Nope. Engine, transmission have never been opened. Though I have taken care of fluid and filter changes religiously ..
It's all OEM. Even have a Motorcraft battery. Service issues have been few. Virtually all the rubber up front, control arms, shocks (KYBs were crap, good old Monroe's did the trick), oil filter housing leak, pinion seal leak. Rear wheel bearings and axles. I change oil filter every 5k miles, engine oil every 15k.
I use O'Reiley full synthetic 5W-20, 'cause... if it meets the API spec, it meets the API spec. Stopped using Mobile 1 at 100k. I take very good care of the differential. I use any SAE 80-90, but I go to Ford for the additive. I've lost one set of axle bearings (and one axle ..), but I believe that was the result of a leaking pinion seal. Spend some quality time under the car, look for bad rubber up front and blown shocks. Oil leaks are rare and straightforward to fix. But guess what? The coolant hoses are hard to find...
Also, forgot to mention I changed the tranny filter (need to drop the pan for that) at 200k miles. There are several magnets on the pan which had collected a lot of metal. I think those magnets are probably more important than the filter...
arty: