Ford Taurus 3.0 Duratec Question

I just picked up a fairly loaded 2000 Taurus wagon to use as a kid hauler & general beater off of C/L for cheap. It has the 3.0L Duratec twin cam motor. The car is super clean and has only 54k miles on it. The problem is the motor is shelled. The PO was just driving along, said it made a terrible noise and started running badly. Their mech. said 2 cylinder on the rear bank have no compression. The intake cam journals (same bank) looks to have molten alluminun oozing out of them. Not good. I'm guessing the cam was starved for oil for some reason. Anyone heard of this? Anyone know a good source for Taurasorous info and parts? From what I've been reading online the Duratec seems to be a decent but disposable motor, am I wrong? Thanx!

Put a new duratec in it? My hypothesis, or educated guess, if you will, would be that the reason it was oil-starved was because there was no oil in it.

In reply to rotard:

Reads "full" on the dipstick.

I'm sure they added some oil to it after the fact.

In reply to rotard:

I doubt it.

rotard wrote: Put a new duratec in it? My hypothesis, or educated guess, if you will, would be that the reason it was oil-starved was because there was no oil in it.

rotard wrote: I'm sure they added some oil to it after the fact.

I've had personal experience with a Ford dealership doing exactly that, and then adamantly denying it was the reason a 2 year old car with ~30,000 miles had a rod knock.

In regards to the the op's Taurus, just grab another engine from a junkyard, there are plenty of them to go around.

MG Bryan wrote:

rotard wrote: Put a new duratec in it? My hypothesis, or educated guess, if you will, would be that the reason it was oil-starved was because there was no oil in it.

rotard wrote: I'm sure they added some oil to it after the fact.

I've had personal experience with a Ford dealership doing exactly that, and then adamantly denying it was the reason a 2 year old car with ~30,000 miles had a rod knock. In regards to the the op's Taurus, just grab another engine from a junkyard, there are plenty of them to go around.

How about a vulcan swap? That thing is as exciting as a boat anchor and twice as reliable.

neon4891 wrote:

MG Bryan wrote:

rotard wrote: Put a new duratec in it? My hypothesis, or educated guess, if you will, would be that the reason it was oil-starved was because there was no oil in it.

rotard wrote: I'm sure they added some oil to it after the fact.

I've had personal experience with a Ford dealership doing exactly that, and then adamantly denying it was the reason a 2 year old car with ~30,000 miles had a rod knock. In regards to the the op's Taurus, just grab another engine from a junkyard, there are plenty of them to go around.

How about a vulcan swap? That thing is as exciting as a boat anchor and twice as reliable.

I don't know that the electronics interface perfectly, but, if they do, the Vulcan is the way to go. I actively tried to kill one, but it kept running no matter what I did to it.

In reply to MG Bryan:

Eh? It's an 11 year old car... Ford has nothing to do with it. A junkyard motor is in mind. The failure seems strange.

frankenstangsghost wrote: In reply to MG Bryan: Eh? It's an 11 year old car... Ford has nothing to do with it. A junkyard motor is in mind. The failure seems strange.

Point was that Duratec V6s don't seem to hold up well to oil loss, and, as such, I was agreeing with Rotard's assessment. The failure probably wasn't spontaneous. Your average Taurus sees a lot of abuse; it's not that strange that someone broke one.

MG Bryan wrote:

frankenstangsghost wrote: In reply to MG Bryan: Eh? It's an 11 year old car... Ford has nothing to do with it. A junkyard motor is in mind. The failure seems strange.

Point was that Duratec V6s don't seem to hold up well to oil loss, and, as such, I was agreeing with Rotard's assessment. The failure probably wasn't spontaneous. Your average Taurus sees a lot of abuse; it's not that strange that someone broke one.

Most Tauri are treated as disposable cars by their owners. Actually, pretty much anything that came with a Duratec V6 was treated as a disposable car. Sometimes, the simplest answer is the correct answer.

find another runner that's not as nice for heart transplant donor? or find a rear-ended one in a JY. it's a good bet that a crashed car was "running when parked".

i have a 3.0L duratec in my '03 mazda6. doesn't make sexy noise like the mazda KLDE in the probe GT, but it pulls nicely to the 6500 redline, and has been basically trouble-free for myself and the PO to the tune of 153k miles.

one weak link i found is the tensioner pulley on the water pump belt. bearing siezes, plastic pulley melts from belt sliding over it, belt stops turning water pump, engine gets hot. the factory fixed this in '06 iirc by deleting the tensioner and using a shorter "stretch to fit" belt. my cooling system has the factory update, LOL.

rotard wrote: Actually, pretty much anything that came with a Duratec V6 was treated as a disposable car.

Me and my '05 Mazda MPV vehemently disagree!

Actually, the Ford lump has been pretty good. Decent go, decent mileage. Still running at 80k + miles. Hoping for another 80k at least.

I bought almost an identical car to yours last year with almost the same problem. I put a used low mileage motor in it for $650 from LKQ. They're actually pretty decent cars, just a bit on the boring side.

FYI - I pulled my motor out of the top because I didn't want to deal with dropping the sub frame on a 10+ year old car. Plenty of room, just a pain to get lined up with the transmission when you reintall. Make sure you have a load leveler on your motor crane.

If you've got a Copart in the area, look into getting a wrecked car at the insurance auction with a duratec in it. You can probably get a whole car for less than the $650 a junkyard will charge you.

Avoid any of the ones that list the damage as "biohazard"

In reply to Brett_Murphy:

Almost bought a recovered theft PU for a friend with "bio-hazard" listed. The car thief was a hyp-junkie. Nice truck tho... I'm gonna head out to good old P&S today and see what they have. I found 3 motors up here (NoCo) but there is no evidence as to why the cars are in the yard. If I don't find one there I'll most likely pick a whole car from whatever Klode's is called now a days, after the holidays.

MG Bryan wrote: I've had personal experience with a Ford dealership doing exactly that, and then adamantly denying it was the reason a 2 year old car with ~30,000 miles had a rod knock.

A motor I supplied years ago from my shop came back 4 or 5 months later all locked up with new oil and a new filter - first thing I did was unwind the new filter and sure enough it was empty other than 1/2 cup black oil in it - oil change and forgot to put the new oil in it and tried to cheat me for it.

frankenstangsghost, yup find a crashed car, crashed cars had to be running to crash, straight tow in's are often because of dead engines or other driveline issue.

There's one on ebay right now. Same color, trim and similar mileage. It's in Washington state... No luck at the pick-n-pulls today.

I've seen a LOT of bad engines with fresh oil in them. I think it usually goes something like "Oh E36 M3, the car's making a crazy noise, I should put some oil in it". Too late.

Does anyone know if all the 3.0 duratecs use the same longblock? I have an 01 Lincoln ls that needs a bottom end, and Tauruses (sp?) are all over the pic a part... Sorry for the hijack...