Hey guys, I just bought a 1999 ranger with a 3.0l ffv in it but it need a new engine. I think I found one, it looks the same 3.0l ffv, 8th digit v, ect. But the date is later in the year (from 7/26/99). Whereas my truck was made at the start of the year (12/98). Will this be a problem or can it be made to work relatively easy? I've been trying to find an answer but can't find anything, I suck at searching for things.

Any help is greatly appreciated
Also sorry if this is in the wrong spot

 

Welcome to the forum

You can use a 1986 to 2008 3.0l OHV Vulcan engine, long block(block, heads, and valve train in place)
Gas only or flex fuel doesn't matter if you use your current upper and lower intakes with fuel injectors on the "new" engine

The 1999 Ranger 3.0l Flex Fuel will be a direct swap to your 1999 Ranger 3.0l flex fuel, plug and play, no wiring differences

Put a label on the rad support with Date of Engine, and date of swap
Internally there were not many changes, in the 22 years this engine was made but.............always good to know the date of an engine when internal parts are needed

Just a general heads up
Rear Main seal is good to change when any engine is out of vehicle
Oil pans leak and are very hard to fix when engine is in the vehicle, so price it out
If you do take oil pan off I would replace the oil pump, not a known issue, but they were "known" to fail more than say a 4.0l engine oil pump

 

Thank you for the quick reply! Yeah I didn't think there would be a big difference since it was the same year engine, but my buddy who's a mechanic said there's a small chance there could be issues with the ecm depending on if they made any changes to the engine throughout the year. Or some other small issues but he wasn't 100% sure off the top of his head.

also thanks for the heads up, definitely gonna change all those things cause I want this truck to last.