I completed my 10k mile service. 2nd oil change, 5 tire rotation and added a Dorman oil drain plug. Hopefully it avoids the mess the 2.7 makes (or at least that I make every time I change a 2.7 oil). Everything looked good including the skids plates. Kind of nice getting to look over the brakes, suspension, skids and undercarriage after wheeling a decent amount.
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Nice! Do you know if that plug works for the 2.3?
Even though I don’t plan on doing my own (no garage) right now, figure I’m upgrading everything else…
From @MattMIBronco on 5 March 2022: I’m not sure. The oil change procedure is quite a bit different, but I can’t remember the plug. (Assuming it’s similar to the 2.3 Ranger process). Just search on Rock Auto for the Dorman plug 2.3, it should come up. I will update how it works during my next service.
The 2.3L should use an old style regular bolt, not the new fangled plastic ones. It also has an older canister type filter.
The 2.7L is a member of the Nano family and like other Nanos (and a few other newer style Ford engines) it has a cartridge oil filter and large plastic drain plug.
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2.3L plug is (thankfully) different and a conventional design.
Not sure if our stock plug is magnetic or not, but Mountune sells a mag plug fairly cheaply if that’s of any interest:
Having recently completed my first oil change at 3500 miles on the 2.3L I can confirm that the stock drain plug is non-magnetic. I did replace it with a magnetic plug for about 6 bucks at O’Reilly’s.
Prior to the change I perused the various forums and YouTube posts to determine if there were any problem steps and there really are not.
Having said that I can offer the following tips that may enable you to have a relatively mess free oil change.
- This may seem silly but it helps to have two drain bins handy. One under the drain plug and one under the drain chute that dumps oil from the filter (located on the driver side, inside the frame rail and just behind the knuckle).
- When you loosen the drain plug, be prepared that the oil will shoot out pretty far at first (probably about 1 foot away from the drain plug location). Also, don’t forget to remove or loosen the oil drain cap on the top of the engine before you remove the drain plug.
- Get an oil filter removal socket that is made for your filter of choice and use a long extension (10" or greater) with a ratchet when removing or loosening the filter. This is done via the driver side wheel well. Be sure to turn the wheel to the right before you begin, and you will have to remove at least one of the plastic fasteners holding the fender liner in place (after removing the fastener you can bend up the liner enough to snake the filter socket with the attached extension through to the filter location).
- Don’t forget to have a shop rag or two handy.
Using the above guidlines, along with general experience should allow for a less messy driveway.
Btw, I chose full synthetic Valvoline 5W30 (6.2 quarts) and a Motorcraft filter.