I bought an 2001 Ranger V6 a couple months ago and it tests low compression on 2 cyls. Was driving fine, except for a little shimmy at idle until couple days ago- sudden loss of smoothness and power at all driving speeds.
Got good advise from Ron on finding a replacement engine but wasn't expecting it to go suddenly. Couple things I wonder-

Anyone here have a motor to sell? If you could get it on a pallet I can arrange shipping.
Any ideas to limp this thing along for a few more months? I'm gonna try widening my spark gap on those two cyls, I forget where they are at but if it's say .038 I'd try .043 for instance.
I read about "Restore" kinda wondered if this worked at all I could run it every couple weeks maybe?

It starts and runs just got annoying real quick!

 

Well if its the exhaust valves that were causing the lower compression(99% of the time) then it just gets worse over time, nothing you can do to slow it or repair it, except fix or replace the heads
If engine has under 250k miles then head repair is a better and less expensive option than motor replacement, especially a used motor

The spark plugs in the low cylinders will "foul" because they can't ignite the air/fuel mix, sometimes cleaning them will help, but replacing is better

No, there are no "additives" that will work for low compression, these are used to "restore" rubber seals to reduce oil burning, i.e. valve guide seals

 

Well with good help from you we figured it's rings. Engine has 189K and doesn't burn oil keeps good gold color. I had been planning a motor replacement and pricing rebuilt and low mile engines at car-part.
I found one with 102K for $1200 in Dallas not too far away. They say "tested". I'm calling back to get their actual compression numbers in a couple hrs when their mechanic is back in. Probably gonna take awhile to find the right engine
Also might be A LOT of diff in re-manufactured ones- and really no way to tell. I'd like to a get a factory with low miles that I can compression test myself or get the actual numbers on.

Also thinking about re-doing heads but don't think I want to tackle that myself bc of the time it would take. I'm a decent all round guy but never got in that deep. If I could get both heads redone for $1500-2000 I may come out ahead.

I bought an 8 pack of plugs - i'll go throw a couple new ones in- would you stay with the gap or crack it open a little?

 

Avoid 2004-2006 3.0ls as they can have valve seat issues, not 100%, just a known issue for those years

 

found 2 fouled plugs, replaced with new Autolite APP104 double platinums which have been working good in this engine. She started right up and ran fine! Maybe changing those 2 cycl every month will get me thru till I find a mechanic or another engine.

anybody have any idea what I'd be looking at to have a mechanic rebuild both heads? Compression test and vacuum test suggest rings but I've driven 1500 miles since oil change and oils still clean gold and only down less than a cup. Makes me sorta doubt its rings. truck doesn't smoke or smell bad. Cyls 3 and 5 are def misfiring and fouled.

it's over my pay grade. new plugs sure are a good stop gap! Five buck fix. ;-)

 

thanks there. I like that car-part.com you mentioned back there. Seems I can find a motor for $800-1200 from what I see so far, would like to find one close to save 300 freight. maybe with changing spark plugs I can buy time to find something local.