Hey guys, I'm new to the forum, and had a few questions about my '92 2.3 ranger. It's has over 265,000 miles on it and was running just great up untill about a month ago. Bought it about 4 months ago and it ran fantastic, needed to take it cross country, and I drove about 2000 miles over the course of 2 days. Truck ran like a dream the whole way. Once I got up here it started to act a little funny when I first started it up in the morning. It doesnt seem to have any power untill it gets to normal operating temperature, but as soon as it does it seems to cough, and then run just fine again. It has gotten worse and worse and nowbits so bad that it takes about 45 minutes at idle to warm up, and even then, it won't drive right untill it gets driven about 10 miles, and then something happens, it gains all its power back, and runs just great. Anybody have any ideas of what this could be? Any input would be much appreciated. Thank you!

 

Welcome to the forum

Does the CEL(check engine light) work?
It should come on when key is turned on and then go off after starting engine.
If not then bulb is burned out.

If it takes 45 minutes to warm up then you need to replace the thermostat, for sure.
It has failed OPEN, which is what it is suppose to do when it fails, if it fails closed engine overheats.

Should take any engine no more than 5 to 10 minutes for full warm up depending on outside temp.

When any engine is cold it needs extra fuel, and a higher idle, to run well, thats what Chokes were for on carb engines.
Fuel injection doesn't change that, a cold engine is still a cold engine, and a Choke plate won't work with fuel injection, so the computer that runs the fuel injectors needs to know the engine temp so it can add extra fuel when engine is cold.
The computer uses the ECT(engine coolant temp) Sensor for this temp reading.

The ECT sensor has TWO wires, and it looks similar to the ONE wire temp sender used by the dash board gauge.
ECT Sensor on the 2.3l is on driver side of engine towards the front and below intake manifold.
You can usually see it better by looking thru the drivers side wheel well above frame.

This would NOT delay warm up, it only reads temp, but it could be causing rough running and low power if it is reporting a warmer temp than actual cold engine temp to the computer, computer is not running engine rich enough, but after engine does warm up it would run OK.

ECT sensor is $6-$10, so while you could test it, it is usually just better to replace it.
And since coolant must be drained to do this, I would do thermostat and ECT sensor at the same time.

 

Alright, thanks RonD. I'll give that a go and check back in to see if that does the trick.

 

Update? I had similar symptoms.