Differences on 99-00 3.8 and newer?

Without going into a long story, my father bought a 99 windstar with a thrown rod at 52K miles. According to car-part.com 99-00 interchange and nothing else. Now I know on a saturn 00-02 engines "Technically" don't interchange with the 96-99 cars but if you change a sensor you can make it work. I say that because my Dad would like to know if it's anything like that on the windstar or are the 01+ motors are completely different animals.

Also note, if you know someone that is selling a motor it needs to be low mileage, my dad does not want to put an 80K motor into a 50K car.

1999 was a major change year from 1998......so I would not look to go older.
Beyond that....I don't know compatibility from year to year.

It would take a lot of research to know how later model engines differ. I know in some later years the engine was called "4.0" instead of "3.8" ... but yet the bore and stroke stayed the same. That has always puzzled me.

For a '99 to have "thrown a rod" at 52k miles ... it must have seen some real abuse. I'm still driving my '99 that I rebuilt at over 200k miles ... and there was nothing but normal/slight wear in the short block.

I would recommend you go with the same model engine or rebuild the one you have.

Newer transverse mounted 3.8 motors are "virtually" the same. The 2003 I got has more "main" bolts and a deaper oil pan. I put a 2003 3.8 Windstar motor in my 2000 Ford Windstar to replace one with 157K miles. I swapped the coil and wiring harness. All the sensors matched and were identical but there were a few pins on the new harness that weren't on my old harness. The oil pan is different. It's casted instead of pressed and the it has bell housing ears on it to bolt into the transmission. They get in the way of hooking up the older trannys so I used a 4" grinder to cut them off and clean them up.

It started right up when I was just turning the motor over with the key to see if I had power to everything. It's been running very well for about 3 months and about 9K miles. Oh, I also went from getting about 18-19 mpg to 21-22 mpg in mixed driving but I also had the transmission rebuilt, reprogrammed, heavy duty shift kit and heavy duty torque converter installed so I can't say it was all the engine.

It's not an easy job of the do-it-yourselfer but it would have been just as challenging with a direct swap replacement. After doing it I feel I could do an engine on nearly anything. Good luck with whatever you do.

I've still got the 2000 motor. If you find you need any parts, let me know. It was running well but was pinging a little and using oil. After already starting the motor swap I found the posts on this site regarding the EGR valve guide replacements so I probably could have got another 50K out of my motor. My tranny was going though so I had to pull it anyway.