92 3.0L V6... anyone know anything bad about these, might be buying..
 

My sister is getting a car, and they brought home a 92 probe 3.0 V6 to test drive for the night, It has 113K on it, but its cheap and clean and the dealer is somewhat of a friend, someone we can trust anyways. My g/f's mom had a taurus with a 3.0 and has had some troubles, but they have been computer related and not to the motor, and I dont think the probe has the same computer, but anyways, anyone know any probs to look out for this car.

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Matt
88 LX hatch 44K
3.73,pro 5.0,2 chamb. flows, off road h pipe by MAC, Hooker shorty Headers, Kirban Adjustable fuel press. regulator, asp pulleys, 65MM edelbrock TB,Steeda lower and Motorsport Upper control arms.

The Ford built 3.0L V-6 is a solid engine, the only one on the early Probes. The Probe has a long documented case of malfunctions. Mostly electrical.

My wife has a '93 Tempo with the 3.0 V-6. It is rated at 130 hp in the Tempo and 145 hp in the Probe. I suspect exhaust system and computer programming makes the difference. In 83,000 miles we have had the following problems:

Idle air bypass valve sticks open causing high revs. This problem has been with us for 70,000 miles. I have replaced the valve once and clean it frequently. It works fine for a while, but the problem always comes back.

Broken harmonic balancer - pulley separated. This happened at about 40,000 miles.

The car came from the factory with an improperly installed pan gasket which started leaking at about 30,000 miles.

Last weekend, the engine developed a miss which went away after the engine got thoroughly warmed up. I suspect a sticking injector.

Replaced the clutch at 60,000 miles.

Replaced the motor mounts at 60,000 miles. Be sure to check all of them, they are expensive, and any high mileage car almost certainly needs new ones.

All in all the Ford 3.0 is a very good engine. My wife's does not smoke and uses about the same amount of oil as it did when new. BTW, a V-6 5 speed Tempo makes a great import ass kicking sleeper. I have more fun with the Tempo than my Mustang, because nobody wants to play with the Mustang, but every kid with a coffee can exhaust tip thinks he can beat a Tempo. Very few of them can beat my wife's.

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E-cam, pullies, 3.27, Mac Off-road, 2 chamber Flowmasters, 5 lug conversion, PRO-5 Shifter (WOW, what a difference!)