2010 Ford Escape 2.5L Engine Swap Questions

Whenever the guy gets his money together I'llbbeed doing a engine swap for him on a 2010 Ford Escape.

Searched but really couldn't find any swap videos on them for pointers as I'm generally not one to mess with Ford's much but there's always the first time.

It's in a garage of the owner so not a winter job I really will pass on as being mobile it beats -15, -20 temps outside so I'll just take my propane heater & propane tank over and help keep the garage a little warmer.

Regarding the vehicle what's the best way to remove the 2.5L Engine. This isn't the hybrid either, rather the VIN# 7 for the 8th digit.

Should I drop everything from underneath? Pull just the engine from up above?

Also had a family friend who's the 2nd in command CEO who told me not to remove the crankshaft dampener pulley. Did some digging and the best I could find is that the crankshaft don't have a keyway so you have to set the timing before removal , use a bar that you can install before removing the pulley / dampener?

Thu is what I was told from the family friend as they at their salvage yard have had more than a few people ruin engines by just "doing it their way" which to me is preventable as rookie as it sounds but just use the service information that's there in shopkey which was where I found out about it after hearing about it from him.

Reading about it in shopkey it said something about the crankshaft metal having a diamond or some type of coating which allows the dampner to grip when bolted and torqued on properly?


I don't know if this engine would come out the top or not as I saw a 2003 where a guy did it on YouTube and installed a Taurus engine so he had to swap alot of components over.

Normally I avoid engine swaps but the money was good, I can do it on my schedule where if I have other stuff business related to key cutting, immobilizer, diagnostic or programming work I like to lean more heavily towards I can come and go as the guy was just thrilled to not have to tow it and incur more fees. Labor, I went on book time @ 16-18 hrs shopkey called for. For $1300 plus parts, materials, etc that's not to bad a deal.

I get my used engines from a yard that'll give a 199 day warranty less labor though but that's better than most places around here for at least 300 miles which give you the "Curbside Warranty"

IF anyone has any pointers in regards to how I should pull it the best way please by all means comment as like I said I generally don't lean towards this type of engine work or brands either but it came along as the result of a key job because I noticed something so he asked that I do it.

For getting my feet off the ground starting out every penny counts.

Thanks DT !

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I haven't done one but, Service Information says to drop it out, from below.

I don't think I've done one on an escape of that vintage, but I've got a couple Focus and Transit engine jobs done.
Out the bottom is easier in my opinion, drop motor and trans and split it on the floor.
You can get them out the top from what I recall, but it's tight and you may have to remove the balancer to make room. If you can avoid removing the balancer, that will help ensure you don't end up with timing codes.

I use shopkey and I must say I like the layout of that you had in your diagrams. Might have to look into switching to that software.

Do you like alldata better yourself?

Well the guy finally after not having the car since over the Xmas holidays if I recollect properly on the time frame finally decided to call me back. He wants to replace the engine now with a used one

I've did Key work on this and a few other of his vehicles so he's a regular. Quoted him $2k awhile back and I guess his dealership buddy quoted him $3500. Must've quoted him a reman engine. He knows he's getting a used engine so basically other than what get for warranty from salvage yard that's his warranty. Engine has 98k miles. Engine that went south had roughly 77k miles if I recollect properly.

Salvage yard broke the oil pan and assumed I'd switch the old over. Told me this Fri afternoon when I picked the engine up. Told them the engine in the car went bad because of either he cracked the oil pan and water got in or threw a rod. I think it was the latter though based on the pics I took and saw when I drained the engine oil.

Screwed my whole weekend up as was planning on swapping it this weekend. Got the cherry picker from my buddy so saved $180 @ Harbor Freight. Have wheel dollies I bought last fall from another project. I'll be using that to slide the old engine out after I lower it down since I don't have a engine table to roll under it.

Wheel dollies are curved in the bottom so that'll be good for cradling the engine and transmission.

What's the trick on setting the timing up on these? Bought a pin and bar tool off of Amazon that they said works. Don't want any issues when I get this swapped over.

Since I don't know condition of old stuff should I just swap the harness over, injectors, etc?

Are the oil pumps on these fairly robust where I don't need to worry about installing a new one? I think changing the water pump. thermostat is a given after I flush the cooling system to get it all clean or should I slap the water pump on from the get go? Ford is not normally my Forte but hey there's service information so I'll use that and what the other poster added up above.

I did read about new nuts on the torque converter. Wil have to look at torque specs and see if they're TTY ~ Torque To Yield nuts by chance?

Any other things I need to be aware of? I also saw something about the drivers side driveshafts & seals on these where the spline goes in they had issues with scoring just inside where the seal rides if I recall correctly?

Just hope everything comes apart and goes together easily. If I leave the torque converter on trans to keep TC from leaking oil out will that cover me there? Should I use the flexplate off of old engine or use the one that comes on the used engine we're installing, I'm thinking bring the one over from the current engine? Hope that don't mean a rear main seal but I factored that in along with front main

The engine the salvage yard got me they said will cross reference over to the vehicle as it was a letter (#)" A " Vin vehicle and the vehicle is a #" 7 " Vin. The letter/number is the 8th digit identifier on the vehicle.


Any other tips or tricks I should be aware of? More I think about it maybe I should just swap the flexplate as don't know if other one on used engine could be cracked, bent from a accident that put it in salvage yard to begin with.

Since I have the engine out should I do the intake gasket or just smoke it and do a leak down before I get to far in on the replacement engine? Don 't want those issues after installing the engine as easier done outside vs in the vehicle engine bay?

I haven't played the engine swap game in many many years. Only reason I'm doing this is to help the guy out. His mother needs the car and the guys dad is a Vietnam Vet who's 70yrs old, has FTD, the wife of the guy is his caregiver for last 7yrs hardly getting to leave the house more than a handful of times a year, works from home for Wells Fargo, Hardly ever gets to leave the house and the dad's been on hospice for 3-4 weeks. He's just not there and it's a sad state of affairs.

My hope is to get it done this week with all other stuff I have going on that way if the time comes she'll have a way to get around as her son who lives local has been working out of town and will be for awhile and he has awhile left on that site 55 miles away.

Setting up timing on these is pretty straightforward... as long as you follow the directions to the letter. :silly: You'll want to get some new diamond washers for the crank sprocket. Speaking of, are you sure you want/need to play with the timing? If you can get the engine in/out without removing the crank pulley bolt, you should be fine.

Oil pumps are pretty robust, in my experience. Water pumps leak sometimes, but not always. Thermostats are very common. Replace with Motorcraft if possible. I've seen Gates and Motorad thermostats fail to open fully on this engine.

New intake gaskets are a good idea. There's also a PCV hose under the intake that likes to rot out and cause vacuum leaks. Replace it while you're there.

Dunno about new torque converter nuts? I've always reused them.

I'm not thrilled about the whole VIN A -> VIN 7 thing? I understand that their catalog says they'll cross, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea. Some quick Google searching suggests that the VIN A 2.5L engine is out of a Fusion. What does that mean for your swap? No idea. :silly: Keep your eyes open.

I'd swap the harness, fuel injectors and flexplate, unless you really can't find much of a difference.

I've never heard of a TTY nut. They really can't yield, AKA stretch, like a bolt can. If they're some kind of locking nut that'd explain why they're not supposed to be reused. Blue loctite is cheap insurance on used locking nuts.

I always reuse the converter nuts, never been a problem.

Chad love the link you shared. Compared to shopkey was so much easier to get things out.


Quick update, Pulled everything off except the trans cooler line connections last weekend.

Cleaned up in the guys mother's garage Sun night.

Met the Snappy guy Mon (First time in over a year, just a walk on with a balance of course, gave him $500 towards my account, yeah he's cool like that with no interest either) got the AST transmission cooler line release tool from him. Come to find out had looked at the same tool, brand on Amazon but when I destroy it he'll replace it so for the extra $8-10 I can live with that plus supporting local vs Bezos going into space.

Anyways after cleaning the garage up Sun night and having a mild sore throat Mon night I didn't feel well and it's been that way last 2 days so project is stalled.

The part I'm waiting for is when I put this engine from the Fusion into the escape.

Swapping injectors, new o-ring kit, new intake, exhaust manifold gaskets, other exhaust gasket or two also along with a handful of PTU seals for the PTU where it mounts to transmission, cv axle seals also as others were leaking.

Think I'll run a first round of oil in it for a hour or so then drain, swap oil filter with a new one then go with a decent semi synthetic or whatever she has or I should say had in it if there's a windshield sticker showing that or not.


After disconnecting this it kind of makes me want to get into engine swaps more but there's also alot of risk associated with it and then people act like you should marry the car even down the road well after they've had the engine.

I'll swap the engine harness as well. May try to sell whatever I can off for parts from the old engine, used sensors, manifold parts as those are different between fusion and the escape.

I'll either sell the harness or if can't get sold use it as good wire sections for doing engine compartment repairs. Maybe I'll use part of the wiring for my next project on my 04 Tahoe, Electric Fan Upgrade. Just need long pieces of wiring unless I get lucky at salvage yard.

This summers been even hotter and the clutch style fans just don't keep up especially sitting in traffic whether in town or on highway.



Meant to ask on this used engine since obviously don't have power, starter, etc is there a easy way to check compression? I was thinking throw the starter in and use a starter switch after I get the new (used) oil pan and oil in the used engine. Thought was leave all plugs out and go 1 cylinder at a time.

In regards to timing it don't appear that the dampener has been loosened or removed or replaced on this engine.

Would be nicer to just throw a 4 ch lab scope on it & do a relative compression test but my guess is I'd need a little more electrical hooked up.


What's your guys thoughts on the compression testing methodology before I put the engine in. Would hate to swap everything over, drop engine in and find a bad cylinder even though salvage yard said "they ran it" but yet I know the engine was listed on their website for over 8-9 months and they had to "pull it" when the customer was finally ready to have me do the job on it recently. Boneheads even cracked the oil pan removing the engine, tell me I'll need to swap the oil pan from old to new engine and I told them to find another pan as that's the root cause of the bad engines failure.


Let me know your guys thoughts.

You can do a 1 channel relative compression. Just have to make sure the cranking rpm is believable. That motor will probably crank at about 200rpm. So your 720* 4 cylinder pattern should repeat every 600ish milliseconds.

Another option would be to perform a leak down test on the motor. Don't need to hook anything up for that.

So now that the engine is out the lady wants to replace the subframe assy due to the rust on the passenger side.

More $$$ I guess. Also found the drivers front wheel bearing bad so that's extra work as well.

She planned on buying a new good used car with life insurance but she's going to wait after sticker shock due to the chip shortage. She came out talking about the chip shortage and I knew exactly where this was leading in terms of the extra work.

IF it isn't one thing it's another. Pays well so not complaining and as a added bonus she's hired my daughter to mow her yard regularly so that's $45 for the daughter every 7-12 days. Not to shabby. MY daughter only has to pay a few dollars every other mow to pay for gas usage as not everything is free. She's already using the mower which I don't mind being she's making money. Now if she'd take that initiative and find 8-10 more yards a week and she'd be doing fine for a high school kid living at home and working 8-10hrs a week.

Question for those in the know. Want to do leakdown test w/engine on the engine stand.

* Can I get by with a pancake compressor as long as a cylinder doesn't have a leak?

* If so what can I use to hold the engine to keep it from spinning? The old flywheel from previous vehicle is still on it.


* What psi should I set the leakdown pressure to? IS 100lbs fine and if so what's the variance on allowable leakage, 10%, 20%, ?? Want to make sure no major leaks. Glove over exhaust and intake tube as it should blow up I read somewhere quite awhile back. I normally don't delve this far into engines so just doing it in my spare time a hour or two here and there.

* Don't have engine in front of me as it's a few blocks away but I thought maybe somehow use a pair of vice grips tightened onto old flywheel each time a cylinder hits top dead center.


Thanks for any replies.

Well came up to put a hour or two in on the old and replacement engine. 

Got the car jacked high enough safely, used my new stands to secure the front end in the air. 

Got old engine on wheel dollies rolled out. Took good video and photos in case I run into a snag putting replacement engine together after testing, etc. 

Got the replacement engine on the engine stand and secured. Hold the wiring harness off has the plugs were oily and it appears it was yanked in a couple areas well they were removing it I guess or maybe during an accident the vehicle the engine came from? Who knows. 

Got to the coolant temp sensor as I'd removed everything else ahead of time. Pulled the rubber boot back and saw liquid. Decided to removed coils from cylinders so I knew the gravity of the situation. 

Now I need to know how to address the issue with the salvage yard. How can they say this engine ran when there liquid in the engine coil areas, yes more than one. 

I went and looked at the car-part listings and this yard still has the same engine listed on their listings for their engines. 

I vaguely know the owner from when my daughter played slowpitch softball before going to fastpitch they also played in the league before leaving the league a year or two before us as they were a highly competitive team even for recreation ball. 

I'm within the 90 day warranty they said the engine had when I got it for the lady I'm helping out who just lost her husband so I'm trying to keep costs down for her. 

I have no documentation from them saying the engine ran when I went and purchased and picked it up for the lady. 

Here's some photos I took this A.M. with a clean oil drain pan. Keep in mind they cracked the engine oil pan removing it from the vehicle but they got me a replacement. 

Now that I've been able to location a engine cradle for her car as well things were going to get rolling along. 

All the cradles have been outrageously expensive but when talking to the wife's cousins husband this past weekend as he works at another recycler he let me know that there's a network of recyclers that are partner yards, move parts between each other, buy the parts from each other to help get customers parts. The way he explained it they also review each other so it's in the yard shipping the part's best interest to provide a good part as the part can be refused and sent back. Keeps everyone honest if you ask me. 

After finding that out I ordered the cradle and it'll be in Fri so was getting engine ready. Now this issue. 

I'll show you the engine oil, what little there was that I drained from the oil pan before putting the engine on the stand. 

Weird thing is not one time did I see any moisture around the top of the engine, coil pack areas where you would think you would see something moving the engine with a cherry picker until tonight this and that way using a load leveler.


I'll def be doing a leak down test but with the color of the coils should I even hassle with a leak down test because how would the water get in there unless it was there already. The engine has been in a garage since I got it, same day and it was shrink wrapped covered up when I got it from their yard. As a matter of fact they put the bag on top and wrapped it up good when I picked it up and I have photos of it then as well. 

let me know why's you guys in the industry do in situations like this. MY gut tells me contact the yard and see if we can work something out or even get a refund and now we can use a partner yard as i've seen others that have engines that are part of this network. Just for a Fyi this yard isn't part of the network. 
If I can't fit all the photos I'll add a link to my dropbox folder on this car. Something I do that allows files to be viewed without having to upload if a large file, video, etc. 


 

Well having trouble loading photos. Here's a copy to the link on dropbox. 


www.dropbox.com/sh/0el7bfcgon10tk3/AADjj...zbRDu4TKlAPED3a?dl=0



In regards to not being able to share photos directly it says something about " image mime file not allowed"

If a mod sees this message PM me and I can try to send or email you the photo  better yet I'll just add it to the folder with the photos in the link above  

 

Looks pretty typical for a junk yard engine in my opinion.
I've sold thousands of engines in my time in the salvage industry. Sometimes you just can't run them. It's pretty common to assume that if something looks like it hit a train then it must have been running. So you leave the one you have in inventory (so people know you have the engine) and yank one out of a wreck.
I would change the valve cover gasket and run it with no apprehension.

@Noah do you think the engine may have leaked internally into the engine coolant temp and #2 & 3 spark plug void? Nothing had been removed and as they said when motor was purchased they had to pull it.

No water/coolant or whatever mixture that was had leaked out moving it around in the garage before removing the engine harness so if nothing leaked put then nothing should've leaked in if you ask me.

What gets me is when they list the engine with 98k miles then have the same listing for the same mileage again. Don't think they have a bunch of 98k mileage cars imho.

Was busy today with other stuff so maybe run the leakdown test and go from there.

IF it passes leakdown then pull the pan and look at the bottom of the pan internally and see what it looks like then move forward.

I'll get ahold of the salvage yard once I do the leakdown test.

I did see there was a tsb on those engine coolant temp sensors to do with a sudden overheat issue related to not properly bleeding them. Saw a video Ford Tech Makuloco where he said a false heat and misfiring can be a symptom and showed how one sensor bled by if I understood him properly.

Ok cylinders look typical, black looking down in from above. Only checked the #1 cylinder w/ valve cover removed. Got to late to run air compressor as homeowner didn't want the neighbors calling the cops which I'm sure some would do after 11 at night when city "quiet time" is in effect. 

Getting air leaking back into the exhaust and into the intake. When I rotated the engine around the valves have no visual pressure on them from the cam lobes as far as I can tell.

Also looked at the rear of cams from rear of engine view and there's a horizontal line across back of cams where the timing alignment tool would go. I have it at home somewhere just need to find it and bring it as I know there's more than 1 piece besides the horizontal bar. There's a round pin rod that I recall drops or goes in somewhere. Have to look service information up again. 

Starting to get a little nervous being this is a salvage yard engine and using a pancake compressor (not best compressor but not at home) and when leakdown left gauge is at 100psi the right gauge is at 70 psi which would equal a 30% loss if I'm reading this correctly?

IF I put my hands over the intake and exhaust port it leaks out one of the line ports on intake side that eventually lead to the booster vacuum line if I'm naming it properly?(Photos Attached).

I will say 2 of the valves in the cylinder look cleaner vs the other 2 with a camera. MY guess is intake vs exhaust?

Should I do a leakdown with some oil in the cylinder to see if there's a difference? 

I have a feeling the head or timing cover may have to come off. Not something I'm ready to dive into but would if I had to and they would have no problem paying for the parts and part of the time. 

It's one of those situations, how far do you go? 

Wish I could just also the motor in, get it running and go from there just the trust issue with the salvage yard. 

How can I be certain the timing is exactly the way it needs to be and there's no timing issues that'll arise right away if I just install the engine and run it? Will I have to pull the timing cover? 

Other than having it running and checking with a scope is there a way to make sure the timing is exact on the money? 

I'm a big watcher of Bernie as I'm sure others are also and I see studies he gets where there's timing issues involved. 

 

More photos of the cam lobes on the engine. Photo of crankshaft showing that the timing marks are lined up. 








 

@Noah can you tell me what the deal is on the crankshaft pulley if I remove the pulley/dampner to remove the front cover. IS there a certain replacement part I have to get or something since they crankshaft isn't keyed as most engines are? 

The main reason I'm concerned about the leakdown integrity is I'd hate to slap the engine in then find out I have a head gasket leaking then have to do the work in the engine. Would I do it in the vehicle? Sure but easier to do if out of the vehicle. 

Could there be something with the timing other than me not possibly getting it lined up perfectly that would allow the air leak in the intake and exhaust when doing the leakdown test? 

Since you work in the salvage yard industry I think you mentioned, have you ever heard of PRP, some type of alliance between participating yards to get parts sold amongst other partner yards? 

Wish I'd knew of that relationship in regards to this vehicle as I wouldn't have had as much hesitancy as from what I gather they have to take care of you. 

If there's something that I can tighten up to get this leaking issue solved I'd like to know so I can hopefully save some time  

There wouldn't be a timing chain issue I should check for is there? Also with the cam chain sprockets is there anything else I should be aware of? 

Also putting a picture of the plugs from the engine in this post. #1 thru 4 cylinder from right to left. 

You can definitely tell the #2 & 3 as they have the iron from the water that had filled up in the cavity. 


Being the ECT sensor and plug coils were in the engine what could've caused all the water, coolant or whatever it was to get into the area where it was?

The liquid had been there a long time as the coils are stained from sitting in the water and don't just rub off either. 

 

The 2/3 plug well always collects water/oil/junk. :lol: If the harness was not installed and the engine sat outside, that plug well would have been open to the elements. Or, the Cylinder Head Temperature grommet doesn't seal perfectly anymore. No big deal, IMO. Like Noah said, get a new valve cover gasket set, plugs and coil boots. They're maintenance items on that engine, anyway.

If you're really concerned about the timing, check it now while the engine is on the stand. The passenger side axle will be in your way later. If you use the timing set (flat bar, crank pin, M6 bolt for the balancer) and everything slides in, you're golden.

You leak down checked #1 only, correct? I'd say test the others before getting worried. Engines that have been sitting for awhile usually don't seal perfectly at first, but clear right up after being started and run.

The crankcase looks pretty clean. And it doesn't look like anyone has touched the balancer. If the timing checks out, I'd probably run it.