No
3.0l didn't have enough horse power for weight of Explorer
They used 4.0l OHV and then SOHC, also V8s until 2010
In 2011 they were downsized and changed to Front wheel drive or AWD
The 3.0l Vulcan engine was designed in 1985/6 for cars, front wheel drive cars, like the Taurus and Sables, but found it's way into the Rangers in 1991, and Mazda B3000 in 1994
Look here for vehicles it was used in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Vulcan_engine
End of 3.0l Vulcan was 2008 model year
Rangers had 3.0l Flex from 1998 to 2003 << I thought it was longer so grain of salt
Taurus 1996 to 2006
Sable 2002 to 2004
The heads and fuel injectors were the only differences on the 3.0l engine between gas only and flex fuel
Many have used gas only heads with E85(ethanol) and visa versa with no problems reported, so not sure that matters much.
And the Flex injectors are just larger in flow, GPM, not physical size, because more E85 needs to flow in to intake to get correct air/fuel mix because E85 has less power per gallon than gasoline
The head gaskets on car 3.0l engines are different because the flow of coolant is IN from the back of the engine and OUT thru the front of the engine, engines are mounted sideways in FWD cars
On Rangers IN and OUT are both at the front of the engine, so flow pattern thru the heads and block is different.
But many have also reported no problems using car engine in ranger without head gasket change, but..........you can't really tell if you are getting hot spots in the rear of engine, so I would change gaskets myself
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