I have one in my Escape, it gave me well over 300K miles without taking a dump. And all of this was with minimal maintenance.

I'm considering re-engining it; but after seeing some reviews, I'm not so sure. Is there anything else that'll fit that car?

Bear in mind that there is more than one ford 3 litre v6

Vulcan or Duratec?

Swapping in a different size engine is a pita on modern vehicles.

The escapes with a 3.0 seem like good rigs. I see a lot of them with 200k+.

Duratec I think.

I had one in an '02 Mazda B3000...should have gotten the 4.0!

Me too and I agree. It didn't have much power and gas mileage sucked.

I agree there's no reason for the 3.0 I'm my ranger to exist between the. 4.0 and the 2.3

But let me tell ya that 4.0 is a great way to make a compact truck get the same mpg as a 3/4 ton

When I see the words ranger and 4.0 together my first thought is "man you shoulda just got an f150"

Had plenty of power in my Escape. But I don't race at all. I'm a boring driver.

Power-wise, it wasn't too bad for normal driving, and my mileage never got above 21 or so MPG.  Mine was a 5-spd, and it became an absolute dog pulling any kind of trailer.  I'm not sure if gearing was simply too tall, but it struggled with anything hooked to the hitch.  I'm not kidding, I had a single axle 5x10' trailer, and you could tell when it was back there even with the trailer empty.  My '91 Mazda B2600i, which is a 2.6L 4cyl, did just as well pulling from a stop with a trailer as well as the 3.0L did.  

Now, I almost bought the 4.0L in the same truck.  They had one the couldn't get rid of, it had vinyl flooring, manual windows/door locks, and an automatic with the 4.0L...there were willing to make me almost the same deal, but I absolutely wanted a manual, power windows, and keyless entry.

There's only one 3.0 Ford engine that will be remembered and it was designed and manufactured by Yamaha.

The Escape engine is a Duratec. 24 valve dual overhead cam.
The 3 liter in the Ranger was the Vulcan engine. Two completely different engines. The Duratec made between 45 and 60 horsepower more than the Vulcan depending on the year. Duratecs are great engines, but depending on the vehicle it's in and the gearing, they can feel a little gutless down low. In the Escape they didn't have this problem because of the gearing, but in a Taurus you could feel that it needed more torque down low.

Except that a similarly equipped F150 would have been $10,000 more.

About 6 months worth of gas.

A properly geared 4.0 with a manual can do pretty good, 21-22 highway.