Questions and Answers

Plymouth Neon Engine To A Dodge Neon Q. Hello Vincent, I hope you can help me. I have two Neons. One is a 1995 Plymouth Neon Highline with the 2.0 liter SOHC engine, automatic transmission, fuel injection, P/S, A/C and cruise control. The other is a 1996 Dodge Neon Highline with the 2.0 liter SOHC engine and identical options.

The Plymouth engine with 110,000 miles on it, threw a rod, number one cylinder. The Dodge engine has about 75,000 miles on it and runs great. The engines, for the most part, appear identical to me with minor differences. The valve covers look different, the air cleaner and snorkel are different.

The 1996 Neon has the engine hood with the bulge in it towards the passenger side and the 1995 engine hood does not. It appears to me the bulge is required to accommodate the different air cleaner snorkel which passes across the top of the engine. Is this indeed the case or is there some other reason for the bulge that is not obvious to me?

What I want to do is put the 1996 Dodge engine into the 1995 Plymouth. I've talked to several mechanics on the subject and have gotten different answers. Most of them say it will slip right in. I also contacted a local salvage yard for a more definitive answer from their interchange guides. According to the salvage yard the guide says that the 1995 engine was in a "classification by itself" and that the 1996 engine would not work.

Since I called the yard on the phone, I have no idea if the answer came from the interchange guide or was made up on the fly. I searched your site for similar articles, one in particular, where a 1998 2.0 liter SOHC was put in a 1995 Dodge Neon where it's engine had suffered a similar fate. I refer to the article titled "Dodge Neon Engine Swapped, Runs Bad". If that could be done, could what I'm proposing also be done?

Also, if the engine will fit, are the computers and sensors interchangeable? Will I have to use the intake system from the 1995 on the 1996 engine? In your reply, could you please address any other difficulties I might run into?

Thanks for your help.

A. The way I would do this is to use just the block from the Dodge Neon and use the head, manifolds and everything else from the Plymouth. This way you avoid any problems with non-compatible PCMs, wiring and sensors. This is what happened to the other person.

Engine swaps are not like the old days any more. Back then you could put anything in anything without much problem. Todays engines are so precisely set up it is almost impossible to swap engines year to year.

If the head was damaged when the rod was thrown, you can pick up a used one from a junk yard. Just have it shaved and tested before you put it on. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to have yours shaved and tested.