3.0 V6 Reliability Issues: What Years Should be Avoided?

[Arolsma]

I will be buying a Ranger soon and am thinking of getting a 3.0 v6 rwd with a manual transmission. I am looking at 04+ model years. I have read in several places that the 04-06 3.0s were manufactured with faulty heads. Will pretty much any 04-06 3.0 need the heads replaced sooner or later? Is it safe to buy one from these years as long as the heads have been replaced already? Any other reliability issues with 04+ 3.0s? I don't know if I will be able to find an 07 or 08 3.0 in my price range of $3-4K. I am looking for trucks with around 125-175K miles. Thanks

 

[Shran]

Personally I think any 3.0 will do you just fine. There are two major things to watch for - cam synchronizer failure, usually you hear a "chirping" noise when the engine is running, and rust/brown goo in the radiator.

Ranger and Taurus 3.0s are notorious for some kind of chemical reaction in the cooling system that clogs up everything with rusty brown goo. Pop the cap and look in the radiator, if the coolant is clean and you can't see any rust in the radiator or overflow tank, it's probably fine. I would never buy one that has any sign of that... it's very difficult to clean it out. I worked on a neglected Taurus years ago - I flushed clean water through one of the heater hoses and out of the radiator for over an hour and it still looked like mud - probably hundreds of gallons of water made no difference.

They're good, reliable engines, just change the coolant every couple years.

 

[MikeG]

Thought the 3.0's had a tendency to shear the gear driving the oil pump shaft? Is there a fix for that?

 

[19Walt93]

The Taurus 3.0 had problems with coolant rust because of the way it circulated in them, Rangers didn't have that problem. In the early/mid 90's some 3.0 Rangers would make a clunking noise from air trapped in the cooling system and a TSB fixed it. We didn't sell many with 3.0's so I don't remember the TSB details. I don't recall any major problems with 3.0 Rangers. Other than lack of power in 4x4's. We sold so few 2wd's that we did not stock any.

 

[pjtoledo]

Thought the 3.0's had a tendency to shear the gear driving the oil pump shaft? Is there a fix for that?

that's part of the cam synchronizer failure.
the top bushing on the shaft goes bad and puts extra load on the gear which wears the gear to the point of failure.
oil pump stops, the engine soon follows. very soon!

 

[Arolsma]

Does anyone have any info on the head issues from 2004-2006?

 

[stmitch]

The head issues are bad valve seats that can fail. I thought it was like 02-04 where that issue was most common, but I could be wrong.

 

[Dirtman]

Engines is goes vroom.