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Engine swap


BlueOvalboy

New Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2019
Messages
2
City
Tampa, FL
Vehicle Year
2003
Transmission
Automatic
I have an 03 Escape 4x4 with the 3.0 duratec engine and am curious if that motor will go in to a Ranger? How much of a headache would this be?
 
These were all transverse mounted engines so it would be tough finding a transmission that worked for a Ranger setup

IMO I don't think it would be worth the effort, even with free engine
 
I actually wanted to do the same swap, but boost it. Since both the 3.0 Duratec and 3.0 Vulcan are offered in the Taurus, I think the bolt patterns are the same. Maybe read up on some Taurus forums to see if the bellhousing is the same. Will obviously need custom tuning and lots of fabrication, but now more than a 5.0 swap I would imagine.

An older Duratec engine, or at east the engine and throttle body would be easier than trying to graft in the drive by wire into the ranger.
 
From what I understand, the 5.0 swap can be done with little to no fabrication, depending on the donor.
 
There is a factory bell housing that would allow a 5R series transmission to bolt to the DOHC 3.0. It's in a Lincol LS-6. They used the Taurus version of the 3.0 DOHC engine in a RWD configuration, with a 5R55 transmission.

I went and figured most of this out pondering doing the Escape swap to my B2.
 
You would probably need to use the whole LS-6 drive train because you would need the LS-6 computer and wiring harness for the 5R trans
The transverse 3.0l DOHC computer didn't use the 5R trans.

There is also another thing that will come into play as we get into the mid-2000's for donors and recipients
HEC dash boards are part of the security(PATS) system
Computer and dashboard are "married" to prevent odometer tampering
That started on 2004 Rangers, not sure on other Ford models

So donor computer must also come with its HEC instrument cluster or it won't work
Not sure if programmers can change that, they can delete PATS as far as I know, which should fix that issue
 
I thought the lincoln LS was a re-badge Jag. My uncle, who was a Master.Mechanic for the Ford Dealership in Crossette Akansas for over 20 years, claims those are the biggest POS's Ford ever made
 
Last edited:
I thought the lincoln LS was a re-badge Jag. My uncle, who was a Master.Mechanic for the Ford Dealership in Crossette Akansas for over 20 years, claims those are the biggest POS's Ford ever made

He's 50/50 right and wrong.

The LS-8 is a Jag driveline. The body and axle/suspension is mostly it's own stuff.

The LS-6 is more or less a Taurus engine with a 2wd Explorer transmission.

As for being the "biggest POS Ford ever made" I'd say it is no higher than 3rd place behind the last generation of the Contour/Cougar and the new T-Bird.

You would probably need to use the whole LS-6 drive train because you would need the LS-6 computer and wiring harness for the 5R trans
The transverse 3.0l DOHC computer didn't use the 5R trans.

There is also another thing that will come into play as we get into the mid-2000's for donors and recipients
HEC dash boards are part of the security(PATS) system
Computer and dashboard are "married" to prevent odometer tampering
That started on 2004 Rangers, not sure on other Ford models

So donor computer must also come with its HEC instrument cluster or it won't work
Not sure if programmers can change that, they can delete PATS as far as I know, which should fix that issue

It is a mess.

There were a number of things that I had no nailed down, thinking I'd work the bugs out as I went through the swap, if I ever got there.

My plan was going to be somewhat simplified by the fact that I was going into an 88, so I had reduced emissions requirements. I was planning to use the engine and trans, but rebuild with a 4x4 output shaft and use a manual transfer case. Then I would have had the PCM re-written with a custom tune to take out everything not 100% needed to run the engine and trans, and finally try to rebuild the wiring system to be as stand-alone as it could be, so the original dash could be reused.
 

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