Hey guys, I've been running into a little bit of bad luck with my manual '95 V6 Mustang. Back in 2000 (like many V6 owners) I had the head gasket failure and had it replaced under warranty. Now this year I had a cylinder go bad, and the mechanic I talked to said he would recomend replacing it with a rebuilt motor...and '94 and '95 V6's were all just lemons, and suggested maybe even finding a wrecked '97 or '98 V6 motor.

Anyways, I went hunting on Ebay and I found a few 3.8L motors, and here are my questions:

1. What motor will give my mechanic minimum problems swapping out?
2. Does it matter if the motor was for an automatic?
3. Will the old 5.0 or the newer 4.6L swap out be just as easy or difficult as installing a 3.8L engine?
4. Should I just abandon this idea and part out the car?

Give me some ideas on what I might be facing in the months ahead. This is not a daily commuter car, so I have time to sit and think about my options.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

 

it sounds like a lot of work and money...if i were u i would get a newer v6...like a 99-04. itll prolly be bout the same price to get a used 99-04 v6 then to do a engine swap.

 

all the engines listed are fairly easy to swap in although only the v6's will match up to your tranny correctly....and if you get a 99+you will need its computer to get the car to run properly....

 

Hmmm...so it sounds like my safest bet would be to find a '98 3.8L. How reliable are those engines? Also does it make a difference if the engine is from a Auto or Manual transmission?

 

nope unless you are swapping the tranny too then you need the computer.....

 

right, actually I think i would go with a 97 V6 engine for the easiest swap. The 98's had some weird stuff done to them and for some reason or another, most parts that work on 96-97 V6's don't work on 98's. Weird..... Anyways, that's my 2 cents.

 

I had the same problem with my '95, except after i replaced the head gasket it's still smoking like Cheech and Chong. So now i'm looking at doing an engine swap. My question is has anyone done the swap for a bigger motor? I know I'll have to change the computer, transmission and maybe work on the rear end, but doesn anyone know about fitment or anyother problems?

 

maybe new motor mounts for a bigger engine, and yea you will need a tranny to match and driveshaft and rear end.

 

www.stangparts.com has 97 3.8 engines listed in their product inventory for around $600 complete + shipping

they also have 97 computers for $75

 

Hey fellas I came across another problem with the '98 motor install in my '95... Everything seems to be bolting on correctly except the emissions stuff. On my '95 there is 1 EGR connector/tube on 1 side of the header, and on the '98 there are EGR connectors/tubes on each header which then goes to some harness and then some black rubber hose (which was cut off) that goes somewhere... Outside of this, everything else, seems to bolt on.

We were thinking of just capping it off, but were afraid of a CEL being constantly on because of it. We also thought just to take the headers and EGR off the '95 and put them on the '98. What do you guys think we should do? I'm sure it would run regardless, but during emissions testing time I would hate for the inspector to fail me because the CEL popped up.

Thanks for any more advice. I can provide pictures to help clarify this (for some reason I am unable to post any pictures up, says files are too large...but they are only 16 Kb in size!).