thanks for not thinking that it was not a dumb question,  i realize most 4x owners keep up with good manitnence i hope you can find an answer to the problem

Last summer I put a new exhaust on it for better flow. The previus exhaust was over 7 years old and had a spotless tailpipe. Sounds like a lean condition to me.  

I will be going to "Chevy Heaven" April 22nd up in Carlisle Pa. I'll let you know how it was when I get back.  

Just tryed the Seafoam thing today to try to rid the top cylinder upper carbon problem if there is a problem. Ran a half of a can through the brake booster vacume line to the upper intake manifold, and of course this did not help.

Wanted to clean the MAF sensor but couldent get the star screw's out because of the center pin's that prevent you from taking it off. I tryed to break them off but was unsuccesful. I did spray electrical contact cleaner into the port where the sensor was but this did not work.

Other from properly cleaning the MAF I will be going to the next step.

It does idle much better than it did before.

i asked my cousin about the pinging in a 6cyl ford he had and he said that it was a bad wrist pin on the piston just an idea  

I think you may be right it could just be a 'ferd' thing that's going to cost more to fix than just get rid of it.  "The cure could be worse than the disease" - just an idea for ya.  I know my old ferd Taurus was beyond hope. It was definately a lemon. I was seriously considering hiring a witch doctor to dance a jig around it!

You will probably need that specal tool to get the MAF sensor off. I've seen those types of screws before but these were 'allen' type with a little pin in the middle. The special tool in this case was just a single allen wrench key with a little hole drilled in it. Be careful you don't damage the sides tryin to break that pin, or you may have to just drill them out.

hey its just the #### 3.o  you should have done the smater thing and found a 4.0  ive beat the F*^$! out of that motor i mean 6 grand rpm for very long times TRYING to blow something but not a thing just burns a little oil and its a 93 never rebuilt  

If would have been much smarter if I would have stayed with Chevy!  

I recently went into another Ford only forum and found out that the 4.0 V-6's have the same pinging problem that I have with my 3.0 V-6.  

on the ping problem you said you thought it was leaning out . don't now the year. but if you an't tried check the O2 sensor it tell's either too lean out or richen up.if you changed the exhaust was it put back in. it would be a fairly cheap check.  just a idea.  

It's a '98 Ford Ranger with a 3.0 V-6.

The truck has 114,000 miles on it now, and I have never replaced the 02-sensors. When the pinging first started, it only had about 40,000 miles on it. I never did know how do tell if the 02 sensors are bad. I'd hate to replace all of them on just a "guess" as my truck has three of them. I don't like wasting money on something that might not be bad. As for the newer exhaust, I put this on myself and only had a tailpipe bent up for it. The 02-sensor was untouched.

i had a bronco ll that had about the same pinging that your saying. that what it was . im with you on spending money and guessing and guessing and spending money. just trying to help. i had a GMC 4x4 that gave me a fit with the ABS braking i would have never new that the tranny sensor was bad . and had anything to do with the brakes.  

Out of some of the things that I have done to it, it is much better than it was before. The original plugs that Ford put in it from the factory are supposed to be too hot for the engine. By pulling my plugs and inspecting them they look like they could be running just a "little bit" on the hot side. I will be going with a colder plug soon, and the original coil pack is known to produce a weak spark witch Ford specified. I will try the colder plugs first, since this is alot easier on the wallet. As for the coil pack the price varies. There are some names that I have never heard of, but I am going to go with the only brand that sounds familiar to me, witch is Borg Warner at $90 at Pep Boy's if the colder plugs don't work.