Oil pan change? Wrong one?

[Gnomad]

My daughter recently bought a project beater with a heater to save her Mustang from the ravages/dipshit drivers of winter, the subject vehicle is a 93 Ranger Extended cab 4x4. 3.0, 5 speed.

The story when she bought it was that a bolt had worked out of the motor mount, rubbing a hole in the oil pan. I put it on ramps and had a look-it turns out that a previous wrench owner had put the wrong pan on the engine, it had rubbed against the crossmember until it rubbed through and started a significant leak-obviously, the pan is going to need to be replaced.

So here's where I start the questions.

How do we avoid getting the wrong pan next time?

Is there any way to get it out short of pulling the engine? I have the mounts undone, the engine lifted as much as possible and the pan unbolted, it seems sooooooo close to coming out.....but doesn't quite want to clear the crossmember and the pick up tube. I did manage to get the oil pan out of a Aerostar with a 3.0 V6 with the engine in place, that wasn't easy but I did make it happen!

Alrighty then, back to the truck for some more wrenching wretardation.

 

[fourwheelford]

I did the oil pan gasket on my 2000 and I was able to do it without pulling the motor but we had to move the tranny back about 3 inches so the oil pan lip would clear the dust shield on the bell housing. At that point we were able to shift the pan around until it would clear the pick up and snake the gasket under it, its kinda of a bitch but so is pulling the motor. My truck also has a 4 inch suspension lift so that helped out quite a bit. Make sure that the pan and block surface are clean so that sucker wont leak, good luck to you

 

[AllanD]

The 3.0 when introduced in the ranger late in 1990 was installed
ONLY in 2wd Rangers until the 1993 model year.

in the 1993 Model year in 4x4's there's a severe clearance issue
between the oil pan and the axle pivot bracket for the passenger side beam.

The engine used 1990-92 was essentially the Aerostar version of the engine
and the oil pan used was the Aerostar P/N.

From 1993-on (even on Aerostars) the oil pan used is a 1993 Ranger Part Number.

You also need to be aware that the oil pump pickup is also different.

To me it is fairly obvious that the engine isn't original to the truck and
some previous owner/mechanic installed either an earlier Ranger/Aerostar
engine to replace an ailing original engine (the Aerostar engine uses
different accessory brackets and one of the exhaust manifolds is
unique to the Aerostar, one of the manifolds on a Ranger is unique
to Ranger installations too)

the proper oil pan NEW from Ford is only about $90 and the pickup
you'll need with it is another $30ish

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[Gnomad]

Hey Allan-thanks for the information, just what I've looking for. I suspect that you're right about the likelyhood of a replacement engine and the heads up on the pickup tube is appreciated. No sense doing that job twice!

Sliding the transmission back is worth a try but I have a feeling I'll be pulling the motor.