I just bought a 90 Bronco II 2.9 with a dead motor. all the while I am pulling the motor I am trying to figure out why it failed. First thing I ran across was a locked up cam, broke the bolt right off. Then as I got further into it, I found #1 has a broken rod and #4 is almost there. You see a friend of mine has a similar (89 ranger 2.9) and it has the ticking problem too. He replaced the oil pump lifters and cam and it still ticks. What should be done when you start hearing a tick is start getting ready for a freshen up. the bearings will take the brunt of the wear so just pull the motor re-bearing the cam, mains, and rods put a high volume pump in and she should be good to go for another 90-100k. tight bearing uses less oil. Don't lug the motor and don't over rev it. Use the old racers adage "10psi of oil pressure per 1000rpms". If you're only making 30psi don't spend too much time above 3000 rpm. Use a good quality oil with a higher viscosity if you hear ticking. When the bearings are worn out, they make excessive heat. Stay away from oils that gunk up the inside of the motor. That gunk insulates heat, causing cracked heads and clogging up passages. It might or might not be a badly designed engine, but that doesn't mean you should help it along.
I have two Bronco II's. I have an 88, and a 87, both have had coolant in the oil. I just put new heads on the 87 because it is the XLT and is in great shape otherwise. I got new heads from "AlabamaCylinderHead.com", and installed them. Both of the original heads were cracked, but only one appeared to be causing the coolant problem. The other was causing low compression on that cylinder. I had the oil light staying on problem, and replaced the sending unit to no avail. I put a direct gauge on it, and it won't move the pointer off the rest. I was planning on just replacing the oil pump, but now wonder if that will be enough. I really hate to keep dumping money in a vehicle this old, with 167000miles. It still has a backfire through the intake that I have not figured out. I agree that there is a problem with oiling and indication. The oil on the lifter galley was burnt to a crisp. It was like taking burnt ash out of trash barrel.
I have friends with 2.9s in Rangers, and I have replace the sending unit in one of them myself. It did put the light out in his case, and still runs well with 170, 000 miles.
C Brown
Wichita KS
cdjkbrown@netzero.com.
I have a 1989 Bronco II. I have the same ticking noise and low oil pressure problems as mentioned. I also have a problem when the engine gets warm it will start missing and become very weak. If anyone has had the same problems and found a fix for them(missing when warm) then please let me know. randy8302000@yahoo.com.
I've been reading the comments here for a while and finally decided to come and post my opinion on the 2.9 V6.
I own a 1990 Ford Ranger with the 2.9 V6. I was given this truck from my Dad, who bought a new F150 and had no use for the Ranger anymore. It had 171,000 miles on it when I got it. It was a strong running truck, with no knocks, ticks, or rattles. It also didn't leak any oil or having any antifreeze related issues.
At about 179,000, I began to experience the infamous "Lifter Tick" that I've come to know well in my time of research. The truck would never tick in town, only after driving on the interstate at speeds above 60 MPH for 10 minutes or more. The sound of one lifter ticking could be heard for about 5-6 minutes after coming off the freeway.
Going to my Dad, who has been a mechanic for all his life, he suspected that worn main bearings was contributing to the engine's upper oiling problem. We prepared to pull out the engine for a fresher up around Halloween of this year. Once we had the engine out of the truck, we replaced the crankshaft, main bearings, rod bearings, oil pump & Screen, Cam & bearings, as well as the lifters.
After putting the engine back in. The truck ran smoother than ever, and the lifter tick, dubbed "incurable" by many, was gone. I ran this truck 70 MPH all the way to Charlottsville the week after and no tick whatsoever. I'm not sure if maybe we just got lucky, but by replacing all of the parts I listed, my ticking problem was cured. I hope this helps some, because if you can afford to replace all those parts, you might be able to save your 2.9 like I did. I love my truck and hope to have it for many more years.
I just bought a bronco II with the same problems of those I have read about. i also have started in to this engine to find,collapsed lifters, oiling prblem's etc. having been a Chevy person all my life I find contradicting solutions to this ford problem. any engine, stock from the factory, will run fine on 15 psi pressure. really it will!. the problem has to be partly due to cooling design?.my question is this, are these engines,trucks, ford products worth having or should I stick to Chevy.thanks.
If you are a Chevy man, stick to Chevy, or completely change over to Ford. If anyone is like me and owned a Ford and a Chevy at the same time, you will have nothing, but problems. Personally, I used to own a Chev pickup, when I bought my BII. Not less than a week later I was having problems with both vehicles. I ended up selling the Chevy, and bought an older F-150, and suddenly, my BII Ford started running great. Still has little "glitches" here and there, but the majority of the problems have ceased. I may be crazy, but that's the way it has always been with me. One other thing as well, you most likely will not find anyone on here who has said that any problem they had came without warning on a Ford. But you will on a Chevy.
OK. I’ve heard the lot. I have to agree with the scientist, though. Air in the lifters is what makes these things tick; however be careful as the fuel rail / regulator setup can also cause a similar noise. I’m an automotive journalist, and I own an ‘89 BII with the 2.9 engine. I’ve used my BII to pull water loads of greater than 2,000 pounds over the back axle, and agricultural produce for more miles than I care to remember. The 2.9 has great torque down low, and gives 400 miles on a tank of gas. But the engine’s oiling system does leave a little to be desired. There are fixes, however. I am yet to implement them; yet my BII has turned over the odometer so many times I’ve lost count. It does tick horribly, though. It goes and comes. Some one else on another post said that he’ll probably be buried in his BII. Likewise. But I am a great fan of the internet, and here are some solutions that I’ve come across to improve valve train oiling.
There is a half moon thrust washer in front of the cam. Rotating this 180 degrees is said to improve the oil delivery to the top end. (Not verified)
Sven Pruett, a 2.9 fanatic, published a modification called “free floating rockers” which essentially removes the springs from the rocker shaft assembly and substitutes aluminium spacers. Pat Kunz, another aficionado from the ranger forum www.therangerstation.com, condensed it and put it on the bulletin board there. Quote from Pat’s post;
“This tip comes directly from Sven Pruett's book "How to Build and Modify Ford 60 degree V6's". If you really want to do this tip I highly recommend that you get this book, I beleive that Vanir still carries it. This weeks tip is on free floating rocker assemblies. This sounds pretty exotic, but its really a pretty simple mod that will cost you probably under 200 bucks, got mine done for 150 I believe. The parts required to do this modification are new rocker shafts, Aluminum to be made into spacers, possibly new pedestals if the old ones are pretty worn, and some new roll pins, and last, but not least a good machine shop. The modifications include changing the rocker arm to shaft clearances by quite a bit, chamfering the oil holes in the shaft, running aluminum spacers instead of the springs, and that's about it. now I will give you the specs.: Shaft to rocker arm clearance.0025-.003in. (stock is.0013in.) rocker arm bore diameter should be around.7836-.7842in. Aluminum spacer to rocker arm side clearance of.010-.015 for each rocker arm that, that spacer is used with so.020-.030in. for the rocker arms between the pedestals. (stock is 0 clearence between spring and rocker arm, it actually rides up against it). With the increased rocker arm to shaft clearances and now a clearance between the spacers and the rocker arm, along with increased oiling to the upper valvetrain. These combine to create a very slick and essentially pretty friction free rocker movement, in fact after the valvetrain is reassemblrd you should be able to flick one of the rocker arms and have it spin around the shaft numerous times. when compared to a stock rocker assembly its night and day in fact you will probably hurt your finger trying to flick one of those due to the springs actually exerting pressure on the side of the rocker arm, and the very tight clearance of the rocker arm to shaft on a stock rocker assembly will tend to drag a little. The thing that surprised me the most about it was how much I improved my upper valvetrain oiling, on most 2.9's I can adjust the valvetrain with the valve cover off with the engine running and barely lose any oil spilled off the heads, On mine with the free floating rocker assembly, I tried it once and pumped about half a quart of Mobile one on the ground, I don't adjust mine that way anymore. This modification tends to help most in the upper RPM bands and it's a noticeable increase, but not as big of an increase as I would say headers would be. Also it seem to rev a little quicker than it did before the change mostly due to the lack of friction in the rocker assembly, and as a bonus they look pretty cool when you have your valve cover off if you run polished aluminum spacers. But if you are serious about doing this mod please get the book because it goes far more in depth than I did here.” Also not verified.
Sven also advocates using only synthetic oil in the engine, as there are known hot spots and mineral oil will ash it up. The oil drain from head to engine is not large enough, it seems, and the coke from the mineral oil will eventually restrict this flow, but not seal it up completely. This leads to a starving the engine of oil, and a low pressure reading throughout the rev range. The oil then fills up the rocker area, leading to leaks (sometimes) but lowering the level of oil in the sump to the point that when the engine is ticking a dipstick will not show anything on it. Changing oil/filter regularly should inhibit onset of this particular problem
I however especially like der scientist’s solution of drilling the “adjusting bolts”. It seams plausible that the air cannot get out, thus making them perennial tickers. My BII has been parked for almost three years now, because of a fuel pump problem. And I’ve had something else to drive. But I miss it and it will become the subject of a rebuild article very soon, and all of the aforementioned tweaks will be added unto it. It’s a great combination! No 5.0 for me…
I own a 89 B2 with a 5speed overdrive transmission. Everything about it is all stalk. The only thing that I have done was added a flomaster. It was running pretty well until a few weeks ago when I gave 2 off my friends a lift home and noticed my gear shifter was rattling back and forth and as I stepped on the gas, there would be like a -beer can rattling sound- underneath the truck. Again, this only happens and I add weight to the truck. Does anybody know what I am dealing with here???
Concerning the noise from the truck. do you still have the CV joint type drive shaft. it could be that your CV joint is coming apart. I have replaced mine 3 time and the last time I had a U-joint type made up to replace it. That was 50k ago and not problems. it has grease fittings built into it to grease it.
WOW this 2.9 sure needs a lot of attention. I too have been put to much expense and trouble over what seems to be one of Fords better ideas. Noisy top end, deep knock in lower end, finally water/steam out the tail pipe. Since my 89 Bronco 2 is in very nice shape,I made the costly mistake of putting a Ford re-man engine in it, as I could not find a used on that ran, and every junk yard I spoke with said no other engine would fit unless I was willing to put in a four cylinder, and that would require a doaner vehicle and plenty of extra time. My new motor is even louder at the top end, sounds like there is no oil at lifters at all, and has a self changing oil feature at the rear main seal that keeps my clutch lubed.
I own a '90 Bronco II, and it's got roughly 70 grand miles on it.
I bought it from a guy who didn't drive it a lot, and it was a really good, reliable truck.
Like everyone else, I had to get after it once and a while, and because it wasn't used to it, we ended up replacing the driveline and a few other suspension issues.
It was a great little runner, until I started hearing a deep, rod-like sound from the engine during high accelerations and freeway speeds. It was okay for a while, but it was short lived. I was heading up to Salt lake from Pleasant Grove, and if you are familiar, you have to take a big series of hills on the freeway to get there. The 2.9 isn't a powerful engine, and to make it up these hills, you have to punch it over into fourth to pull the hills. I had done this many times and had no serious problems, but this time, I noticed the engine had started over revving after the hills, and the transmission was acting confused when I let off the gas. I let it shift down into 3rd and it was making a terrible bang and a series of knocks.
I got off the freeway and stopped, got out thinking it was a rod. The engine was cool still, and the oil pressure was still stationary (is anyone surprised?) the bang sounded like a rod when it was in park idling, so I called my dad, shut it off and had him come tow it back to the house. It doesn't quite sound like a rod, but I am sure it is something bad. I love the truck to death, and I will probably end up keeping it forever. It's just sick.
Would putting a 4.0 or a 4.6 make it better? I don't want to keep shoveling money into it just to keep the 2.9 in running condition. So... I like the speed and power the engine gave me, and I NEVER abuse the truck. So is it worth it to fix up the 2.9 or put a bigger one in?
I too have a 1990 Bronco II and I am having problems with noisy lifters. I have replaced the lifters and still have the noise sometimes. It goes sometimes five to ten miles, and is very quiet, then sometimes it sounds like there is no oil at all in the engine. Will someone please tell what to do? It is a 2.9 V6 also.
I own a 90 Ford Bronco II 2.9 2wd that now has 603,000 miles on the original engine. Paint is faded, dash is cracked.
But my old lucy keeps kicking along.
My Bronco 2 also just started ticking, close to 300,000 miles on it though. My mech says "Put some thicker oil in it and don't worry about the engine, one day it will puke itself and then you walk away." Is this bad advice? I have had the Bronco 2 forever and it's definitely not a money pit.
I have a 86 bronco2 and water is coming out of the side of the motor what could be the problem and its not the freezplug could if be my softplugs please let me know I need it fixed this weekend thanks -Brandon.