Hey again everyone, so I've decided to just swap my motor, after all the trouble it's been giving me. Now, here's the issue, I know for a fact my car has the California spec v6 in it, as I assume it was a California car at once. I live in Georgia and am having the worst time finding a Cali spec motor. As you'd expect I've found countless Federal Spec Motors, but I've heard second hand what a mechanic said about swapping from Cali to Federal, Im sure I'd probably need a new harness, and probably computer. If anyone has any experience with this please let me know. I found another V6 that's fed spec and I want to buy it but won't if I don't know if it'll work. Also I'm able to swap the motor myself. Thanks in advance!

 

I have never heard of anything even remotely similar to a "California Spec" engine. Aftermarket parts can come either 49 state or 50 state CARB legal but an auto manufacturer would never go through the trouble of building two separate engines.

You can use a mustang 3.8, thunderbird 3.8, windstar 3.8. Really anything that had a 3.8 will work.

Just a quick edit. If you're seeing California special, that is an appearance package.

 

Thanks for your reply, I noticed though that my car has 2 EGRs, one running to each manifold. And the federal ones have just the passenger side EGR. He was saying that was because its a variant of the motor designed to meet California emissions. Do you think that if I got the motor for what I assume is the federal single EGR motor, it would work with my harness?

 

Please please please, I would love to see a picture of this.

 

what exact trouble has it been to you? I would look for a 01-07 4.2 out of an f150, they are about the same price from a junk yard but have a nice bump in power

 

The only difference to my knowledge deals with California cars having air injection coming off the manifolds and the regular models do not. I highly doubt the ECU is that much different. Granted it will have minor adjustments for the flow rates of air injection (maybe why you have 2 EGRs) but that would be it. The ECU should be able to adjust to having just one with no air injection. However if your harness has sensors that plug into each EGR then yes you would likely need a new harness and ECU.

 

Two EGR's? Well I have never heard of such a thing. I suppose I stand corrected. Is it like the old smog pumps from days gone by?

Also please do post a picture, if you have two egrs than you probably have two DPFEs which would require a new harness since any other engine won't have that. You would also need new headers if both sides have threaded holes.

 

Cali cars have special emissions added, other wise the engine is the same. You can use any engine and just swap over your accessories. My 08 has has sticker under the hood clearly stating the veh is not eligble for sale in the state of California.

 

I will try to post them as soon as I can get back to a computer, and yes, 2 EGRs, the normal one to the passenger manifold, and the second runs to the front of both manifolds and joins the flow from the 2 manifolds just before the second EGR. And I was having some knocking and squeeling from the bottom end. So I wanted to try and put another motor in that I found so I could break this one down and figure it out.

 

ECU for Cali cars is different, and labled so right on the box. I had one at one point. They run a different A/F ratio and account for the twin EGR lines.

The motor itself is the same, so you can snag any 3.8L from the same year or newer. I would suggest sticking to the 00 so you don't have to worry about the IMRCs the 01-04s had.