A friend of mine called me up to see if I could go check out a 2001 stang he wants. The car had an engine swap, but the car lot doesn't know what year the engine is. Are there any visual differences between aPI and a non PI motor?

 

Not really familiar with the NPI motors, so I can't really help with any dead giveaway signs, but I sure hope someone didn't swap in a NPI motor when they had a PI.

 

A good sign may be an aluminum crossover. I know there are some NPI motors with an aluminum crossover on the intake manifold, but it is a better chance that it is PI. I may be wrong, but I have come to learn that there are significant amount more aluminum pieces on PIs opposed to NPI.

 

As far as I know the lothad the car with a blown motor, and they did the swap.I wouldn't be surprised if they put in a NPI motor intentionally or unintetionally.

 

well NPI has two coil packs (96-98) and the PI (99-04) have individual coil packs.

if you look at the intake manifold at the start of the top, if it branches from the left into the center its a PI intake manifold (since looking for an aluminum crossover may not solve the engine problem when alot of NPI's came w/ them too... as a recall)

if the new "swapped" motor has the oil cap on the left side (looking at it as you would from the front of the engine bay) that is a windsor head which means it most likely came from a 99-01 where as if the oil cap is on the right side (romeo style) it could possibly be either a 96-98 or 02-04 (but there are some 02-04 that are windsor just fyi).

but anyways... im pretty sure that its a PI motor since people dont really swap from a PI to a NPI (where as the 01 GT would start with PI heads..)

 

I'll take a pic of the engine when I go see it. I knew it was going to be hard to tell,is there any other way to know? Did the NPI also have the3650 trans?

 

well its fairly simple to figure out what kinda motor it is... (NPI or PI) the 3650 tranny came in the 01 GT's and yeah you can use that tranny w/ any motor pretty much so that doesnt change anything... heres some pics that is either my car or i took off the net to show you some visual difference.

heres a pic of a PI Intake Manifold, notice how it starts at the top going from left to the center and ending w/ the bottom right. where as the NPI is the opposite.


heres a pic of a NPI (Romeo Style) notice all the wires and the 2 coil packs and that the oil cap is on the right side


heres a pic of a PI (Windsor Style) notice in the highlighted region you can see the Aluminum Crossover and that the oil cap is on the left side and just an FYI is this a 99 PI Head Swap reason why their still all the wires.


and the 99-04 have Individual Coil Packs soo you would just simply take away the the wires you see. so your best bet is to take a close look at the Intake Manifold to see if it for one has the aluminum crossover and see how it either starts going left to center or ending from right to center.

 

Well I wentand took a look at the car (couldn't find camera so no pics). It has an aluminum crossover, individual coil packs, and a PI intake manifold so i'm sure it's a PI engine. Thanks for the help guys.

 

yeah its a PI engine, since PI intake manifolds only bolt to PI heads (it "CAN" bolt to NPI's but i doubt the person who swapped it would hassle to make it work n do all the work) but you could also find out what year it came from and estimate the miles by knowing if its a romeo or windsor style.