2nd '99 3.0 with bad valve.

Guest · May 19, 2011

Hello all,
I have just opened up the 2nd '99, 3.0 with the number 3 exhaust valve broken. This one was missing a good chunk. This engine is in a '99 B3000 that only has 67k on the clock.

The first 3.0 I had with a bad valve was in a '99 Ranger X cab that had 112k.

My question...is this a common thing with the 3.0 valves? I have a concern about replacing just one valve seeing as to how the other valves all have the same amount of use.
Are the other valves going to start failing, or is this contained to # 3 for some reason?

I did a short search, but came up empty as far as failing #3 valves goes.

Anyone else have, or know of others that have had the #3 exhaust valve fail?

Thanks for any input.

Original_Ranger84 · May 20, 2011

I have never heard of just one specific valve failing but then again I've only had my 3.0L for 20,000 miles and its at 108,000 with no problems whatsoever.

hopster · May 20, 2011

3.0l engines have issues with valves and valve seats Quite often. you should check to see if the valves have pounded the seats into the heads. if not pop a fresh valve in there and give her a shot.

Guest · May 20, 2011

Original_Ranger84 said:
I have never heard of just one specific valve failing but then again I've only had my 3.0L for 20,000 miles and its at 108,000 with no problems whatsoever.

Thanks for the reply,

I have run into a similar issue with the '94 1.8 OHC Mazda engine. This is why I asked. So far I've seen 4, and have heard of several others losing the #3 exhaust valve in those Mazda engines.
I understand that it is not even close to being the same engine, and I only I mention it as an example of an engine that may have a pattern of certain valves failing.

I haven't worked on the 3.0 at all to speak of, and It just seemed a little odd to find the same problem in 2 vehicles. I started wondering if others had seen this before and had found there was a cause for it, like a vacuum leak causing a lean burn, etc. (Sorry, its my R&D back ground kicking in. One failure is oh well, twice is worth note, 3rd time is WT is going on)

Its not big deal, as I said, I'm just a little concerned about reusing the other valves. But on the plus side, the other truck that was repaired last year is still going strong, so maybe the worry is for not.

Thanks again.

straycat · May 20, 2011

Darn, I have friends who have had 3.0 motors for ever and never had an issue with any of them!!! Never heard of that happening before!!

:icon_confused:

Guest · May 21, 2011

Well, it seems that I had a new valve in stock, so I figured I'd pull the old one and just lap the new one in and be done. Not so. The seat was cracked in 3 places.
The rest of the valves looked to be in good condition, no sign of over heating, so I have no idea what happened. On closer inspection the valve looked as if it had "V" cut into it with a torch. It was about a 10mm across the face, and was almost to the stem. Can't say I've ever seen anything quite like it.

I suppose that I was lucky that the seat didn't come unglued because I imagine that could have made quite a mess out of the cylinder walls and the piston. The local machine shop said the head wasn't worth repairing. I admit that I have been away from the wrenching end of the business for a long time, but replacing seats use to be a common thing. Is seat replacement no longer done?

Anyway, I guess its time for a set of heads if I can't locate a match for the original head.

Is there an easy way of telling a flex fuel head from a standard head? Serial number, casting marks, etc.?

And, since there is no E-85 anywhere within reach of this island, is it really nessary to have the flex fuel heads? Will the engine run alright with standard heads if that's all that can be found?

Thanks again.

Original_Ranger84 · May 21, 2011

I guess perhaps the valves might do that if you run it above I think 6k rpm's, I have heard you would need to replace heads or at the very least valves when you run it up there too long but I would think it would spread to more then one cylinder.

adsm08 · May 21, 2011

Guest said:
And, since there is no E-85 anywhere within reach of this island, is it really nessary to have the flex fuel heads? Will the engine run alright with standard heads if that's all that can be found?

Thanks again.

The only difference in the physicals of a FF engine verses a regular one are the soft parts that are exposed to fuel are made of harder stuff that will resist the alcohol. The machining is the same.

Guest · May 27, 2011

This isn't good.
The head was replaced with another from a '98 flex fuel engine, actually, both heads were replaced. The engine dropped another valve as soon as it was started. WTH is up with these valves? This time the #4 cylinder lost a valve. All of the valves were removed, cleaned, and reseated with new stem seals prior to installing the heads. Of course all of the valves looked to be in good condition, or they wouldn't have been reused.

Am I missing something here?

I'm starting to think that these engines are throw away engines, and that once they have been overheated they're done.

As usual, I find out after the fact that the heads from '98 were removed from an engine that locked up because it overheated.

Anyone want to buy a cheap '99 B3000?

mrchew1982 · Oct 12, 2011

same problem!

I know that this is post ressurection, but it's only 6mo old so it shouldn't smell that bad...

I have the same exhaust valve problem in my 02 FF ranger. All of the exhaust valves were badly pitted across the seating surface, and all valve seats show recession (regression), 3 cylinders are really bad at about 1/16th inch lip above the seat(#'s 2,4,5).

i will try to post some pictures soon.

I think what caused this in my case was a plugged pre-cat on the drivers side which in turn clogged up all of the downstream cats. I still haven't figured out why that happened, but 5 cats seem like a piss poor design to me!

I currently have the truck parked as it is unable to pass cali emmisions. high HC and NOX. I am looking into having the heads redone with hardened exhaust seats, but i don't have a cost yet to share. I will use high quality stainless steel valves to compliment the job.

I really want these rebuilt heads to last 200k miles, but i am not sure how to do that. i have toyed with various ideas:

1. stiffer valve springs.
2. brass valve guides.
3. switching to 8mm stem valves.
4. using pre-99 heads.
4. increasing cylinder head cooling.

i kind of hope that the issue was the seats to begin with and that the repair will fix the valve cooling issue by itself.

on the plus side i'm using this as an excuse to port match and polish the heads and intake manifolds!

insane302cancan · Mar 22, 2013

Just did this on my ranger 3.0. its a 2003 with 130k on it. 2 weak parts are the shiit 7.5 rear end and the heads. Its not the valves themselves, but more or less the exhaust valve seats. Its so common that ford actually has a TSB for in warranty trucks. Mine started to mis fire on cylinder 3. so i tore her apart. Compression seemed ok across the board at 175. But I reconfirmed the 3 was shot after running some sea foam and noticed the cylinder 3 exhaust port was wet from not firing.

currently the heads are in getting 6 new exhaust valve seats and a valve job. hopefully this solves the issue. The machine shop said that all 6 were leaking somewhat but number three was the worse.

What boggles my mind is that the driver side head was replaced at 55k miles, so it only has 75k some odd miles on it yet is still leaking. my whole cost after gaskets, valve job, seats, oil, coolant was just under 400 bucks, it frustrates me is that if the truck was engineered just a little better, then I wouldn't have had to spend this money. GRR

2nd '99 3.0 with bad valve.

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