Taurus Engine Replacement Q's

First off 97 Taurus 16v 3.0.

Engine is gone needs replacment. Will probably go with a low milage junkyard engine.

I have had slight troubles with the tranny and was thinking of changing it to. How do I tell what tranny I have? It is column shift. the VIN is :

1FALP52U6VG259862

If I get a newer motor with a returnless fuel system could I just junk the intake and use the longblock and my intake and injectors?


How much trouble would it be to change the Vulcan to a Duratec? (When I say trouble I mean above and beyond the Vulcan to Vulcan switch) I have heard these are a little better with reliability. Is that true?

With your car of that year I would go with an exact replacement unless it has some kind of sentimental value to you. Am sure you realize that in good operating condition it is only worth $2500 or less so be aware of how much $$ makes sense to spend on it.

The duratec isn't any more reliable than the vulcan, but it is harder to work on, more powerful, and comes with a better transmission.

With your vulcan, there's a 95% chance that you have an AX4S. To be sure, look under it, if it doesn't say AX4N on the pan, then you have an AX4S.

What do you guys reccomend on Transaxle? It has 106K on it.