Trying to figure out what the little spout is on the driver's side valve cover. There's a vacuum hose about 3 inches long coming from that spout to the upper air plenum. The spout is kinda just sitting in the valve cover. Is it supposed to be secured tight in there or is it normal that I can simply lift it out?

 

So not a Ranger?

Ranger used 4.0l OHV engines from 1990 thru 2000, they only got the 4.0l SOHC in 2001 to 2012

But both had the PCV valve on drivers side valve cover with a hose
On a 1999 4.0l OHV model the hose did just go up a bit and connect to upper intake with an elbow vacuum hose, no clamps were required since its a vacuum hose

2001 and up 4.0l SOHC had a PCV Valve vacuum hose that ran around the back of the engine to the passenger side intake near the front

So quite different

In either case that hose MUST have the PCV Valve attached or it would be a major vacuum leak

 

Oh, ok, thank you, I'm still learning. it's a ranger I was just mistaken. For awhile after I got it back from a shop for oil pan gasket replacement, I think they crossed some vacuum hoses cause my pcv valve hose was in the port where the (blend door?) Hoses went and blend door hoses was where the pcv valve hose went.

 

Yes, that would be wrong

Blend door is inside the cab and electric, 1995 and up

There is a Heater by-pass valve, 4 hoses, that has a vacuum hose attached, should be a Grey hose and it comes from the firewall not the engine/intake
This is not a temp control, it just shuts off coolant flow to inside the cab when you select AC MAX on the climate control ****

PCV Valve hose is larger, same size as Power Brake Booster's vacuum hose

There are way more smaller vacuum hoses, on purge valve(2 or 3), fuel pressure damper, EGR system

There are also 2 smaller hoses that are not vacuum hoses, they are for the DPFE sensor mounted on the side of intake, these 2 hoses run to the EGR's metal exhaust tube, these read pressure in exhaust and at EGR Valve

 

My God. Yes. That would be very wrong lol. Thank you so much, I found the purge valve on mine and it had exactly what you said. And I followed all the way to each coupler and one was barely hanging on. Thank you so much for the lesson! Truck's all of a sudden hesitating much much less.

 

Might I also ask what one of those smaller vac lines connect to that's near the fuel rail near the front it's a small aluminum cylinder shape with a nipple for the small line.

 

On 1998 and up it's called the fuel pressure damper, the vacuum hose is a safety feature, and it should have one, but won't effect engine operation

In 1998 Ford switched Rangers from 35psi fuel pressure to 60psi fuel pressure
Because of the higher pressure when injectors open and close they will cause "pressure waves" inside the fuel rails(metal tubes), these waves can synchronize to form waves with larger pressure difference between them, say 70psi in the wave and 50psi between the waves
When an injector opens the amount of fuel that flows into the cylinder is directly related to the pressure at that injector at that moment
The Damper is just a "rubber" diaphragm that absorbs pressure waves, so they can't "build up", synchronize

If the Damper should leak, gas would drip out on a hot engine.............never a good ending with that, lol
So the vacuum line is there to suck any leaking gasoline into the intake, which would cause engine to run Rich and poorly, which would cause an investigation as to WHY, and leaking Damper could be fixed

 

That's awesome to know. I think I've learned more from just you than I have from most videos and "info" on the Internet lol! Can't thank you enough! I'm new to this site, is there anything I can do for you like follow you or share your profile to anything?

 

I appreciate the comments, that more than enough, just pay it forward if you can help someone else down the road