True. The Essex V6 was long running, something like 1981 to 2008, but it is the only US Ford motor I'm aware of that had the oil pump external to the engine. That of course necessitated some lengthening. Couple that with the Ford theory of More Front Covers is More Better, the passing of years, plus add in "Lo, Behold, Internal Balance We Shall Do In the Final Years" and you've got a mess. Shame. Decent motor, as good as the GM 3.8L that they took many cues from.
What's up with the UK 3.0L? Is that a version of the Vulcan V6? We've seen none of that business with the Essex but it has a lower bushing on the dizzy/cam position sensor drive. The Granada was built from 1966 thru 1971 here in NZ, probably longer in UK & SA. 60° vee and 'split pin' rod journals to give even 120° firing intervals, nothing much in common with the German V6 of that era.
Currently we're working on building a Essex 4.3L stroker V6 based on the neutral balanced truck rotating assembly and a later 2001+ block that had better caps and webbing, plus factory girdle. With some forged pistons and rods the motor should last a long time and we hope to only rebuild heads for a long time to come. Of course, we have a lot of hopes.
Got any ideas on reciprocating balance weights for these V6s? Ford specifies 38.5% if memory serves. I've spoken to a NASCAR builder, not any old NASCAR builder, but a builder who built the old SVO 4.5L V6 truck engines back in the day who balanced at 50% give or take what the shop wanted for oil weight and what not. Doing that though requires adding a lot of metal to the crank, especially if using a heavier forged rod. We did an experiment with a neutral balanced 3.8L but it was foiled with cast pistons and blew up after about 2.5 hours of operation. Your 3.8l Essex should be 90° vee and also have split crank pins and even firing intervals, hence the 38.5% balance factor, so is the 4.2L crank common pin or split as this will dictate bobweight percentage reqd. The SVO 4.5L had common pins & uneven firing intervals hence the 50% bob weight factor.
NASCAR builder doesn't care about weight as they had special forged cranks for the job, but all we have access to is stock 4.2L crank shafts which are cast and need weight to hit 50%. Those SVO NASCAR V6 block were aluminum too which would make for a hell of a cheater block. I'll save that for my retirement when I start vintage racing.