3.0l questions…

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So dad is trying to get rid of a Ranger that a tree fell on the frame. It is a 2000 with a 3.0 and we had a guy call about it but he’s not sure if the 3.0 will work in his based on what junkyards told him. I said I’d look into it, but now I’m a little confused too. Guy says his is titled as a 99 with a build date of 11/98 and a V engine code in the VIN. I need to double check what we have yet. I’m not sure there’s any particular reason why you couldn’t just swap any 3.0 Ranger engine in as long as you take the engine harness and computer with it for the 98-00 vintage, but I really don’t know. Most of what I’ve done with engines has been 2.9, 4.0 and 5.0, so I don’t have much 3.0 experience. Didn’t see anything overly specific in the tech archives either. When I tried searching on Car-Part I got a sort of conflicting bit of information that seems to indicate there was 4 different versions of the 3.0 for the 99 model year. Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

[fastpakr]

The injectors are probably different between the two VIN codes, but I'm not sure what else is mechanically different.

 

[pjtoledo]

a few years ago I took a '99 3.0 and put it in my '00 Ranger. no problems.

not sure what year it happened but the heads changed from 8mm to 7mm valve stems sometime.
combustion chamber changed too, that may have been with flex fuel.

WIKI states longer head bolts about 1999. different years have different torque specs, torque-to-yield etc.

it appears all the differences are internal, externally they should swap with no issues.

 

[stmitch]

Fuel injectors will be different between VIN V and VIN U engines. And it's possible that the VIN V could have EGR while the VIN U does not. Nothing that a manifold swap couldn't fix.
There are other minor differences over the years as pj noted, but nothing that would cause an issue with a swap.

 

[superj]

and a dude on the ranger group on facebutt has a taurus 3.0 in his ranger. he says it runs great so it seems like they change into all kinds of things

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Thanks guys. I thought everything was kinda interchangeable but the guy interested in the one dad has said he kept getting all sorts of conflicting information including people telling him that to swap a Taurus engine in he would have to change the intake and heads and oil pan and stuff and junkyards were telling him his particular motor isn’t available at all and crazy stuff. I haven’t really done much of anything with 3.0 motors. My first Ranger has one, but I have mostly worked with 2.9, 4.0 OHV and 5.0 in these.

 

[fastpakr]

I think there is something with changing head gaskets on the 3.0 when going from transverse to longitudinal layout to deal with coolant flow.