Thread: New Ute Dilemma

Originally Posted by Flyblown

I wouldn’t touch that engine with a bargepole. The idea of being caught with one of those out of warranty would fill me with utter dread.

The Ranger 3.0 V6 is the “Powerstroke” American evolution of the Ford / PSA Lion series engine used in the Land Rovers and Jaguars that was so disastrous reliability wise, with a shocking rate of catastrophic engine failures. You can spend an entire day watching / reading about that particular debacle. Ford’s Dagenham manufacturing plant and the various parts suppliers came in for scathing criticism for the amount of serious breakages - snapped cranks, all sorts.

When Ford took the Lion engine to America, Ford America redesigned the bottom end in an effort to fix these problems. It was sold in the F150 for a very short period of time before it was abruptly discontinued for reasons that Ford didn’t really discuss. Probably because it simply wasn’t popular, but it also had lots of niggly problems (not unusual for American engines).

The Powerstroke is still relatively unproven in terms of high mileage reliability. Definitely not for me no matter how smooth and powerful. If it was going to be my forever ute I’d want something that’s got a lot more / better reputation behind it.

Interesting side line that little discussion - the 3.2L 5 cylinder is apparently a Peugeot derivative of a Renault design, and the V6 is apparently another derivative of a different Renault design also with some Peugeot mixed in there somewhere. Apparently the peoples in the Renault design department went OTT on the designing side of diesel engines and tied up a heap of patents.