Recommended maintenance on an 08 v6 with 316k miles?

[Tatrii]

I've had it for about 2 years and put 95k on it myself.
I've had to replace the ECM and just recently the transmission. The engine is seeping oil out of it's valve cover gaskets so I'm replacing those soon.
I'm also replacing the EGR valve it's had that code since I bought it but that's the only code it has

My main focus is the engine, from what I've read online mine has been on borrowed time for a while.

Any tips or past regrets to decrease the risk of catastrophic engine failure?

 

[Bazz270]

Timing kit?

 

[94Eddie]

I've had it for about 2 years and put 95k on it myself.
I've had to replace the ECM and just recently the transmission. The engine is seeping oil out of it's valve cover gaskets so I'm replacing those soon.
I'm also replacing the EGR valve it's had that code since I bought it but that's the only code it has

My main focus is the engine, from what I've read online mine has been on borrowed time for a while.

Any tips or past regrets to decrease the risk of catastrophic engine failure?

Diligent fluid maintenance is the best way to keep a vehicle on the road and I mean ALL fluids. Don't follow Ford's recommended intervals. They want your vehicle to fail so they can sell you a new one. For the SOHC V6 I would change the oil every 4k-5k miles and probably more to the 4k side. The transmission should get a pan drop, filter replacement and refill every 40k-50k miles and the transfer case drained and refilled at the same time. The differentials should be drained and refilled every 100k miles. Brake fluid and power steering fluid flushed every 80k miles. Coolant flushed every 100k miles. This will go a long way to keep major drive train repairs from occurring and other systems from suffering breakdowns.

One other thing that seems to be ignored by many people in the rust belt is control of corrosion from road salt. People in these areas should get an annual treatment of Fluid Film or an equivalent oil based rust preventative. Fortunately, you shouldn't have to worry about this since you live in Louisiana.
A SOHC V6 with many miles on it can go at any time. My advice is very frequent oil changes and changing out oiling system components that can be done easily. Some here have installed pre-oilers to keep wear from occurring at engine startup but this is best done with lower mileage engines. If the timing chain guides go out in the rear then it is an engine out job to replace them. If you have high mileage on your engine a remanufactured replacement is your best option. This will not be cheap and might be more expense than the vehicle is worth. How many miles are on the engine?

 

[Tatrii]

Diligent fluid maintenance is the best way to keep a vehicle on the road and I mean ALL fluids. Don't follow Ford's recommended intervals. They want your vehicle to fail so they can sell you a new one. For the SOHC V6 I would change the oil every 4k-5k miles and probably more to the 4k side. The transmission should get a pan drop, filter replacement and refill every 40k-50k miles and the transfer case drained and refilled at the same time. The differentials should be drained and refilled every 100k miles. Brake fluid and power steering fluid flushed every 80k miles. Coolant flushed every 100k miles. This will go a long way to keep major drive train repairs from occurring and other systems from suffering breakdowns.

One other thing that seems to be ignored by many people in the rust belt is control of corrosion from road salt. People in these areas should get an annual treatment of Fluid Film or an equivalent oil based rust preventative. Fortunately, you shouldn't have to worry about this since you live in Louisiana.
A SOHC V6 with many miles on it can go at any time. My advice is very frequent oil changes and changing out oiling system components that can be done easily. Some here have installed pre-oilers to keep wear from occurring at engine startup but this is best done with lower mileage engines. If the timing chain guides go out in the rear then it is an engine out job to replace them. If you have high mileage on your engine a remanufactured replacement is your best option. This will not be cheap and might be more expense than the vehicle is worth. How many miles are on the engine?

I can't believe I didn't put the mileage in the post... It's 317k.

The "reman" transmission I purchased for it has a reasonably significant crack on it, but with the mileage on the engine, we used JB-Weld on it, and the leak was virtually non-existent. We topped off the fluid, and it was working perfectly for about a week; I was checking the fluid every other day.
Yesterday morning on my way to work, I was driving with the cruise control set to 55, and the transmission went out; I pulled off to the side of the road to check the fluid, and it was black...

You can hear something mechanical is broken inside the transmission when you shut the truck off now. The old one I pulled out would still drive just without reverse, as well as 4th or 5th gear with significantly more miles. I think my best bet is to get a refund on this one and let her go; I thought this tranny would at LEAST last as long as the engine would.

The engine is still going strong, fuel trims don't go over ± 3, only code is EGR issue, it only loses about half a quart of oil between changes, and all the bodywork on the truck is still in great shape.

I love the truck, but I think this is a sign that it's time to let her go. We're going to send the new transmission back, put the old one back in it, and sell it while it still runs and drives forward slowly.

From what I've seen online, I've pretty much topped the charts on the expected mileage out of the truck, and I only paid $5k for it. It's been paid off for about half a year. I hope to find a vehicle that won't have these problems at 200k while I have a note!

 

[J_C]

Frankly with 317K on it AND putting on 45K mi/year, I would get a replacement vehicle with much fewer miles on it, fix only what is needed to avoid a depreciated sale price. I mean I'd get something with maybe 40% better fuel economy so that also saves over $1K5/yr in gas, maybe closer to $2K/yr soon, the way inflation is going.

 

[Michaelbowman86]

I've had it for about 2 years and put 95k on it myself.
I've had to replace the ECM and just recently the transmission. The engine is seeping oil out of it's valve cover gaskets so I'm replacing those soon.
I'm also replacing the EGR valve it's had that code since I bought it but that's the only code it has

My main focus is the engine, from what I've read online mine has been on borrowed time for a while.

Any tips or past regrets to decrease the risk of catastrophic engine failure?

What issues was it giving you for you to change put the ecm??

 

[94Eddie]

I can't believe I didn't put the mileage in the post... It's 317k.

The "reman" transmission I purchased for it has a reasonably significant crack on it, but with the mileage on the engine, we used JB-Weld on it, and the leak was virtually non-existent. We topped off the fluid, and it was working perfectly for about a week; I was checking the fluid every other day.
Yesterday morning on my way to work, I was driving with the cruise control set to 55, and the transmission went out; I pulled off to the side of the road to check the fluid, and it was black...

You can hear something mechanical is broken inside the transmission when you shut the truck off now. The old one I pulled out would still drive just without reverse, as well as 4th or 5th gear with significantly more miles. I think my best bet is to get a refund on this one and let her go; I thought this tranny would at LEAST last as long as the engine would.

The engine is still going strong, fuel trims don't go over ± 3, only code is EGR issue, it only loses about half a quart of oil between changes, and all the bodywork on the truck is still in great shape.

I love the truck, but I think this is a sign that it's time to let her go. We're going to send the new transmission back, put the old one back in it, and sell it while it still runs and drives forward slowly.

From what I've seen online, I've pretty much topped the charts on the expected mileage out of the truck, and I only paid $5k for it. It's been paid off for about half a year. I hope to find a vehicle that won't have these problems at 200k while I have a note!

Since it has 317k miles I wouldn't put a lot of money into it. If you are buying something else then my recommendation it to research the heck out of any vehicle you are considering. The cheap ones usually have fatal flaws in their engineering making them very unreliable and expensive to maintain. A YouTuber whose channel is named "Car Wizard" has several videos about which year and model of vehicles are good to buy or avoid. He is very knowledgeable. If you get another Explorer then the 4th gen V8s are the most reliable between the 3rd and 4th gen vehicles. This is due to the 4.6L 3V V8 and 6R60/80 transmissions being very reliable. The 5th gens aren't bad either outside their water pump issue. Higher mileage ones are somewhat reasonably priced but I would recommend doing a pre-emptive water pump replacement.

Whatever you buy, diligent fluid maintenance is critical for getting the most miles from it.