Hey all; I'm in a bit of a pickle, and could use a little advice. I have a 1994 Ford Ranger Supercab with about 110,000 miles on it. I just recently had about $900 work of work done on it in the last few months (radiator, computer check, tune-up, etc.). Over the last month or so, it's been having trouble keeping a steady idle when I first started it up, and in the last week has stalled a couple of times (I'm in south Florida so the temperature outside has been quite hot around the clock). I took it in today to find out what was up, and it was given the once-over. It turns out that the #6 wire was burnt, and a compression test was done on the #6 cylinder. The max. compression it took, according to my paperwork here, was 50 psi. Given the advanced mileage, the mechanic recommended an engine replacement. He gave a ballpark estimate of around $3500, which will be pretty tough to come up with. I do actually trust this guy, but I wanted to get a little outside input before I make a decision. Is there any way to estimate how long I'd be able to continue to drive before a replacement
*should* be done? Would it be foolish to not have this done immediately? I know, this is pretty vague information, but I'm hoping someone may have had an experience like this in the past. If this is truly dire, I want to either get the money (somehow) and have it replaced, or find a dealer that has a "Tow it in if you have to" sale and trade it on a new vehicle. I'm pretty sure I couldn't get $10,000 out of the truck at this point. *tongue firmly in cheek* TIA.- posted
20 years ago