2000 Ford Windstar 157K miles - 2000 to 2003 engine swap!!!

[mtsav8or]

Well, I've got the engine and transmission out and on the garage floor. Split the engine and tranny and am ready to take the transmission to the rebuild shop. I've got a 2003 engine (42K Miles) from Ebay sitting next to the 2000 motor. They look identical save a few exceptions. I'm going to have to swap my Alternator mounting bracket. The valve covers are a little different. So far that's all I've seen. The wiring harness even looks the same.

There have been a lot of postings about doing an outside of year swap but not a lot of experience. After looking for motors, I can tell you the 2002-2003 motors are less expensive with much much lower mileage. If this is successful, (and I have no reason to think it won't be) it really opens up the options on what's available out there. I'll be updating this post as I work through this job. I'll try to include pics when I can.

Regarding the engine drop. It's not as bad as I feared. However, it's not for the inexperienced or light of heart. There are many pitfalls not explained in the Haynes book and some things that I did different. It's definitely doable in the home garage. I used an engine crane to support the motor and lowered it onto the crane legs with boards laying across it after unbolting the subframe. I left most of the steering components installed like someone else on the forum. I don't know that it really would have made much difference either way. I think it was easier and safer with the crane than lowering the van onto a dolly. I just unbolted the crane jack and flipped it out of the way when the van was jacked up. Took 2 8 inch cinderblocks and some lumber for cribbing. I did have to put my floor jacks on a set of blocks to get the van high enough. Oh, definitely have 2 floor jacks ready. Doing 1 side at a time is not really an option.

There are things I wish I had done differently. I didn't drain the tranny. I would definitely do that next time. I started to pull the struts without a spring compressor available. I ended up putting them back until the compressor was available. I wish I had more than one furniture dolly, 1 for the motor, 1 for the transmission, 1 for the new motor, and one for the subframe.

[lapin_windstar]

Anyone that replaces their own engine gets respect from me!

[mtsav8or]

Thanks, Lapin-Windstar.

I've been doing engines and transmissions over the years with my Dad since I was kid. That's about 25 years ago and at least 15 engine swaps and 5 transmissions. Of all those, I've only done 2 without him. He was there for this one and deserves a lot of the credit. I probably wouldn't have had the courage to try it without him.

[phil-l]

Please share pictures! I'd like to see some details of how the subframe comes out, and how well it clears suspension components.

[northern piper]

my 6 yr old son is very interested in auto repairs, and I've got a lot of them on the go and planned. I hope to be a father like yours some day. What a fantastic father/son bond.

Piper

[mtsav8or]

I'm still getting the pics together. I pulled mine with all the steering components intact, sort of. I disconnected the tie rods and swap bar but left them on for the pull. Really all I would have needed to do is take out the lower retainer/pinch bolt for the strut, remove and hang the brake caliper and drop everything together.

[mtsav8or]

I got the "replacement" motor mounted and the wiring harness moved. All sensors and connectors were identical as where the number of connections. Also, the transmission portion of the harness was also the same so a 2003 tranny should fit too. The coil pack is different as are the spark plug wires and the plug on the wiring harness so I moved my coil pack with the harness.

The biggest reason I moved the harness was that many connectors had been damaged by the salvage company that removed the engine and there were additional pins on one of the main harness connectors. I'd bet that they're dead pins but not enough to leave it to chance.

An examination of the fuel delivery harness showed that they were both identical as was the intake and fuel rail assembly so I left the "replacement" harness on the motor.

I'm picking up the tranny from the rebuild shop today. It only needed a rebuild kit and some bearings replaced. The torque converter has also been rebuilt. About $1200 with a 26K GVW Aux. Trans. cooler included. I'm planning on bypassing the internal cooler in the radiator. Though I haven't seen it on the Windstar forum, I've heard of internal radiator failures causing coolant into the tranny and destroying it. I'm not risking a $1200 rebuild. The Aux cooler holds 3 additional quarts of Trans oil. I expect it to be much more affective.

I asked the shop about a drain plug and he didn't recommend it for this model. He said there wasn't adequate room for one and you'd likely be creating problems were none existed.

[LTDzak]

mtsav8or,

If you ever get to southern New England I owe you a beer or three. At 156 K miles a lower intake manifold gasket leak slowly grew on my car until one day it hydrolocked. I was';t sure what was causing the light ping on startup and so had tried connecting rod bearing replacement, upper manifold baffle etc. Engine teardown revealed one intake port and cylinder full of antifreeze, that piston ended up a quarter inch below top of deck when turned to TDC.

Anyhow, based on your guidance above I was able to find a Carfax verified 35 K mile late 2003 built replacement. In July of 2003 they swapped to an improved upper/middle intake manifold so I sought out one with a build date after that. I found a number of 50 K mile or less engines withn an hour of me, and the one I chose only ran $450 with tax, no core (the core is worth about $40 at your local scrap metal dealer). The manager at the recycler clearly understood that between the axle recall and the subframe recall, Ford was scrapping these at a high rate, so the engine wasn't valuable.

Took about a weekend to drop the engine, transmission and subframe. I found the need to remove the radiator fans to make a space to hold the AC compressor and lines out of the way (before trying to replace, but a 45 degree relief into the upper outer tab, this will make replacement much easier).. No need to remove the radiator. Also took the power steering pump out prior to dropping it based on advise I had seen elsewhere on the Internet. It is much easier to disconnect the wiring harness above the steering column, and at the engine computer on the passenger side, rather then disconnecting everything piecemeal. Used a dolly for the drivers side, and dropped the engine down onto the crane legs, then out the passenger side wheel well. Had to remove the passenger caliper,(hang it high on the strut spring) then loosen the rear upper strut mount bolt, remove the other 2, and swing the strut and spindle out of the way of the manifold when rolling the engine out.

One gotcha included not realizing the power steering return line needed to come off - I ended up cutting the flexible portion right near the drivers front subframe, and splicing it together after reinstalling. Another was not replacing the power steering pressure line with the subframe out of the car - mine had a leak that I thought was the power steering pump, turned out to be the seal in the swivel at the pump. Also be sure to remove the wiring harness plug for the rearward O2 sensor on the drivers side, from the frame of the car.

Like mtsav8or I swapped the 2003 harness out for the 1999 one, and used the 1999 coil and wires (now have a set of 2001-2003 OEM low mileage spark plug wires kicking around should someone need them). Injector harness from the 2003 engine worked fine and plugged right in as did the fuel lines (I was able to find some of the now obsolete O-rings for the fuel line spring lock connectors at a Ford dealer). Another option is to buy just the springlock repair coupling from Advanced Auto or Oriley's and swap the O rings.

Couple of things about junkyard engines - the one I got, although low mile, had some surface rust on the crank right near the rear main. I spent quite a few hours polishing it off and replacing the seal with the Felpro teflon rear main seal. Also replaced the thermostat, and the torque converter seal. Biggest issue was the engine had sat a few years and so the injectors were pretty clogged up. At first I was getting quite a bit of misfiring and a code for the rear O2 sensor not switching, to give you an idea of how little fuel was flowing. Was able to very carefully fill the fuel rail with Chevron Techron fuel injector cleaner, then reconnect the hose (this needs to be done very carefully so that you do not catch the car on fire). This cleaned it up considerably, along with running the car on the highway with some WOT runs a bit.

With the engine out I replaced all the coolant hoses and cleaned the transmission pan, along with new filter and gasket (siphon most of the fluid up through the trans dipstick tube to make this job easier).

Don't have a fuel mileage comparison just yet, as I just got ahold of a setup to run the 3M injector cleaner through the service port, and haven't run a full tank of gas yet. Still, thus far it has made it on a one hour trip with no problems - the new engine is much smoother and quieter than the old one.

LTDzak