Hey guys, first thank you for your time in reading this.

My engine just went the other day in my ranger, the main rod busted. It is an 03 ranger, 2 wheel drive, with the 3.0 non flex fuel, Vulcan ohv. I have been trying to find the same year engine to swap in for an affordable price and having troubles. I was wondering what other year rangers also have this same style engine that I can drop in without having to make modifications. And what years would require minimal modifications and what those would be. If you need more specs please let me know and thank you for your time again!

 

Welcome to the forum

If you don't use a 2003 3.0l non-flex Ranger engine then you will have to change the upper and lower intakes, not hard to do.
Reason you would need to do this is that Ford changed connector types and sensor placement from model year to model year, i.e. a 2002 may be exactly the same except for 1 connector doesn't fit, or all connectors don't fit, lol, not something Ford lists in it specs for an engine.

So if you decide changing the intake is not that big of a deal then you get 9 years worth of engines to chose from.

1999 to 2008 would be as close to 2003 as you need, flex or non-flex doesn't matter as far as the engine itself goes.
Flex had different injector size and computer software, that's the only difference that mattered.
Head chamber shape was different in Flex models BUT.........that was only for running E85 fuel, so if you only run gasoline then it won't matter.

You can go back as far as 1995-1998 3.0l Vulcan, shorter head bolts but same heads,
1999 also saw a change in valve stems and springs.
None of these effect the ability to swap the engine over, just in the long run if you get parts for 2003 Ranger 3.0l engine, they will all work on a 1999-2008, but might not work on a 1996, for example.
As long as to keep track of engine year, then all would be fine