Labor included. I finally confronted the oil leak. It's gotten bad & since my car was totaled by a crazy driver the Ranger is now my primary vehicle. Loses a quart every 2 days. I couldn't see where the leak was from because wind blew the oil all over the bottom of the engine. Mechanic said it was the front of the oil pan. Gasket was hanging out. They need to unbolt the engine to raise it a few inches & replace the gasket. Wow. Wondering how the engineers arrived at that design. I've done this before for $25 & 30 minutes in my driveway. Anyway it's a 2000 3.0 liter with 135,000 miles. My dad bought it new & I inherited it with 56,000 miles. I'm 63 so it may be my last vehicle. It had a lumpy idle when I got it & I tried everything to fix it. That went away over time. Smooth idle now. Only thing different is I use Chevron, Texaco, Shell & Exxon & my dad bought the cheapest gas in town. Not sure if that's why.

 

Yes, if you need to change pan gasket you do need to lift the engine up on most Rangers
But should be about a 3 hour job in a shop, MAX, and the parts shouldn't be that much, under $100 for sure
So can't get to that $1,000 mark???

Here is a video that I like on doing this on a 1998 and up Ranger 3.0l 4WD:

 

The u tube vid was a ranger with stick shift.... the auto trans is a different story.... i changed my oil pan gasket auto trans few years back 03 3.0 ..never again... i had the front pulley up to the top radiator cross member, then the pan pulled out with force... the time it took me i could have pulled the engine.... best do it right including the rear seal

 

Man my 04 Edge is now starting to leak in the front of the oil pan. I repaired timing cover gasket at 136K and now at 150K my sealant job at oil pan connection is starting to fail.
Probably just have to let leak till i cannot stand it any longer. Truck is daily driver and pulling the engine is not a one day job for me.