Got a call from a guy I know asking if I was interested in buying his truck, as he is un employed and needing money. Truck has been sitting up about a year, and he said need a trans torque converter cooler.

I get there to find a 2004.5 Patriot Blue quad cab SLT SWB 2wd, with one small dent in the passenger rear door, and 384K miles. He used it to escort, so all the miles are highway. He said the FCA is out, but he could crank it with ether, as he had done that a time or two on the road until he could change FCA. I'm figuring it needs an FCA AND injectors.

Motor is clean, interior only has one small tear in the console lid, but needs a good cleaning. Truck needs tires, and a few small things.

I asked of price, and he said if it left there today (yesterday now) I could have it for $1500. Well she follwed me home!
I just got it home last night, so haven't been able to go over it good. Will pick up 2 new batteries, and a few other things if I do not have to leave to go to work today. Would like to crank it, but do not want to use ether, to see how she runs. Will try to pick up an FCA and a few other things. (I have filters, oil, etc)

Anything else that I might need to look at before cranking?
I have an 06, but other than fluids and filters, have not done anything mechanical to the motor, so I might have a few questions (I used to deal with 1st gens, then got the 06)

Thanks

 

Should get a chance to work on it tomorrow or Friday. Going to try and change FCA and crank, if still won't crank, where do I need to look?
Can anyone point me to "CRs for Dummies?"
Thanks

 

It would be better to check the rail pressure on cranking before putting the FCA on it. Should be around 5k psi before the ECM will fire injectors. My bet would be the injectors are shot, generally the first sign of injectors going is long cranks which will turn into no starts with time.

 

This was taken from a write up on TDR.

Let's talk about the long crank issue. This is generally created due to the CP3 injection pump not being able to pump up enough pressure in the common rail to fire the injectors (around 5200psi). The first thing to check is the total fuel return volume to see that it doesn't exceed about 30 ml during a 10-second crank period. Sometimes you can cure the problem by re-torqueing the fuel delivery tubes. Next, check the individual injectors to see that they are returning only 2-6ml during a 10-second crank period. Any injector with a return volume in the 12-14ml range during a 10-second crank period needs to be replaced. This happens when the check ball wears so that it doesn't seat correctly which, of course, causes a leak. To confirm the problem, with the engine cold, cap off each injector during cranking and see which one allows the engine to fire up.

I noted that TDR writer Andy Redmond had presented this Q&A back in Issue 66. The following is how he went about the diagnostics and repair:

"Recently, a 2005 truck arrived with a hard starting problem. Other recent repairs included two remanufactured injectors, but shortly after the injectors were installed the owner complained the hard start problem worsened as did his poor fuel economy. The scan tool was connected and no diagnostic trouble codes (DTC's) were present. The batteries were tested and found to have a good charge. My next step was to monitor actual and desired rail pressure (psi) during the cranking attempts. After several consecutive cranking cycles the scanner showed pressure increasing from 1000 psi to about 4,000 psi at which time the engine started. Why will the truck not crank until a certain pressure level is met? Simple. At low pressure the ECM programming does not command the injector solenoids to energize. A light misfi re was observed at engine idle.