Long story short, my nephew totaled his 2005 ex cab yesterday with the 3.0, auto, 2wd. He rolled it. He's OK, just shook him up pretty good. Claims a deer ran out in front of him. The motor, trans, running gear and front clip are fine. The frame, cab, and bed are toast. I got the truck fairly cheap, just redone both heads and some other work, and it only had 100k on it. I'd like to find another one that needs a motor or whatever, but need to know what years I need to be looking for that I can swap stuff with no issues. If I can't find something cheap, I got parts for sale, lol.

 

Another 2005 3.0l Ranger or Mazda B3000 2WD with bad engine and/or automatic trans would of course be best, or maybe just a high miler with decent body/chassis

Other years would be 2001 thru 2008 3.0l 2WD, 2008 was last year for the 3.0l Vulcan engines
2000 and earlier used different transmission, 4R44E, but doable if push comes to shove

Transmissions are drive specific, in case that comes up, 2WD trans can not be used in a 4WD and visa versa, but you can put your 3.0l into a 4WD with a blown 3.0l engine, but not your transmission

Engine size is also specific, converting a Ranger to a different size engine is a whole new can of worms, same work as putting in a V8 so if it comes up go with the V8, lol

 

Thanks Ron. After looking closer at it in the daylight, looks like the only thing usable is the motor/trans and interior. I didn’t see the front end damage last night. The frame is severely bent in about 4 places. Not a single body panel is usable. He’s lucky he didn’t get throw out the truck and walked away with just a bruise on his head and shook up. Now the process of finding a good donor begins…