rebuilding a 3.0 from a taurus for my ranger need info.

[93worktruck]

I recently got a 95 taurus 3.0 that Im going to freshen up and put in my 93 ranger. the taurus engine had about 80K miles on it and the previous owner ran it out of coolant and popped the head gasket, the wrist pins were tight on one side and one headgasket blew between the cylinders. I took it to the machine shop to have new cam bearing put in and the block cleaned up. It checked out good and my internals are on the way.

I have a couple of questions. first of all the cam in the taurus apparently is different than what is in my ranger now, both are rollers but the taurus has different specs. can I use the taurus cam in the ranger or should I just use the ranger one. Which one would be the best choice?

Also the intake that I have now is the newer one with the equal length runners and the removeable tb (I think 98) . i read somewhere that I can use a composite one instead from an 02 or so and get some more out of the motor. What I get one from fro sure , year?? and is it worth the money.

And I was told that I can use roller rockers on the 3.0 that came from a 5.0. Has any one done that and what did they originally come off of.

 

[MrE_Powers]

they are the same block, and only thing you have to change internally is the head gasket.

if your taurus engine was distributor less that is swappable also, i would stick with your ranger intake.

and yes the roller rockers from underdogperformance.com are 5.0 rollerrockers. plenty of people installed them at rangerpowersports. they work fine for the all of 3.0 years. and like i said check underdogperformance. or the might be a set on the parts section

 

[93worktruck]

I cant find that roller rocker web site for some reason.

 

[Ranger44]

Also you need to replace the waterpump with a Ranger type. The taurus pump is reverse flow.

 

[93worktruck]

yeah I sort of didnt think the taurus wp would work. I dont have any intentions of using anything on the taurus engine but the short block. I ordered reman heads, a new oil pan, all bearings , pistons , rings, oil pump, timing set and a full ranger gasket set. im using the taurus crank and rods too.

I just wasnt sure on the cam as far as buttoning up the long block.

Oh I cant figure out if I m supposed to change the head bolts or not, any one know?

 

[MrE_Powers]

you need to replace them. they are one use bolts and stretch after first use.

 

[fixizin]

My engineering and economic experience (from an UNrelated field) tell me the bright engineers and penny-pinching mgrs. at FoMoCo would NOT have designed a different cam for the Ranger unless there was a REAL GOOD reason for it.

i.e. IIRC *every* Taurus w/ the 3.0L Vulcan had an auto tranny (AXOD-E), while your truck WEIGHS MORE and has a manual tranny, i.e. the torque curve might be all off for your Ranger (4x4?) application.

But hey, if you go ahead with the Taurus cam, PLEASE report back, and build up the real-world knowledge base... that's what websites like this fine one are all about!

 

[Mutant Pony]

I did the same thing a while ago. I used the cam that spec'ed out the biggest. It never did run right. It ran better with the rollers but still would never keep up to my stock '86 Aerostar motor. Now it has serious bottom end noise so I will tear it down one of these days and see what the heck is wrong.