You probably could go on, but that doesn't make you right.
As stated, the block and heads are identical, you can not use the Hollands Interchange manual on this one, Hollanders lists them as different, they are not. I have Taurus ported and polished heads on my Ranger, bolt-in, perfect fit.

Crank is identical. Rods, identical. Pistons, identical. Piston pins, identical. Camshaft is different specs, but interchangeable.
As stated: Lower intake, timing cover, accessories, exhaust manifolds and oil pan wil not work.

Upper intakes and throttle bodies are swappable, but require some mods to make them work.

I have not tried the Flywheel/Flexplate, but I would think they are similar.

I know at least two people from another forum that have swapped the entire long block using the oil pan, lower intake, timing cover, exhaust manifolds and accessories from their Ranger. No problems or issues, but I don't know whether or not they have had issues with the head gaskets later down the road. I know the head gasket shapes are IDENTICAL with the exception of the main coolant passages: Ranger is in the rear, Taurus is in the front and rear. How do I know this to be true? I designed and had manufactured, the copper replacement gaskets. So, again, where is your proof?

I'm sure you are confused by the other 3 V-6's used in the Taurus/Sable/Tempo/Topaz/Probe: the 3.0L SHO (SAME block as the Vulcan, Yamaha designed the SHO from the Vulcan, it will swap with the removal of the HVAC), the 3.0L Duratec and the 3.8L. The last two have issues, but can be used with a transmission swap and major work.

 

I have a the Mazda B3000 1994, been searching forever for the 3 liter. a Drop in. has to be a rear wheel drive Donor for that. Why/? it;s the same motor right? no. well it is but guess what. you will be changing everything so why? Even the oil pick up, pan, mounts, intake, you name it you will be changing it. you will regret not just rebuilding your old hunk of iron. on top of all that Bull,. you will have the power of a sable when you are done.

You people saying the 3 liter Vulcan rear wheel drive sucks, might be true , I mean since it preforms less than the 4.0 and it gets worse or same the fuel consumption. BUT If you already happen to be stuck with one of these, the switch to 4 liter is a real drag. you have to have the entire wiring harness from the Donor truck. what fun that is! to make it actually work right and not be pulling your hair out later the wire harness from the tail lights to the head lights needs to be installed. You can ring some of it up but it will be noticeable and how does that feel? LOL

anyway. if you wanted to just replace your motor and go, Like in a weekend , like me, you need a 3 Liter rear wheel drive donor. they do not just fall out of the sky for some reason, maybe because they are all blown? I don't know, it's getting pretty frustrating to me though. Could be because they are all awesome and no one wants to give them up. Or maybe when a crash happens in one of these vehicles the engines nearly always destroyed?

anyway. I want my truck back on the road, I am being picky and want a low miles good running drop in. funny though since I cant even find a high miles runs like crap easy. LOL I could order a crate but damn, people act like they are gold for some reason, funny I think for a motor that everyone says is not a great motor. search continues. there are some correct people in here and a some so wrong it;s crazy. don't listen to the ones saying put in a front wheel drive engine.

 

I've done it, it will work, but it's not bolt in.

I swapped in an 03 Taurus engine in my previous 97 Ranger. Looked for a while for a drop in ranger engine, all were high miles and stupid prices. Found a taurus engine with 60k for about half of a ranger one.

The other answers are correct, you have to swap most of the bolt on stuff over from the ranger. manifolds, intake, accessories, i had manual so flywheel instead of flexplate. I changed head gaskets too, info i saw at the time said coolant flowed different between to two.

truck ran great when done. cams are probably different so powerband not identical between the two, but you would never notice it.

 

You're just going to change a few of the things from the outside of the motor to match up to your current engine. Yes, you need to pull the heads off to install the correct gaskets, but how big of a deal is that when you're staring at an engine outside of the chassis?

[/quote]You people saying the 3 liter Vulcan rear wheel drive sucks, might be true , I mean since it preforms less than the 4.0 and it gets worse or same the fuel consumption. BUT If you already happen to be stuck with one of these, the switch to 4 liter is a real drag. you have to have the entire wiring harness from the Donor truck. what fun that is! to make it actually work right and not be pulling your hair out later the wire harness from the tail lights to the head lights needs to be installed. You can ring some of it up but it will be noticeable and how does that feel? LOL [/quote]
You do -not- have to have the entire wiring harness from the donor truck. Obviously you want a harness for the engine you're using that matches your truck's existing wiring, but just pull that with the donor engine. The body harness is irrelevant.

The vast majority of this is either untrue or irrelevant. Yes, you'll need to swap a few things over from your motor to a FWD donor engine. However, you already have them on your existing Ranger engine. Just buy what's available and swap it in using your current engine as a parts source plus a set of gaskets and head bolts. A couple of hours of work in the middle of a complete engine swap is a drop in the bucket.

 

I have found a motor. it;s not from a truck though and before I found it i didn't think even check on this donor car. It's an Aerostar. rear wheel drive. 60K. Now does anyone know anything about this swap? 3.0 to 3.0 Aerostar To Ranger, I think all I have to do it change it to manual to meet up with my 4x4 manual 5 speed b3000 and it;s all good right? or is there something drastic to change? get this, 61 thousand and a little change for miles and I have him down to 400 he will probably go 300 though. I can get one from a U Pull it near me for 220.00 but it would have higher miles, I would get to hear i run first though and there woudl be a 6 month guarantee on it.

i am a little torn on the decisions, also , no hurry since its cold as a witches titty now and i have no garage to do this in. Idaho Knuckle busting in the dead of winter is a Much younger mans game in my book. i am leaning towards the Aerostar motor for 3 bills really.

 

Looked over at Rock Auto, the Ford Ranger and the Aerostar share the exact same part numbers (Felpro) when it comes to the head gasket, so if the heads are sound on the Aerostar engine, you wouldn't have to change the gaskets out like you would with a Taurus engine, that being a front wheel drive.

Looks like the water pump is even the same.
Yup, Motorcraft part number is the same for both.

The trans should (will) bolt right up too, I'm pretty sure the blocks on the 3 liters remained unchanged when it cam to the trans bolt patterns.

I'm sure you've seen this, but here it is again.
There were a number of improvements to the block, but there is no mention of the tarns bolt pattern ever being changed.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech..._0-build.shtml

Also, replace the donor engines pan gasket too while it's out.
May as well do the timing cover as well.
The pan gasket and timing covers leaked _ the gasket technology has improved a lot since those engine were new, so now is the time to do it.
Don't forget the rear and front crank seal.

 

When you are swapping thing over from the Ranger to the Aerostar engine there are a few things extra to consider. You should be swapping the oil pan and putting in new gaskets. Also replace the oil pump with a new oil pump. This is an added insurance as oil pump tend to pump lower pressure as they get older.

Also put a new water pump on it or consider going to an electric water pump and electric radiator fan kit. The water pump and thermostat are consumables. They will not last as long as the internals of an engine. The electric water pump and radiator fan kit will free up about 10 or so horse power and will give slightly better highway mileage.

BTW: I have helped put a Taurus 3.0 into an Aerostar that had a 3.0 Vulcan. We had to swap everything across. We pulled the heads and had them checked out at a machine shop and also installed a new timing chain.

 

Electric water pump ??? Interesting.
I looked around and couldn't find such a thing, do you have a link ?

 

Jeff R 1 Yup looks like you are right. The pans though, i did some more looking, for some reason the pan on the Aerostar is different, I suspect a cross member or some weird fit. how I got the idea though was when I was looking at oil pumps, I had heard the oil pump ad pan needed switched out along with everything else when switching to a FWD engine. So I just checked to make sure, the oil pump on the aerostar has a longer pipe to reach out and down further than the ranger / b3000 pretty sure the oil pump change without the pan change would work but, the lower oil in the pan woudl not be utilized and I bet there woudl be a serious problem with low oil before the time was due. so Pan and Oil pump for sure. weird though, the cool check with Rock Auto idea you had turned out to say the pans will interchange. that arm on the oil pump though is noticeably longer in the aerostar on EBAY but not on Rock Auto. There are 8 options for the mazda pan and only 4 for the aerostar. engine tech does not have a oil pump for areostar on rock auto BUT they have 2 for Mazda b3000 LOL very weird.

I already ordered a new water pump and radiator for my old motor so i am good there. I had originally paid a ( what I thought was a legit company) to do a head gasket on my old engine, they stole my money and have jacked my engine up so badly I do not know where to start with it, It needs completely torn down and rebuilt , so i am opting to get this new swap motor and sue the crap out of them for this. my trucks been down for a year now with their excuses and now they have just quit communicating. they are lucky i am not as young as I used to be, I cannot believe the way people do folks these days.

I did go ahead and get a new distributor and injector seals as well as spk wires and since I have to pull everything, I guess i will do the clutch as well. Thanks for all the great advise

far as that electric Water pump goes, I have never even seen one on a domestic V6, I have heard of them on V8's but I haven't seen one, If They did make one for a ranger or b3000 I woudl be a buck it wold be spendy and probably not save much since the alt has to run that bad boy. at any rate, I already bought a brand new Hayden, this truck is more for fishing and hunting. :0)

 

Ok 'Im new to the Forum so I'm not even sure where to post my Q? lol I want to put a 2007 Taurus 3.0 into a 1998 Ranger 4x4 , what I'm not sure of is the Knock sensor? The 98 don't have one?

 

The truck I have is still sitting out there not running. I have not checked on the knock sensor but I woudl think they all should have that. personally, I think switching a front wheel drive motor into the ranger is a lot of crap I don't want to do. it does suck trying to fine another engine that is from a truck though. People seem to drive them to death or never wreck them LOL. it's weird. I want my truck on the road again if for nothing else just to sell it and get a club cab. the only thing I will miss with that is the short wheel base.

 

Well Larry that"s fine but I did this swap, picked up a Taurus 3.0 for $375.00, engines are the same!! intakes, water pump, valve covers, oil sensor, timing cover and bottom pulleys is all I had to switch out!