Timing belt OEM FORD or Gates

Gates makes good belts.

I replaced the original belt on a 1997 ranger 2.3 last month it looked about the same and had 126,000 miles

Gates is fine. If you find the gates racing belt it's better. But they are super rare these days. Stay away from any Amazon or ebay crap.

Gates, I've installed dozens of them and never had a problem, easily outlast the timing belt.

I used a gates (rpm) belt , its expensive ($80?) but i feel like thats a part you dont want to go cheap with !

We have a gates timing belt in our 04 Jetta that was placed Dec 2010 and 72k miles ago. Going to change it here soon with a new one this spring. Its accessory belt is gates too. My 06 Navigator has a gates drive belt. Brother in law’s BRZ had a gates belt.

Pretty much all the newer Ford 4 and 3 cyl crap-box engines have what's called a wet belt for the timing. It's inside the engine as opposed to external like any sane normal or any moderately intelligent person would engineer.

Because of this, they require a VERY specific grade of oil, usually 0w-20 or 5w-20 full synthetic. If the wrong oil is used the belt will start to degrade and shred itself, this then starts plugging the oil pump pickup with rubber debris and starves the engine for oil. Or it just outright shreds and snaps, like yours did.

The newer Ford EcoBoost engines are notorious for their wet timing belts failing and clogging the oil pickup, thus killing the engine.

I've had gates belts do that in 20k.

About 67k on the clock, 17 plate. Engine blew on a dual carriageway. Took it to a proper, full-fat Ford Dealer and Repairer to have a look and turns out, bad belt. They tried to replace the engine but they couldn't work out how to fit it, nor code it correctly. Ridiculous. Always had Fords, but this entire experience put us off them completely.