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Early vs Late SOHC Crankshaft

407 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Buster28
I’m in the middle of throwing in a rebuilt 3.2 SOHC longblock. Slowly. I work on it 5 minutes at a time. Anyway, I recently came across a thread here where it was mentioned that early and later SOHC crankshafts are not compatible due to the change in ignition types (waste-spark to coil-on-plug). That all makes sense, but how can I tell if the engine I have from Engineworld is the one for my early system (93 Trooper)? Everything has swapped over so far, including the crank sensor. But the valve covers were slightly different, a few different mounting points compared to the ones on the original engine. Is there an indicator I can look for? Did I miss read and any year SOHC block will work? I’d hate to start over, but I’d hate more to get it completely reassembled before learning any bad news.
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IIRC it's the number of notches on the crankshaft trigger ring for the ignition system crank sensor. The info I have says the early crankshafts ('92-'95) have 6 notches. And the trigger ring on these is cast integral with the crank.

'96-'97 3.2's, I'm pretty sure I remember Jerry Lemond saying that they have more notches on the trigger ring and are not compatible with the early ign system. The trigger ring is pressed-on.

So check the notches on your "new" engine's crankshaft trigger wheel, if the wheel has 6, you should be Good To Go. Beyond that, I'll defer to the 6VD1 experts! 😸
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