Finally back! And in need of help.

[JT1296]

Hey everyone! I haven't been on trs for a little while now and I just wanted to put a few things out there. So I have a 1998 ford Ranger 4x4 3.0 with 187xxx miles that I love, that has a whole laundry list of problems. The goal is to fix most of them before I ship off to boot camp (usmc) in January because I won't be able to bring it with me and I want to leave it with my dad so he can have some fun offroading in something smaller (he's used to his big ol ram lol). So, the point of this is do you guys have any tips to get it where it needs to be? It does well offroad as is but it has a decent oil leak, the engine isn't the greatest (high miles obviously) and the suspension seems to be stock. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you for your time, JT

 

[RonD]

Thank you for the service, and welcome to TRS

3.0l Vulcan engine is a very good engine, not a power house but reliable.
An oil leak covers a lot of ground, can you be more specific.

And is it a manual or automatic?

1998 Ranger 4x4s got Pulse Vacuum Hubs(PVH) these were a bad idea, Ford abandoned them in 2001, but some got Live axle as early as 1999
You can set these as Locked all the time, read here: http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/Apr04/offroad.htm

Or change them to manual hubs: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/AVM_hub_swap.shtml


And bookmark this page: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/index.shtml
Lots of good info there

 

[JT1296]

Thank you for the reply! I've done the locked hubs mod until I can get the manual hubs, it is an automatic and the oil mainly covers the oil pan itself and the front crossmember

 

[RonD]

Probably not valve cover gasket leak then.

May have to get some degreaser and clean off the timing chain cover gasket and oil pan gasket at the front of engine.
After it is clean check it daily.

There really is no common issue or place for the 3.0l engine leaking oil.
If it is leaking alot of oil then it would be the front main seal

 

[JT1296]

Hey! Sorry for the late reply again, it's been a crazy week and today I replaced my brakes! Alright I'll have to do that, once I find out where it's leaking from ill update but thank you for your help!

 

[Ranger4x4.0]

My 1999 3.0 with 23x,xxx miles blew the front main seal. I junked it the next day. Maybe check that?

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