Ok. Well, I picked up a motor from (David) a friend of mine. He operates a tow truck service company. He sold me an Explorer engine for $500. The odometer on the SUV displays 96,500 miles. The intake manifold is different. Some other pieces on the engine are also different, but he assures me that the block/heads are identical. The engine code from the Explorer is E. The engine code on my Sport Trac is also E. Both engines are 2003........David explained to me that the reason the engines appear different is because the components required to run an auto trans vs a manual trans are different.
There are three (???) different engine codes for these Explorers: W code is for v8 gasoline engines. E code is for v6 gasoline engines. K code is for Flex Fuel engines. There may be one other code for v8 engines with Flex Fuel (FF) capability, but I'm not sure about that. My friend David told me that the difference between a FF engine and a gasoline only engine is the fuel delivery system.
I have a family member who works at a Cadillac dealership, I had him order me a timing chain kit, an oil pump, gaskets, seals and freeze plugs. I also had him order a clutch kit which includes flywheel, disc and pressure plate. All parts are OEM FoMoCo. Even though he works at a Cadillac dealership, he was able to get the parts at cost with no dealership mark-up. Plus, he also gets employee discount + supervisor discount + loyalty discount. All told, these parts are coming in under $600........you would NOT believe what the dealership price mark-up is on parts. More than 100% mark-up!!!
So, tomorrow I will be stripping everything off the engine I bought today. The engine still has everything bolted up to it: Steering pump, alternator, fan clutch, fan, a/c pump, exhaust manifolds, intake manifold, throttle body, etc.... Then pop out all the freeze plugs. I'm going to also drop off the engine at another friends house so he can install the timing chain kit (I'm not confident that I could get the timing right the first time) and my friend works at a Ford dealership as ASE tech. He will then install the timing kit once the kit arrives
Additionally, I'll be pulling the engine out of my ST tomorrow. I might not feel confident doing a timing chain kit on one of these engines, but I know I can pull one of these engines in one & a half hours.
I can't wait to get this thing back on the road. So far I've traded my vehicle repair skills for a (used) set of 235/75/15 mud tires, with 15" wheels, a used A.R.E. bed lid and am shopping around for an inexpensive 3" lift kit.
So far I've got right around $2,000 tied up into this truck........$1,000 for the truck. $600 in parts, $200 for trailer rental, $200 for fuel......I won't count the $400 I lost at the casino while eating lunch!!!
Will post pics soon of my progress......should have this ST back on the road within a week. Trying to make this happen ASAP. It looks really nice. Paint has some surface scratches, Zero dents . Garaged it's whole life. A guy I know who works at Toyota owes me some vehicle reconditioning work for my installing an engine into his Nissan Armada