We have a 98 ford ranger 4x4 pickup. It has the 3.0 engine. At
about 120,000 miles the motor spun a main, as we expected it would as
the 3.0 is a throw away motor anyway. They cannot be rebuilt be regular
joe at home mechanics. You have little choice but to get a remaned
motor and start over. That is what we did. We got a remanned motor from
a very reputable motor building company and figured that would be the
end of it. Boy were we wrong.
        The motor we put in the first time ( 1st of 4 times) from the
first startup leaked about 2 quarts of oil in about 10 seconds. We shut
it down and started looking for obvious leaks. Finding nothing to
explain the leak, we called the builder. He suggested that maybe the
rear main seal was defective, so we pulled it out and replaced seal.
Put it back in, started it up and wham.....a puddle of oil in a few
seconds again. We called the builder back.....this time he suggested
checking a small plug that is in the top rear of motor, to see if it
was leaking under pressure, should be able to see oil residue around
it. So we pulled it back out and checked this plug, was tight, no signs
of leaks. but we tighten it up alittle bit just to be safe. We put it
back in, Cranked it up...no leak. We thought alright we found
it......again we were wrong. Drove it all of 25 miles......massive oil
leak. Pulled it home. Called builder. This time he admits he has no
idea. We checked everthing that could possibly leak....found nothing.
The oil always comes out between the engine block and the flywheel. The
only thing the builder did admit was that the 3.0 is notourious for the
block cracking on the back of the block and that under pressure that
crack might open enough to leak and when cold wouldn't show itself. So
the builder sent us another motor. we pulled the old on again,
installed new motor, cranked up great. We thought finally we have it
done. But once again we were wrong.
        The new motor did great for about 30 miles.....then....you
guessed it.....oil leak. Now we refuse to believe that we could have
gotten 2 bad motors from the same engine company, and the mechanic that
has been helping us with this has over 40 years experience, so we know
he knows what he's talking about. The engine builder has suggested this
time that maybe we are missing something when installing this engine.
We don't think we are. If anyone has a suggestion or has had similar
experince we would love to hear from you.
       This has been a total nightmare for us and we would love to
find out what the deal is with these motors, so any help or suggestion
is welcome. Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions and will
let you know if we find a solution so someone else may not have to
endure this.

Thank You,

Tammie (Fla)