Engine swap woes... 4.0L to 4.0L (??? motor into an 00 Ranger)

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So I thought this would be an easy swap to get my dad's Ranger running. Yea, right, I should know better than to think that anything me and dad get involved in will be easy.

Dad has a 2000 Ranger xlt supercab with an auto transmission and electric 4x4. Truck has 162k miles and the front end of the crank snapped off. We looked into new/rebuilt engines but they were kinda out of our price range, so we went looking for a used engine from a wrecked truck or the like.

Bout 2 weeks ago we found someone with a 1996 Explorer Sport for sale. Said it got too rusty to pass inspection and wanted $675 for it. Supposedly has a new transmission from Ford and the engine was supposed to be replaced with a junkyard engine (the lady who had it, her dad runs a junkyard in NY and she said her brother swapped it in for her). The engine that was put in is supposed to have 84k miles.

Pulled both motors (the one in the Ranger and the one in the Explorer) and set them side by side. Noticed a few differences but overall at first glance they looked really similar. The one that was in the Explorer had a two-piece harness for the transmission but the Ranger had the transmission harness integrated into the engine harness. Plus the Explorer had some extra emissions component so I figured I'd swap the upper intake and wiring harness. That is, until I discovered that some of the plugs are different. Namely the one for the crank sensor on the front of the motor and the sensor that goes in where the distributor would be if it wasn't equipped with a coil pack. Now I'm not sure what to do.

I tore the emissions thing off already since I didn't think I'd need it, the Ranger just had a plug in the exhaust manifold where it would go. Not really sure what to do at this point. Need to hurry up and get the engine swapped over. I don't know what year the motor is or what it originally came out of and I'm not sure how to tell. Tried looking up some part numbers for things like the exhaust manifold and lower intake to no avail. Found the numbers on the block but not sure how to interpret them either. I don't know if I could just use the wiring harness that is on the donor motor or if the wires will not match up where it ties into the truck harness (the plugs look the same but some of the wire colors are different). If it could be plugged together and work and if the transmission plugs would match up, I could just swap the computer over I guess, if that would work.

If I swap the Ranger harness over, not sure what to do about the plugs that don't match up. I was just going to swap the crank sensor thing that goes in the distributor hole until I saw that there are different sized ones depending on the motor. Not sure how I can tell which one is which, hate to pull both and find that there is a problem.

If there is anyone knowledgeable in all of this that would be willing to help me get this mess worked out, I could probably get you some gas money and food to help us. I'm getting way too stressed out with all these vehicles sitting around that need fixed.

Ask anything you need to know to help with the problem, I'll try to answer what I can. Mods, if this needs moved somewhere, my apologies, dunno where is the best spot to put this, I'm just getting tired of spending days working on this project and scratching my head trying to figure out how to handle it.

 

[adsm08]

My first thought would be to swap sensors.

Barring that my next thought would be to swap hard shells and pigtails.

Scratch that. My FIRST thought is that 96 and 2000 is too big a split in years. My second and third thoughts are above.

 

[TheTopher]

I'm just getting tired of spending days working on this project and scratching my head trying to figure out how to handle it.

At least it'll keep ya from being itchy for another week or so.

 

[Destroyer000]

the 96 and the 2000 motors do have some differences. ive swapped a 92 explorer motor into a a 4 cyl 96 ranger and had it work. i just picked up a 99 ranger with a bad tranny... and i just converted it over to 5spd...this is what i would do to get it to work.. the 96 is mostly likely a 6 bolt crank and the 00 is a 8 bolt crank thats one difference.

i would use your 00 wiring harness.. swap over your sensors from the 00 to the 96 block.. i assume the 96 has egr and the 00 doesnt. so swap your intake over so the egr hole is blocked.. as far as the hole in the manifold goes you can swap over the manifolds or you can take the fitting from the egr tube and weld the hole up and use it as a plug. the blocks are pretty much the same . the heads are different. and believe the 00 uses a returnless fuel system. the cam sensor which is wear the distuributor would go.. swap your new one it. put both motors at top dead center and swap the sensor... take your time and you should be good. take both motors down to the block and start from their.. thats basically all you need. feel free to pm me if you need any more help.. Holyford86 would know a lot on this as well as he has helped me with all my swaps.

 

[ElleShooTiger]

You have to take both engines down to the long-block and swap everything from your 00 onto the 96, including intake, sensors, possibly exhaust manifolds, ignition, front end accessories, wiring harness, and maybe the oil pan.

When swapping engines, you always use your old harness and sensors, unless the engine came out of an identical year/model vehicle. The Ranger and Explorer are similar mechanically, but quite different electrically, and even more so with big age differences.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

the 96 and the 2000 motors do have some differences. ive swapped a 92 explorer motor into a a 4 cyl 96 ranger and had it work. i just picked up a 99 ranger with a bad tranny... and i just converted it over to 5spd...this is what i would do to get it to work.. the 96 is mostly likely a 6 bolt crank and the 00 is a 8 bolt crank thats one difference.

i would use your 00 wiring harness.. swap over your sensors from the 00 to the 96 block.. i assume the 96 has egr and the 00 doesnt. so swap your intake over so the egr hole is blocked.. as far as the hole in the manifold goes you can swap over the manifolds or you can take the fitting from the egr tube and weld the hole up and use it as a plug. the blocks are pretty much the same . the heads are different. and believe the 00 uses a returnless fuel system. the cam sensor which is wear the distuributor would go.. swap your new one it. put both motors at top dead center and swap the sensor... take your time and you should be good. take both motors down to the block and start from their.. thats basically all you need. feel free to pm me if you need any more help.. Holyford86 would know a lot on this as well as he has helped me with all my swaps.

That's about what I expected to hear. I just wasn't sure if the cam sensor would swap over or not because they list a couple different sized ones for the 4.0L. Wasn't sure if I could use the exhaust manifolds either, but I guess I probably can. Wasn't sure how to tell if they were different enough to need swapped or not and I hate swapping exhaust manifolds 'cuz I always seem to break all the bolts.

The Ranger does have a returnless fuel system, I thought about just getting a brass cap to screw over the return port on the rail to block it off. The fuel rails look pretty much identical, the one on the Ranger motor has a stub where the return would be but it's welded shut and was never threaded. Thought about swapping them but I don't have the proper torx socket to take the studs out that hold it on and neither does the neighbor (retired mechanic).

One guy I talked with about the problem told me to do the same sort of things that you did. The other I talked to told me to go ElleShooTiger's route. Since I don't have a garage or even a carport to work on this project in, I'd rather not do all that swapping if I can help it.

 

[mhughes165]

as far as i can think ur going to have to change all the sensors out, just part of the job, i usually have todo that anyways because lots of times plugs change at random in random years for random reasons

 

[heptofite]

my first thought is just swap the cranks.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

my first thought is just swap the cranks.

lol, I have pretty much zero experience working with internal engine stuff. If I had a garage to work on things in and a pair of engine stands I might have tried something like that. As it is I plan on saving the old motor for a rebuild at sometime in the future.

 

[heptofite]

well, if the ONLY damage to your block is the crank, it's simple or, reasonably so, to swap the cranks, provided the donor crank fits your 00 block.

 

[holyford86]

Ok, to get the 96 motor to swap in you are going to have to do what Destroyer000 ('bout time I get a plug from you, haha) has mentioned plus you are going to have to swap over the injectors and fuel rail out of the ranger, the injectors are different and the fuel system runs at a different pressure. There are different profiles and designs for the cam sync, but internally they are the same(as in the way they fit in the motor and run off the cam), line the motors up at TDC and swap them over. As for the wiring harnesses, just use the 2000 harness and swap out whatever sensors you need to make it run. If the manifolds line up to the Y pipe, just weld up the hole in the driver side one and call it good. Use the flexplate from the 96 motor and you should be all set to run it.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Thanks for the info. I guess I have to get another tool now.... I don't have the socket to remove the studs to get the fuel rail off and neither does the neighbor. I was hoping not to have to swap them but I guess I have to.

Do I really have to replace the gaskets above and below the fuel rail? (sandwiched between the upper and lower intakes). I know I should, but the new gaskets for it are a little pricey, IIRC.

 

[ElleShooTiger]

Thanks for the info. I guess I have to get another tool now.... I don't have the socket to remove the studs to get the fuel rail off and neither does the neighbor. I was hoping not to have to swap them but I guess I have to.

Do I really have to replace the gaskets above and below the fuel rail? (sandwiched between the upper and lower intakes). I know I should, but the new gaskets for it are a little pricey, IIRC.

Its a lot easier to replace them while the engine is out.... You should replace them now for peace of mind, that way you wont have to troubleshoot vacuum leaks once the engine is in.

What do the fuel rail studs look like? Inverted torx? I'm 400 miles from our truck so I dont know. If they are inverted torx, you can use a small regular socket to get them off.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Inverted torx. T-7 to be exact. My neighbor is a retired mechanic, but his set of inverted torx sockets go from T-6 to T-8.

 

[ElleShooTiger]

Try some of your smaller 6pt sockets, you might find one that works. I changed the column covers in my Impala, and wound up using a 4mm socket to remove the inverted torx screws.