I am curious to know what signs those of you that had a 3.0 die on you were prior to its death. I know my engine seems to be fine but this is for anyone out there that may be interested in pre-symptomous signs that happen before that weasel goes pop. So did you notice smells,sounds/(obviously),colored exhaust,lack of power,and how many miles did you make it to? Ben

 

3.0's die of head gasket failure - If your lucky it will fail and just start leaking.

If your not lucky it will fail internally and either fill your crankcase with Anti-Freeze and completely ruin your engine. Or, it will fail into a cylinder and start pumping anti-freeze out your exhaust.

Otherwise it is a great engine.

 

Had one with 225,000 miles on it and it was still flawless. Mabe I'm just lucky. Or mabe I am smart for selling it!!

 

I love mine. 208,000 miles. Dread the day it dies. That'll be 4+ grand out of my pocket.

 

3.0 dying? Which time?

The original gasket failure happened on mine at about 94,000 miles. It wasn't covered under the recall so I ended up dropping some $$ on a remanufactured long block. That engine just commited suicide a couple of weeks ago at 122,000 miles. Seems the oil pump failed as I was driving it home from a long road trip. A sudden and loud "ticking" noise was shortly followed by a loud "BANG" -- I think a gernade would have done less damage. Two huge holes in the block later, I'm still waiting on the arrival of a new short block (reman) from a more reputable engine company.

**DO NOT BUY AN ENGINE FROM CERTIFIED ENGINES IN PHOENIX, AZ!!! They did everything possible to NOT honor the 3 year/unlimited mile warrenty on the remanufactured engine and I will be pursuing legal remedies to recoup my expenses for replacing the engine. Pricks. **

Ed

 

My case might be out of the ordinary, but it started with the oil change disaster that some of you might remember me talking about. They put the drain plug back in crooked at my local Jiffy lube, and the oil leaked out overnight and the motor burnt up early the next morning at 5am on the way to work. It still ran, but leaked oil like a sive. After that it was the A/C going out, then a bad alternator. Then the radiator, and blue smoke in the exhaust at a cold start up.

I know that none of those are directly related to the oil change disaster, but all of it started right after that. That info probably doesn't help you, I think I just wanted to bitch about my crappy luck. Haha.

 

Mine is also a case of a head gasket failure. It had the HG campaign done when it had about 140k and this time I had 242k on it.

After about a 10 mile drive I noticed the engine developed a slight miss.
I just figured a spark plug was getting bad since it had been about two years since I replaced them.

After I had parked and done some browsing at Barnes & Nobles. When I came out to start my truck it just went 'clunk' and you could feel it.

Well after having it towed home, the next moring it started right up and was running just fine, until I was going down the freeway and all of a sudden I was putting out a severe fog behined my vehicle. I then looked at the oil and it had the tell tale sign of what had happened.

After tearing the engine down I discovered the HG had blown in to the #5 cylinder. Apperntly when the miss had happened that is when it started and after I shut the engine off for some time the cylinder had filled with water and when I went to start it it hydrolocked.

After the engine cooled over night and the water drained out of the cylinder it started right up.

Well after about two months, $300.00 and some custom fab tools later, it is back up and running.
The stealer wanted $1900.00+ to do the head gasket.

 

mine started with the #3 sparkplug melt down and then getting blown out of the block...put new sleeve and sparkplug in and it lasted a couple months untill I saw coolant staeming coming out the exhaust pipe. sure enough the gasket had fialed exactly where the plug had overheated....I'm about 75% done with the rebuild, but am scared to death to start it up since this is my first solo rebuild...

 

where exactly is that located? and does it feed from the front of the engine? I am currently wondering if that is a partial cause of why my lifter is possibly collapsed.

 

Mine was real weak for a few months and idleing real rough. Lean light has been on for a while with no trace of why (anyone know how to test an O2 Sensor?) It was eating oil at about a quart per 750 miles. It has an aweful sulpher smell, but that could be due to the original muffler and high sulpher content in gas these days. This is all post 170,000 miles. Then I was just recently on my way to work and the thing reved high when I hit the gas and not going any faster. It immediately started the clackity-clakity-clackity sound as described in my recent thread title. Not sure what the exact problem is right now, but I am rather sure it is a collapsed valve. I did lose an injector prior, but I am blaming that on bad gas and that was not dead, just wounded. In fact technically I still drove it home from this last incodent. So really the thing aint dead yet! All in all, I have been very impressed with the reliability.