1996-2003 engine in 1995

will a motor from a 1996 - 2003 ws fit and mate with the transmission in a 1995 windstar?

i have beenn looking at pictures of 1996 and up and the motor looks different than in the 1995 ws. the 1995 ws i have supposedly has a motor in it that was replaced with a motor that did not have the head gasket flaw, but it looks just like the other 1995 motors!

what i was hoping to do is find a newer windstar with a bad transmission, and put in my tranny, which is newly rebuilt, so i guess the main question really will my tranny form the 95 fit into the other years.

TIA!

Chris

I do not know about mating a '96 engine with a '95 tranny.....maybe a tranny shop can tell you as they will have the listings of what fits what.

The issue that I bring up about a '96 or newer engine in a '95 is the fact that they did a major redesign with the intake.....and added the IMRC (intake manifold runner control).
The PCM for your '95 very likely will not be correct for those controls.
The wiring harness, vaccum lines, etc will be different just because of that 1 thing....as the PCM sends an electrical signal to control the IMRC vaccum solenoid, and monitors the position of the IMRC butterflies, and there will be additional vaccum lines to operate the IMRC system.

I do not know right off of other changes...
I believe the '95 was OBDII compliant....but it is an issue of the additional things controlled and monitored.

I would guess....if it is a 3.8L engine, and it has the alluminium upper intake manifold......the improvement may have been a head gasket job with an improved head gasket material....but the closer spacing between the coolant passages and other things will still be there.
I am an advocate of keeping some Bar's stop leak in the coolant as a preventative measure......as the normal (non-overheat) failure of the head gaskets, from what I have read, is from the coolant "wicking" through the head gasket......as in a slow leak....and weakening the material, resulting in a failure.
The stop leak may enter at the seapage stage, and seal the leakage in its infancy......preventing a failure.

thanks for that information, as you read in my other post, i am having head gasket leaking problems. and i am waondering if that is the stage i am in right now! i did put in some leak stop, not sure what kind, the one with the beads in it, and that has seem to keep it under control for now. i was having overheating issues only when running the heat, not i can ryun the heat and the a/c with no over heating. but i can smeel oil in the radiator.

my 95 ws is OBDII compliant, i have had autozone and presicion tune un a check for my check engine light, code p1407, not deteting the erg flow.

thank you so much for you post, and hat is exactly what it sound like i have!