My 98 still has 3.73 gears. I have the 4.10s sitting here. Just waiting for my friend to get my Mustang going, then he will get the Ranger to do the gear swap. In any event, I love my 3.0 Ranger. I don't know if the transmission in the 98 is set up better, but mine revs to hell and gone with my foot on the floor. I'm like, Come on man, when are you going to shift? But I do have a JET chip on it that lifts the shift points, alters the timing and fuel trims. That, a good CAI and custom no muffler exhaust, my little old Ranger gets down the road just fine. I love it! I will keep this truck til it goes KABOOM, then see if it can be rebuilt.
Honestly, I don't notice to much difference between the 3.0 Ranger and my 4.0 Mustang. But, I haven't yet tweeked on the Stang. Haven't done any tuning to it yet, just installed a CAI and a mildly modified exhaust. I have plans, just need to get it back rolling under it's own power.
My strategy for the cam sync, is to simply remove the sensor, squirt some 20W-50 down it's throat with a small syringe, put the sensor back on and drive it. I do that once a month or so. Going on 176,000 miles soon, no problems with it yet.