We always post when we find something that goes right, or works, or is worth money....here is a tale of things gone wrong and a strong recommendation at the end.

the subject: 1998 Ranger 4x4 ext cab, short bed, 3.0, auto.

customer complained of oil leaks, coolant leaks, bad valve tapping, low power on a used truck they just got, with a reman motor having 6K on it and 11 months. And low oil pressure, especially when getting off highway. The motor warranty was transfered.

customer added stop leak and the leaks got less, but still occured - you could smell whiffs of antifreeze and the tap - geez. These are roller cam motors.....

So they put my shop onto the reman shop - Marshals in ME. If you buy from auto zone, advance, rock auto, napa etc, you can get an engine from Marshalls. (or 'Mah-shahs' as the guy says on the phone.

I peek at the motor and clearly see a crack above the spark plug hole that oozes when hot. Marshalls instructs me to inspect the heat tabs - perfect.

They say cant be, if cracked it had to be overheated, send us pics. So I do. 7.1megapixel zoomable to the each sand grain in the casting pics. Silence.
Call....silence, call,,,silence. customer is asking, customer calls - they say they know about me, if I send the motor to them at my expense they will make a coverage decision and if they decline, too bad, now you have no motor.

Customer says, go into the motor. Motor was purchased from Marshalls and installed by a local shop in winchester VA.

Well the head was cracked and to add insult, the heat tab on the head was perfect. I took one last picture of that as I shipped the head as core to some place in NC that sourced a reman one.

Inside of valve covers and valley - coffee cream. the intake gaskets CLEARLY leaking...not one ounce of sealant used. These are not rubber embossed gaskets or seal appliances like a GM 660. just plain old flat gasket. Ok thats there the water was going inside.

Why were the valves tapping? Well on this motor there are 12 hydraulic roller lifters that are the same used in just about every ford roller OHV V engine. 3 of them were stuck such that they were solid lifters. 3 of them were so weak I could depress with my pinky fully. Only 6 were 'ok'. Conclusion, marshalls used the lifters over and never checked them.

flip it over and go look for the oil pressure. wellllllll, the fact that the intake screen was clogged with trash...either this engine sat on a pallet for years before sale, or the installers garage was filthy. AND, there was at least 1/2 inch of thick black sludge. not oil+water sludge, but decades of abuse sludge. Since the motor comes long block without tin, the installer never bothered to clean out the pan.

pull off main#1 : yep, wiped out. Dry start. no priming from the installer.
main2: bad, but not as bad. thrust and #4? getting better. check the rod bearings - all oil starved

So im thinking, ok, head, bearings, crank, lifters....and lets check the timing chain....well over 1" of play. Marshalls used the original chain and gears over...

$1000 of parts/shipping/tax later and I almost have it together...in fact I took a break and decided to write this as a warning, albeit long winded...

We found:

1) Ford 3.0v6s according to the dedicated website, crack 25% of the heads without overheating. this crack was never caught and contrary to what marshalls claimed...they do NOT magnaflux the motor
2) Marshalls will reuse lifters without checking for operation
3) marshalls will reuse tining chains

But in their defense, they retail the motor for $1300-ish plus core and freight. Everyone else is similar. by comparison, my last personal ford rebuild was $2100 just in machine shop work at friend prices - granted not everyone blueprints a motor but illustrating, you get what you pay for.

I will NOT buy a motor or part from Marshalls. their phone presence and additude indicates you should not as well - just sayin. and btw, when I called around for another motor, another company stated: good luck getting warranty service. hmmmm.

And concerning this shop in winchester which I do not know who they are: they do not use sealant where you should, they dry start motors, they have a mess in the shop, they dont clean out pans.

And I forgot to mention, when taking apart heads and bearing caps I noticed this: someone (marshalls) does also not chase down their torque sequence multiple times at the last/max setting. Something an old timer taught me over 30 years ago...many of those headbolts/main saddles were NOT fully clamped.

A comedy of errors indeed.


(in case anyone wonders, how do you buy $1000 in parts/services for a ranger 3.0?

1) reman head (210ish)
2) reman crank at .5mm+ bearings (210ish)
3) 12 new lifters (140ish)
4) 12 new pushrods (15ish)
5) timing set (40ish)
6) long reach head bolts (they at least use the late 98-200x block) (35 ish)
7) full engine set (120ish)
8) oils, filters, glues, sealants etc (40ish)
9) towing/transportation
10) a real dang oil pressure gauge and pipes
11) (rebuild your own oil pump - save $100)
12) 6% PA governor cut
13) a lot of fedex - yes almost all of this came from rock auto. advance/auto zone were higher and the local napa was clueless on half the parts - wtf?

This does not include labor. Heck, I dont even know how I should bill this...in the end it will be a few hundred cheaper than another reman and the labor of the switch overs...but at least I and the customer know the guts are done right.

 

This is why I don't buy remanded motors or transmissions and refuse to recommend them to anyone. I have always had my old unit rebuilt by a knowledgeable technician.

 

More years ago than I'd like to remember, I had a '64 Comet wagon with a 260. It had sat so long the rings weren't sealing, and it knocked. I checked on all the parts & labor, and found Monument Auto parts in Concord, CA would sell me a 260 short block & oil pump for, at that time, about $400. I came close to that in parts alone, retail of course. So I bought the short block. They shipped me a 289 block, but I didn't care that much for authenticity to insist on a 260. It worked as advertised. I could see that it had been done relatively well, as there were new pistons, and lifters. Today, I don't remember where I did the swap, but it sure ran well after the work. That was one car I wished I had kept.
So, all re-mans are not junk or short cuts. If you buy one, and install it yourself, you can check all the bits & pieces, such as the timing set - visible on a short block, lifters, ditto, cam, ditto, and pull some or all rods & mains to check them and the journals. The cylinder walls are also visible.
I had no idea the 3.0 Vulcan has a problem with cracking heads. Never heard of that occurrence.
Whoever installed the 're-man' should be billed for all the parts that Marshall didn't install, as they should be the ones calling for 'warranty' work. Don't know if I'd want a second engine from them, FWIW.
tom

 

Thats not a comedy of errors, it's a nightmare I hope to never experience...

 

I got a 302 for a steal last year .Short block and a set of heads , $300 ! Guy needed money , and it was not hot !Well , after new rings , CAM bearings , reworking the heads , and basically rebuilding the " rebuilt "engine . I have a wrist pin knock .... no warranty ! At least I did not pay to have the work done . I should have known to stay away from it ! Got a block , going to build it and use my reworked heads . Lesson learned .

 

My old '77 has a rebuilt engine - the previous owner ordered a longblock from a rebuilder (who is no longer in business) and installed it himself - he was a retired mechanic and was putting a lot of work into this truck to use it for hunting, or whatever...

When the PO finished putting everything together, he discovered the engine had a "lope" - 1 cylinder wasn't firing properly - he got so disgusted by it, he sold the truck to me for $500.

I tore into it and discovered that, no only did the rebuilder somehow manage to successfully bore the cylinders out .060" over, they cut too far into the valve seats and the "lope" was caused by the valves sinking into the head from collapsed seats...

I got lucky and found a matched pair of 2V 351 Cleveland heads that had been re-worked with hardened seats and installed them - along with new valves, keepers, and retainers (the springs were fine.)

Runs great now and will wake up the neighbors, but I can't afford to pump gas into it LOL...