Flex Plate Question - Vulcan 3.0

[BAMAJiPS]

Heres my story - I put a Ford crate vulcan 3.0 motor into a 2000 Taurus last year. I totaled the car shortly thereafter. I have a 1994 Mazda B3000 and the one time Taurus motor (which was actually produced as a 2007 Ranger Engine ironically) is about to drop into my B3000.

Here's the question: The flex plates are different, so off comes the Taurus plate and on goes the one from the original 94 motor. There are holes drilled all over both these things - I'm assuming to balance it...???

I am scared to death to just pull one flex plate off and throw it on the other and find out later that it has to be aligned with top dead center or something ya know? There are six bolt holes, so there are six different positions or "degrees" it could be mounted at. Please someone tell me I can just unbolt them both and rebolt the Mazda one so I don't have to chase down top dead center on #1 and waste all that time.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks guys!

 

[adsm08]

Engine is internally balanced, flex plate is balanced to itself, as is the torque converter. The flex plate unbalancing the engine is the least of your worries. Slap it on and worry about the engine melting down.


The head gaskets are not the same between the FWD and RWD applications of the 3.0 Vulcan. If the engine was genuinely for a Ranger it would have self destructed in that Taurus not too long after being installed. If it is for a Taurus it will melt down if you don't put the proper head gaskets in it.