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Main bearing clearances on 3.0 vulcan question


ranger_lover

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Hello and thanks for your time. I will be soon getting ready to replace my bearings on a 99 3.0 ranger and I have had a hard time finding specific bearing information online. maybe I am just not looking in the right place, I don't know.

anyway my question is on the 3.0 Vulcan engine, range of 98-01 (4wd if that matters), what are the Main and piston bearing clearances for that engine? what I will need specifically are:

Clearance Specs between bearings
- NEW
- SERVICE LIMITS

Those are the two things I am having a hard time finding online, and haven't called ford yet but not sure they would help me. reason why I am doing this is because mine are so worn that a new front main seal lasts about the third time I drive it then I have a slowly worsening oil leak on the passenger side, bad enough that I am losing about a quart of oil every 100ish miles. that's another topic I have never found is an oil leak caused by worn bearings coming from the front seal, where you park you vehicle and come back to find a small line of drips on the passenger side.

anyway, thanks for your time and if someone could get those numbers to me I would appreciate it.

oh and if you wouldn't mind specifically saying which is for NEW and LIMITS, and I don't know if would need to replace them but if possible include the piston bearings clearances as well, and thank you again.
 
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RonD

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Main seals need to ride on smooth crank surface, if there is even a slight nick they will start to leak pretty soon after installation and as they get torn up more by the nick they leak worse.

You can get Sleeved main seal kits, they come with a sleeve that is installed on the crank shaft, sliding over the nicked surface, this gives the new, slightly larger, main seal a smooth surface to ride on so no leaks.


You use Plastigauge, or similar product to determine if you need oversized bearings for mains or rods

There are specs here: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/3_0performance.html
main and rod journal specs

More general stuff here: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/3_0-build.shtml
 

ranger_lover

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Main seals need to ride on smooth crank surface, if there is even a slight nick they will start to leak pretty soon after installation and as they get torn up more by the nick they leak worse.

You can get Sleeved main seal kits, they come with a sleeve that is installed on the crank shaft, sliding over the nicked surface, this gives the new, slightly larger, main seal a smooth surface to ride on so no leaks.


You use Plastigauge, or similar product to determine if you need oversized bearings for mains or rods

There are specs here: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/3_0performance.html
main and rod journal specs

More general stuff here: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/3_0-build.shtml
thank you, I will check those specs url's. and thank you again for correcting me, yes I will be using plastigauge but need to know clearances to determine the correct size/color to use. the hayes manual gives a Nominal .001 to .0014 and Allowance .005 to .0023. I would suspect " allowance " to be their term for service limits but still not sure.

just so you understand I have pulled engines in and out and torn them apart to fix them, but getting into the repair of the internals of an engine I am starting to learn, and I will have a 30+ year certified mechanic helping me with some, but I want to get as much of the parts I will need before hand cause I live in northern Michigan where closest town for these parts is about an hour away and using someone's vehicle is possible but problematic so thank you again for the help

UPDATE: thanks for the sites. I checked them but they didn't say anything about the clearances for a 3.0 to use plastigage to measure correct oversized or equal bearings to use. but I do appreciate the help.
 
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