90s 3.0 Ranger oil in the water

[Jesus Freak]

Alright, ive already solved the mystery, but I wanted to make a post for future generations, lol

So....my 17yr old son bought a 91 ranger with a 3.0 a few months ago! It's a great little truck, but i wish it was a 5spd for him to learn with.....Anyway, a couple weeks ago it started overheating just before he got home. I saw him looking at it and sure nuff......chocolate milk in the oil pan......dang! Headgaskets, right?.....maybe not......

After it cooled off, we filled the radiator and crunk it up ......no bubbles......but the water was just going into the oil really quick.

So, on a Google search, it looked like on these engines the gasket on the timing cover is pretty prone to disintegrating and letting water just flow into the oil......pulled it down to the timing chain and sure nuff, that gasket was pretty rough......new gasket, timing chain.....alls good.....nope......water still just dumping into the oil.......gotta be a head warped, comprised head gasket some how?......nope.....

I googled it every which way....no information....so I studied it some more and we pulled the intake off......

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I guess 34yrs later.....the gasket disintegrated around this port in just such a way that it just refused to hold 13psi anymore.......

He got new gaskets yesterday and got it all cleaned up and back together.......new distributor ta boot.....it was the original distributor, cap, and wires from 1991.....crunk it up, set the timing, it holds water! Should be good for another 100K!!!

Just wanted to share, just in case it comes up and someone on here happens to search for it!

 

[reelfishin]

I remember back when those were new, there was a bulletin instructing us to replace the timing cover gaskets before selling them in 1991-92. We were doing timing cover gaskets on trucks with no miles because they used the wrong gasket material. It was around the time that Ford changed their antifreeze specs too, they were tossing out cases of the old a/f because it wasn't aluminum safe.

As a whole though the 3.0L was the best of all the Ranger engines. Most ran well into the 300k mark and they didn't make enough power to trear up the transmissions. I ran my 1992 for 370k before selling it in 2004. I would have kept it but I just got tired of clutch slave cylinders going bad. I think I averaged about 24k on each one.

 

[Jesus Freak]

I remember back when those were new, there was a bulletin instructing us to replace the timing cover gaskets before selling them in 1991-92. We were doing timing cover gaskets on trucks with no miles because they used the wrong gasket material. It was around the time that Ford changed their antifreeze specs too, they were tossing out cases of the old a/f because it wasn't aluminum safe.

As a whole though the 3.0L was the best of all the Ranger engines. Most ran well into the 300k mark and they didn't make enough power to trear up the transmissions. I ran my 1992 for 370k before selling it in 2004. I would have kept it but I just got tired of clutch slave cylinders going bad. I think I averaged about 24k on each one.

That's fascinating......probably definitely confirms our original suspicious. He got it hot but he wasn't crazy overheating, so hes probably good for another 100-150K.

 

[Clb]

"Ford E F F I N G Ranger"
Google that meme

 

[Jesus Freak]

Hey, its a ferd........

 

[Clb]

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