Have a question for everybody:

is it possible to put Ford Taurus motor into Escape? They are apparently same engines with a little difference.

The difference is timing chain cover and there is no top engine mount on Taurus engine. So for engine mount to be put on one of the heads must come off.

Has anybody did this kind of swap?

 

I would like to know this as well

 

From an engine builder trade pub:

"2001-'04 Taurus/Sable RFF Valvetrain
As with the 2000 models, the right head is c/n YF1E and left head is c/n YL8E. These heads still have 3 oval intake ports, but now have a rear water pump driven by the left intake cam. The right side cylinder head has a protruding ear to cover the oiling port for VVT, which is not being used.

2001-'04 Escape/Tribute RFF Valvetrain
Right head casting number is YF1E and left head is c/n YL8E. The right head has the protruding ear to cover the VVT port which is still not used. There are 3 oval shaped intake ports per cylinder head with the rear water pump driven by the left intake cam"

Seems if you get a 2001-2004 Taurus/Sable, it should work with the only difference being the front cover, changing the positioning of the sensor and the index of the toothed wheel.

Quote:
"2000-'05 Taurus/Sable
This cover (c/n 1F1E) was a mid-year introduction. There is nothing that confirms the 42-tooth timing components and this cover were introduced simultaneously but it seems likely. The tensioner mount moved from left side of the cover (right side of engine) to the right side of cover (left side of engine). The cam and crank position sensors are in the same location as the first timing cover but this is now a rear water pump engine.

2001-'05 Escape/Tribute
This cover (c/n 1S7E) is unique to this application, which uses the rear water pump driven off the intake camshaft. It has the crank position sensor on the opposite side than the Taurus/Sable cover. Be certain the exciter crank ring is indexed for this application."

You definitely want the rear water pump version for the Escape/Mariner/Tribute. The Fusion and Milan {Zephyr, anyone?} come into the picture, but as they are newer, the rebuilders won't pay them any attention. I would think a Fusion/Milan engine might just drop in, but it would take investigation and they certainly are not as common as the Taurus/Sable engines.

Is this enough?
tom

 

Thanks Tom that's great info.

I picked up a Tribute with a spun bearing/possibly broken connecting rod.

The cheapest engine I can find is $600 plus tax, plus $2-300 for shipping. On the flip side a Taurus pick a part motor is $225 with the short block being only $99. It sounds to me if I change the heads and the timing cover from the motor I have then I will have the motor I need for the Tribute and the crank position will be in the right spot.

Is that what you think? finding info on people who have done this swap is limited.

Matt

 

If you don't have access to a shop manual or Alldata or Something, you will have a lot of fun setting the camshafts to their proper position. Lotsa stuff to get 'just right'.
If you got a complete engine, you could check the exhaust ports for oiliness, and comparison from cylinder to cylinder. With the heads gone, you can't, but can inspect the cylinder walls. If one exhaust port color is 'off', move on to the next engine. I would not expect to find many 2001-2004 Taurus/Sable 24v engine short blocks, as the sellers would be more likely to sell the engine whole. If you do the short block route, assemble it before installation as setting the cams in the vehicle couldn't be much fun.
I'm not sure you have to change the front cover if you can get the wires connected. When it is assembled, the toothed wheel gets indexed to a different spot[must have two identical attachment slots] so the 'gap' in the teeth shows up at xx degrees of the crankshaft in both engines. At least the words in the article indicated the wheel could be indexed differently. When you take it apart, you will know.
tom

 

I do have alldata so setting the cams shouldn't be a problem and something I would have to do anyway because apparently the escape head has an integrated motor mount on one of them where as the Taurus motor does not.

On another note I just got the Tribute home and pulled the oil pan. what I found was cylinder #2 has a broken piston skirt at the very least, not sure the cause yet, maybe leaking head gasket? I was expecting spun bearings on that connecting rod but the crank and rod look like new.

As for the pick a part, if i do go that route, the place I go to lets you take anything apart. So I most likely would be faced with a complete engine that i would pull the heads off in the yard and take what i need.

 

If you read the quote I posted carefully, you will note that the cylinder heads for both lines of vehicles are the same casting number. The motor mount must bolt to the cylinder head. From that, I would expect that you could install the replacement without removing the heads or timing set, just the front cover and crank sensor would have to get swapped. There is a parallel post about doing the swap, and he's a lot further on than you are.
I don't think a piston skirt would break from a leaking head gasket. It could break from collision with the crankshaft, but if it had coolant leaking into the cylinder, I would expect the connecting rod to bend, and that could lead to the skirt interfering with the crankshaft counter weights. On the other hand, I would expect the piston to be in more pieces, with the wrist pin being forced higher, and either bending the wrist pin, or shattering the piston above it. In either case, the effective connecting rod 'length' would be shorter... which is not good.
tom

 

Yes, in my above post I said the head has an integrated motor mount. That is not the case, the mount is at the top of the block but one of the heads needs to be removed in order to get it into its mounting location. So really the only difference I see is the timing cover and intake manifold.

car-parts.com confirms that the taurus / escape heads are the same.

So an entire engine swap is probably my best route for fully functioning motor.

 

We had considered doing the Taurus swap also but we had conflicting reports about what did and did not work. The price via Car-Part was $300 or so for the Taurus vs the Escape motor and we found that it was a must that head or heads had to be removed as well as the sensor and cover issues and so with the expense and time of doing the head removal and other changes it would probably be easier, faster and around the same price (good head gasket kit with bolts is not cheap) to just get the Escape engine and throw it in. That way the engine is all set, no worries about sensors or head gaskets etc. We also thought it would be able to fit pulling the motor and trans together out the top. We do have a lift so we could have dropped the whole cradle out the bottom but if motor and trans could come out the top it always is easier. We ended up finding and fixing problem with existing motor so did not end up pulling this one but we have a relative that may buy another with known bad motor and I would love to hear what you end up finding in the end - and how it worked out doing the entire Taurus to Escape swap. It would be great to get a first hand tale by someone that actually did this swap for real and what it actually involved - all of it. If you can let us know what you found and how it worked out it would be appreciated.

 

For those wanting to know, I have just completed the swap and the motor runs perfect. The only issues is taking the head off to get the motor mount in, which thing back i probably could have accomplished by removing the timing cover which had to come off anyway.

I had to take off the heads anyway to check the cylinders as the motor was from a local picapart and the hood was up with the intake off for about 6 months and water had gone into the intake. The plus side was a motor for only $130

So the process only really involved changing the timing cover and oil pan. I was also able to remove and install the engine out the top as it was easier for me vs the service manuals recommendation to drop the subframe.

 

In reading the prior posts on this it appears Matt has succeeded in this. So could someone detail the steps in the conversion that would be needed ? I will be installing a 2001 Taurus 3.0 into a 2003 Escape 3.0. Among the conversion steps :
Moving the motor mount from Escape to Taurus 3.0 which involves removing the head ?
Moving the front timing cover from Escape to Taurus 3.0.
Moving the escape intake manifold to Taurus 3.0.

Are there timing changes that need to be made ?

Thanks for any info you can provide !

 

The steps needed are pretty much covered above. the only other thing not mentioned was the crank sensor sprocket. It must be used from your escape to match up with the sensor on the escape timing cover. As for the motor mount, like I said I had the heads off to check the cylinder walls and I can't remember if the mount would slide in with the timing cover off without looking at it again or worse if one head has to come off. But honestly it was a pretty basic swap once the cover was sorted out and oil pan it worked out great.

The biggest problem I had was the motor missing when I put it all back together. I thought I had messed up the timing chains but all the compression tests came back fine. Turns out that the wiring harness for the front bank of coil wires were made with wires that were two short to run along the valve cover and then to each coil like the service manual showed. Instead on my motor the wire harness had to stretch to one coil then looped back to hit the other two. I found the solution by scouring the internet to find on some harnesses Ford had made this mistake and the lengths of two of the coil pack connector wires had been reversed.

 

Thanks Matt for the quick response !! We will be attempting this swap soon. I see you also did the swap from above. Any problems there ? I did a swap before on an Escape from the bottom... Hope all goes as well as yours. Thanks again for your insights which will certainly help !

 

Hi matt i have same problem i have 02scape 3.0 i need remplace the shortblock the rest of the engine are good condition.

finding car parts the offer me block of taurus duratec dohc....
my question matt is can i swap block of taurus with heads n rest of my scape 02?

if can,what i need to move or remplace can you help me ? i will appreciate your help bcuz i have little money to fix my car

Thanks

 

one cyl head must be removed. the motor mount will not come out otherwise. even with the front cover off.