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Engine Replacement - with or without oil cooler?


Lonstar

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I have a 2008 MKX with 120k miles on it. Coolant got into the oil and the motor is shot. Not sure what went wrong but I suspect a water pump failure caused it. No advanced warning, no smoke from the engine or the exhaust. One minute running fine, the next minute it stalled and that was it. Wife was driving it, that's how she explained it to me. She didn't notice if the temp gauge was reading hot, but said no lights came on, including the check engine light. The car is about an hour away in a friends garage so I'm not able to look it over.

 

The local Ford dealer said it does not have an oil cooler according to the VIN number. I found a used engine with low miles, but it's out of a 2008 MKX that does have an oil cooler. Can that engine be used in my MKX? What has to be done to make it work....a simple parts swap with what's on my engine, or is there more to it?

Edited by Lonstar
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The water pump on the 3.5 is internal and driven off the cam chains. This is not an uncommon problem. The seal on the front of the pump goes and the coolant leaks into the oil. If you are getting a used engine it may pay to have the pump changed while it is out of the car. The problem usually happens if the coolant was not changed from the original yellow to the green. My water pump went at 120,000 miles for this reason. I was lucky and my leak came out of the weep hole and just leaked on the ground. I had it towed to my mechanic before it got into the oil. Total for the repair was around $1700.

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Thanks for the replies guys.

 

After doing more research today I think the oil cooler is part of the towing package - no factory hitch means no oil cooler. Please correct me if I'm wrong with that assumption. My MKX doesn't have a factory hitch, so no cooler. The pics online of the wrecked MKX with the donor engine show it has a factory hitch. The guy selling the engine confirmed it has an oil cooler.

 

I don't want to add a cooler to my car, I just want to be sure there isn't something special about an engine with a cooler that would be an issue when installing it in my car. I was hoping one of you guys could confirm it's just an adapter at the oil filter or somewhere that routes oil to the cooler and back, and I just have to use my existing parts in place of it.

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