the CFI to your 2.3... I know Holley carbs quite well. If that thing is similar I offer you my services free of charge. That's what did our old 5.7 in too. Speeds under 55 or 60mph and it used 0 oil. Rings were shot. Best to try to keep the rip 'ems under 2k... Now this new engine doesn't care it seems, has used no oil with Valvoline 5w-40 SynPower in the crankcase & a bottle of Restore goo.

Too invasive. Carb to CFI is nothing. Carb to SEFI is huge and annoying.

Get a dead, smashed ranger with a 2.3 & the 8 plug set up and swap that mess right in there. Done.

[kishy]

Perhaps maybe an adaptor plate could be fabbed up to mate the CFI to your 2.3...

Thinking about it...the Escort 1.9 CFI TB might fit a 1bbl carb mounting (it's "1V" at least). Perhaps the fuel delivery needs of my 2.3-derived 2.0 are not that much different from the Escort 1.9?

EFI's goal if I properly understand things is to keep the air/fuel ratio in a good spot, and ensure there is enough of both getting into the engine. The Panther CFI setup is a little carb-like in that you can mechanically set how much air it needs and it then gives the fuel to match. I'm not sure if the Escort (or Tempo for that matter - Tempo might have been a 2V throttle body though) uses an IAC or mechanical stop adjustment.

Best to try to keep the rip 'ems under 2k

Easier said than done, when peak HP is 4k and even then it's still 72 minus penalties for carb tuning and blowby. I wouldn't be surprised if the truck would dyno around 40hp @ 4k.

Get a dead, smashed ranger with a 2.3 & the 8 plug set up and swap that mess right in there. Done.

That was the plan, but then it made more sense to do basically the same work for the 2.3T. Then I backed out due to fears about engine condition. If a wrecked one shows up locally I'd consider doing this if I can see it running but junkyard is too much of a gamble.

[DerekTheGreat]

If/once removed, a Panther CFI set-up deserves to be placed in the trash, not retrofitted to anything. To my knowledge, it does not compensate fuel delivery for temperature, which for us is key. It merely gets away with it by using a high idle, which also works for carbs with no choke.

Oh, 2k Rip 'ems worked for my 350 as peak torque was something just above or below that. And even with 7 cylinders it was good enough for around town, just not sport driving. Peak torque is what you're after my friend, it's what does the work. HP is just a function of torque. You're at a disadvantage with that engine though lol. I believe they were designed to make power up higher. I can't remember exactly but I think longer intake runners mean peak torque happens at a lower RPM. Or is that backwards? Trying to think back to Chrysler Max Wedge cars...

Engine condition is easy to verify, at least for a decent one. Spin the thing over one rotation, if nothing binds, pull the plugs. If they're gicky, or some are newer/different, than bad engine. Can also use a camera to look for cross hatching. Then look at the throttle body to see if there's oil all over the throttle blade and such, that'll tell you if it's got a case of blow-by-itus. Check the dipstick too, can't go wrong with that. Annd the coolant. If it's all nasty then that engine has probably been overheated multiple times. Tough call there. Our truck had a new radiator and such. Turns out guy was trying to correct an overheating problem he inherited from the PO but the PO screwed the pooch by letting it get so hot it burned a valve. Opps. Send it down the road to the next guy!

[gadget73]

Too invasive. Carb to CFI is nothing. Carb to SEFI is huge and annoying.

CFI belongs on nothing, you got that right.

Holy shit, how often was he fouling plugs or did he just get away with running hotter ones?

I think it was just 1 cylinder. Piston probably had a hole in it or something. I doubt it was even possible for it to run on all 4.

[DerekTheGreat]

The plug on #1 of our dead 350 was all gicked up, whole plug had black carbon that even a sand blaster had a hard time removing. In the trash that went and it was maybe 2 months old with 700 miles.

[turbo2256b]

I would put a holley webber 2v carb on it and possibly a street MSD box. Big issue with those engines was cam wear before they went to roller followers. If this was a used vehicle and had the cam replaced or is in bad shape it can destroy cylinder walls, bearings etc. When cams were replaced none of those issues were repaired or checked out. The tin valve cover is prone to leaks the turbo cast cover much better.

The 2.3 OHC engine was a slightly modified 200 6 with 2 cylinders removed.

[kishy]

I don't know how significant the wear is, but I do know there was some visible scoring on the cam lobes when I was in there. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the lift has been diminished. This is not a roller cam.

Keep in mind it's the 2.0. But in pretty much all ways that matter, issues affecting the early 2.3 apply equally to it.

As for CFI, I know I'm in a minority as has been established many times over, but I like it conceptually. I also think a mechanical idle speed version (as in the Panthers - but I would not try to put a 2V TB on this) would be more friendly to retrofitting on something that wasn't supposed to have it to begin with. The exhaust manifold has a threaded hole with a plug in it, so O2 retrofit would be not a terribly big deal. But that's overall crazy talk because the system never existed for this engine and presumably there would be some tuning issues involving fuel.