View Single Post
 
Old 07-29-2012, 08:54 AM
Michelle Flarebody Michelle Flarebody is offline
Learning to use the forums
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 11
Default Re: The Offical Vent Thread.

Yesterday my plan was to change the oil & filter, air filter and rotate the tires on my Ranger. To prepare I dropped 1/2 pint of Seafoam in the crankcase on Wed. because this motor was replaced right before I bought the truck and I wanted to switch it over to full synthetic oil. I had to work Sat. so I had the warehouse to myself and use of all the tools and the forklifts. I don't really enjoy working on vehicles but I don't make tons of money so I'm motivated to do what I can myself. Whoever the idiots are that designed this 3.0 liter engine are they should be taken out and shot. I dropped the oil from the pan which wasn't too bad especially since my Ranger is a 4X4 so it sits high enough for me to get under it without having to lift the truck. As the oil was dropping I went in search of the filter. I should have expected some issues because of all the extra drive train around the engine ( I'd never owned a 4X4 before) but I wasn't expecting it to be as bad as it was. I found the filter easily on the drivers side from the top looking down. I took my filter wrench and had to pull some rolling stairs to be high enough to reach the filter and tried to loosen it up where I had my first learning experience, the filter sits right below the exhaust manifold and I warmed the truck up before dropping the oil, ouch! I thought I'd try to remove it from below the truck so I got underneath and found there was no way I could do it from down there and I also tried through the wheel well with no success. I tried it next from the top with some heavy work gloves on but had a hard time getting down there with all the stuff in the way. That's when I got my 2nd revelation, in trying to get the band wrench around the filter with the handle in place to be able to tighten the wrench and turn the filter the band hit both poles of the starter which sits right next to the oil filter. Sparks flew and I could smell the burning in the air. I pulled the positive cable from the battery before I gave it my next try. At this point I managed to loosen the filter enough to spin it off with my hand. Then I tried to pull it up and realized there wasn't enough room to pull it up through the top so I dropped it and got back under the truck and worked it around everything and got it out. The oil from the filter spilled all over the starter and other things because there isn't clear space from the filter to the floor. I had to put the new filter up through the bottom and then go up top to install it. I took me so long to get the oil changed I didn't have time to rotate my tires so that will have to wait until I work next Sunday to do that. I'm sure my engine is happy with a diet of Mobil One full synthetic though. The original engine in this truck went 230,000 plus miles when it went so I'm looking at hitting half a million on this engine.
__________________

99 Ranger Supercab 2 door XLT Flareside 4X4 Off Road Pkg 3.0 Flex Fuel V6 Auto/OD 4.10 Open
Bedliner
16" Polished Aluminum Deep Dish Rims w/ Goodyear Wrangler 245/75/R16 Tires
Completed Mods: Fog Lamp Mod 7/15/12 Throttle Mod 7/17/12
Reply With Quote