Well, don't jump. Find out what the 'issues' are. Cracked pistons are possible, as are bent rods. Don't understand the bent valve possibility.
If it ran well before, consider a re-man short block, along with 'freshening' your cylinder heads at the local machine shop.
I personally think that $5k is a bit too much. Not that the truck is not worth spending money on, but there are other options besides a complete re-man engine. Does it really need a new exhaust system? Is it that hard to dump the transmission and differential fluids?
Get the culprit involved. Quite a few years ago I worked on my Dad's car after *I* obviously blew it up by 'hot rodding'. I had driven out of the drive, maybe 2-3 blocks from home, and the temp gauge started to go up. Being responsible, I of course turned around and brought it home. I was then accused of said behavior. We tore it down, and found nothing wrong with the expected {by my Dad} head gasket failure. Instead, it was a rusted through freeze plug allowing the coolant to fall to the ground. By that time it was all apart, and I was using a putty knife to scoop out buckets full of sludge.
Two points I am trying to make. One - I got involved in the repair of what I was accused of damaging, and worked on it for hours after school and on weekends. Two - We fixed it ourself in our garage, without resorting to spending a pile of dough.

I think you can drain the differentials and inspect for water. Ditto for the transmission. If there is milky crud, or water in the bottom of the drain pan, under the fluids, flush. Otherwise, replace the fluid / lube. It is a binary conclusion.
Take the heads off and examine the heads and block. Make a decision after that, and as previously suggested, rotating the crankshaft checking for proper piston travel. If they all measure the same travel, the rods are not likely to be bent.
If the engine was running at a good clip when it "stopped", you can expect more damage to the reciprocating parts than if it was just plodding around, and stalled, and then water flowed in flooding through open valves... {that's why the front two have nothing wrong .. it was not turning?} The only way to find out, if you are interested, is to take it apart.
I DO remember lying underneath a cinder-block supported '59 T-bird 352, with dirty cold oil dripping in my face as I disconnected rod bearings, and pushed out the pistons. That after sitting on the fender for what seemed like days, wearing out a ridge reamer{and a hole in heel of my hand} before piston removal. Oh, for the good old days. BTW, it was winter in Indpls, so cold in the garage. With a passel of siblings, there wasn't money to go buy a re-man engine, so you did what you had to.
If you want some investment by your son, get him to do some of the messy, grimy work cleaning parts that will be re-used, such as pan and rocker arm covers, intake manifold, etc. You could do an assembly of short block & heads, and even buy a cherry picker of your own for a lot less than $5k. Your choice, but there are options and opportunities.
tom

 

I hear ya, Tom.

I have built/rebuilt several engines, but never a Ford.
I have the knowledge, but, my body won't let me do it, any longer.

The shop where the truck is, has been trying to find "the youngest with the least mileage on it" 3.0 from a salvage/junk yard.
No replies, yet.

As for Brad getting in there and doing some work......... I really don't see that 'boy' getting his hands dirty.

"Sweat equity" isn't an option. He doesn't know (or care) how an engine works, even though he's watched me rebuild a mower engine, several times.

I don't want to see what he does/how he survives when he's in his late 20s, early 30s.
He's got a good brain, but, he can't get his head and hands on the same frequency, to work together.

 

Is your 3.0L Ranger a regular or flex-fuel vehicle?

If it's a FFV, you can still use a regular 3.0L engine as a replacement, but you'd need to swap in the larger injectors that came on the FFV motor.

Used 3.0L "vulcan"engines aren't all that difficult to find in my area. I suppose low-mileage units are a little more scarce.

You can help the garage find one...get on the internet and do some searching (craiglist, ebay etc.) Also don't forget about the FTE resources:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum231/

 

...my thoughts (before reading your post on your son not being very mechanical) were find a salvage yard motor, go through the engine, maybe just do a compression check, pull the pan take off a few bearing caps and check bearings, put in a new oil pump, maybe a timing set and defintly crankshaft seals, new clutch set and hydraulics. have him do most of the work, he might better appreiciate and respect things more. if the truck still looks as good as that picture in the opening post, id defitly save it! id almost want to try a old enough 3.0 to have the alloy intake instead of the plastic one, hate that design, if it wasnt for the differance in transmission bell housing patterns, it be a great time to upgrade to a 4.0 but thats not going to work without a transmission to match, and other electrical stuff im sure. at the very least, make him (litterly) pay for the damage he's caused. the worst ive ever personally done was borrow my dads '74 F250 and try to lay burn out stripes on a newly rebuilt bridge....the truck was heavy enough that it simply got a grip when i dumped the clutch...and bent the driveshaft.....ooops!

 

This engine is a Flex Fuel 3.0.

The truck still looks very good, for a 14 (model year) old truck.
When I bought it, the 'stealership' had put a coat of clear on it, that has started to flake on the driver's side, a little.

There was a hailstorm a couple of years ago, that put a bunch of dings in the hood, but, this IS a truck.

I'm gonna think about it over the weekend, and make a decision on Monday.

I hate to get rid of this old Ranger. It has been a VERY good truck.
I just can't justify putting another $5K into it. I really gotta think about the budget.


Still, lots of good memories with this truck. It got my kids to/from _________ for most of it's life, and did it safely.
Until now, it's never left us 'stranded'.

It's hauled it's fair share of whitetail deer and wild turkeys off of the farm, where we hunt.

This little truck has only been stuck ONCE (until this 'event'), and that was with Brad behind the wheel, when he drove across one of the fields, at the farm.
The owner of the farm hooked onto the truck with his old tractor, and snatched that truck out.
They both had a good laugh, when they both slipped in the mud and fell on their rear-ends!!!






????????????

 

Cannot blame this breakdown on the truck anymore than it getting stuck this time around. Both were caused by careless actions of the operator.

If someone brought a truck like that into the shop I work at, and could not afford (or justify) the cost of repairs, we would buy it, fix it, and sell it. I made an offer on a 97 2wd RC Ranger yesterday that needed the clutch/flywheel/slave, but the owner decided to pay the repair cost and keep on truckin'. I'll put it back together today.
We end up with one about twice a month. Makes a pretty easy way to earn a little extra cash.
Were you closer, I'd make an offer should you decide not to put the money into it. But, I'm in OK, and the cost of transporting it would kill any chance of making a profit.

 

I would look on the web on craigslist and Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market - the latter being oriented towards regional searches instead of cities.
car-part will list the condition, possibly the miles, asking price, and distance from your zip code.

Using my MD living brothers zip 21804, I found several starting at $1200 searching for 'engine', though I was not certain of the VIN code and assembly date ... ranging down to $400 with a 90 day warranty.

 

Truck is too good to trash, if $$ is the problem, opt for the best J-yard motor you can find.

 

Find a salvage yard that warrantys their motors for say 6 months. The 3.0 is a nice little engine to swap out. Lots of space and with basic hand tools it only takes an evening. That truck is in better shape than mine and I have done 2 motor swaps to mine

The 5k jasper route is alright IF you plan on running that truck till the wheels fall off and it breaks in two. Thats a lot of money to get back out of a truck. Granted it looks like your truck has 5k worth of life left in it

On the joy ride note, about 10 years ago I did the same thing. Didnt hurt the truck or anything but took my dads truck for a ride without permission. As much as you feel betrayed and whatnot I can only hope your son feels like I did when he sees that look on his dads face. It honestly broke me down pretty hard.

 

The story continues......

Called my insurance agent, to see what options I may have.

Since the dirt road that my son was on, is a 'county road', it LOOKS like this incident is covered under my "Comprehensive" coverage.

An adjuster is going to go take a look at the truck and talk to the shop owner, to see exactly what my/our options are.


My insurance agent said that they would look at the condition of the truck, and compare the damage(s) to the NADA book value and determine which route to take.

IF they total the truck, my son's rates won't go up, due to the type of claim.
IF they decide to cover the damage, no deductible, because of my coverage.
In any event, they're going to cover the towing charges and will reimburse.

IF they total the truck, my agent said that they usually offer a 'buy back' at whatever the going local auction rate(s) would be, however, the title would have to be 'branded' as "Salvage", in any case.

I went over to the repair shop yesterday, and got my personal stuff out of the truck, and it was the first time that I had looked inside.

Driver's side got a LOT of water/mud inside the truck!!

One upside to this....... I looked at the engine, and I was amazed.
The valve covers are off, so that the shop could check the valvetrain and check compression.
The top end of this engine is "Squeaky clean"!!! NO sludge!!

No joke. 107,000 miles, and the top end looked new. (I just wished the inside if the cylinders looked the same!)


Sorry. I just see no reason in the world for this to have happened, but, I can't justify putting $5k (or more) into this truck.

What's next??? Transmission??? Other major repair???

I think it's done.

I might start looking at an F-150.
The local dealership has a like new Ranger on their lot (2-wheel drive, though!) with 9,000 miles on it.
$18,000.00!!!!!! (Ain't no way!)


More and more..... it looks like that '00BlueOvalRanger may be off-the-road, for good.

 

Let me know what the buy back price is. Ive been looking for another 5.0 ranger project and this might just be the ticket

 

Gotta ask, why would you care that the title said "Salvage"? You know the condition, the damage, and the cause. If you replaced the engine with a non-Cadillac-level 'Jasper', such as a local re-man or boneyard unit, you would keep it, likely until you passed, or passed it on to your son, and the title would be looked at by those going to the lock-box where that stuff is stored maybe ten years from now. IOW, who cares what the title says?
The ins co adjuster will assess the truck, and give you a buy-back value, or a check to effect repair if non-totaled. They should take pictures of all sides, the interior, the instrument cluster, showing indicated mileage, condition of the tires, and how much gas is in the tank {in some cases, $100+ value...}. They then plug those things into a program that queries the area for recent trades & sales, and come up with a value. Do the math, and come up with total-loss, or repair decision. In either case, you can ask for and get a check made out to you. In one case, they get the truck. In the other, they expect you to effect repairs to put the truck back into the condition it was while insured. They will not 'Better' the value of the truck, such as if one side of the bumper cover was ripped, but the other needed paint from scratches. They'll pay their portion, but it will not cover full restoration of the cover, as that would be giving you a betterment that you did not pay for, more or less.
Have you checked yet for coolant in the oil pan? It seems you've decided that the cylinder walls are cracked. Before I washed my hands and gave up, I'd want to know if they were indeed damaged. Then again, I can still do some wrenching until my hand goes numb and I have to stop and shake it to wake it up again.

 

^x2............Whatever you replace this truck with, new/used is going to cost a HELL of a lot more than putting this one back on the road.
You already know this truck inside and out, not like some pig-in a poke used car that was somebody else's problem they got rid of.
Who cares what the title says, Keith..........to me it's a no-brainer, re-power the truck.

 

I'm 17 and proud to say I would never do something like this... Except MAYBE in MY OWN mud truck. My dad breaks his own trucks and then pays me to fix them haha... If you have that much history with the truck then you should put a motor in it. Just get a junkyard motor and take it apart enough to check it and do what needs done. Easy for me to say though because I've never been around a Vulcan motor. Still, it's going to be cheaper to put a motor in this truck than it will be to buy something as reliable as this once you get it fixed.

 

In my neck of the woods that is about what the truck is worth. But you can't buy another truck for less and you will know what you have when you are done