i hav a 98 gt.the guy i bought it from said that the motor was changed and it wqas from a 99.how can i check to see if is true is there a vin# on th e motor or any number that can tell me this is true and where it would be located
I think the 99-04 engines have the oil fill on the passenger side. Mine does.
Driver's side would suggest a 96-98 motor.
However, the previous owner could have done a PI swap and just swapped the heads, cams and intake from a '99 over to the original 1998 engine. This would give the same 260-265HP as a 99-04 car.
Tougher to tell if this is what happened. Does the intake have an aluminum crossover line in the front near the thermostat housing??
+1 on the passengers side, thats what my 99 has. There are probably numbers on the block somewhere, but might be hard to find. Ask if he did a PI upgrade, or actually swapped the whole motor.
he said he swapped the motor.the car is really loud for stock.it is stock i checked and is very torqey.most 98s i hear are quiet comarped to mine. but the motor appears to be from a 98 the valve cover has a date of 4 23 98.what you think the valve cover can be swapped.
look at the intake manifold too...check and see if the bars under the plenum or small and close together or big and spread out.....but thats not positive tho cause he coulda did a PI swap either way a PI swap is better then a base 96-98 engine
Easiest way to tell is to get a look at the casting number on the head. It's right above the exhaust manifold, in the front of the engine on the right head, and the rear of the engine on the left head. It's going to be hard to see it, you'll probably have to get a mirror on a stick or something. There are 2 PI castings, Windsors have the individual cam caps like pictured above and Romeo PI's have the big bridge style one, so that's really not a good way to tell, just looking at the cam caps through the oil fill hole. Ford used Windsor PI's in the '99 and '00 GT's due to a fire at the Romeo Plant. They resumed using Romeo motors in '01 in the Mustangs.
Stock PI cars have the oil filler tube on the RH side, but if it's a headswap he could have used the original valve covers, so that's not good either.
Only real way to tell is to look at those casting numbers or remove the intake and look at the port shape, or take it to the strip and see.
PI Romeo Casting number RF1L2E-6090-D24D
Windsors have something like: XL3E-60690-D24D
Having a pony on the upper intake elbow is no indicator, mine has one also.