So a friend of mine bought an 03 2x4 ranger 3.0 v6 5 spd. The truck was my father-in-laws and he drove 100% highway, it has 180,xxx miles and it has had the check engine light on for awhile off and on. My friend needs to get it smother so he took it to a mechanic who ran the codes and said theres a random misfire and low compression in cylinder #6. And told him he needs a new engine. I've been around cars ( diesels mainly) enough to know that's BS. So we checked the compression on all cylinders and came up with 150 paid all around. The truck has a misfire or hesitation while idling but its not a constant thing. Other than that the truck is cherry. My question to all of you out there is what next. Is there a common problem with these motors. Is this a common occurrence? What should I look, listen for, check etc.....?

 

I have 02 ranger edge with the 3.0 140,xxx miles auto trans somewhere over 100,000 one day on the way home it just died and would not restart I had a friend trailer it home when I got it home it started right up running fine when I went back into town it died again and I let it set a while then was able to drive it home after talking to everyone I finally found that the crank angle sensor near the firewall had went out The part looks like the bottom half of a distributor when removed This fixed my problem You might check there On mine the sensor cap had a cracked magneto as well however the whole part was bad.
hope this helps good luck

 

Its never just died but we checked the spark from the coil and that seems strong. Gonna try replacing the o2 sensor and see if one has gone bad

 

It could still have spark just at the wrong time just a thought If the ck engine light is on you can stop by most auto part stores and have it read good luck

 

Have you tried the obvious plugs and wires yet?

 

Yes plugs and wires we're just changed. We talked to a few machine shops in the area and they say the 3.0 v6 valve seats burn up. So we pulled the heads and sure enough two of them we're burnt. So a new set of heads will be here Fri.

 

did that fix it?

 

Yes it did

 

The truck used to have fluctuations in the idle, now its steady. It use to want to die or bog down when you go to slow down and push in he clutch and now you can almost come to a complete stop before you have to press in the clutch. Its running great. We were also told that the 3.0l engines burn out the valve seats a lot. At least something to think about if any of you have the same symptoms in yours.