QuestionI have 2002 Pt Cruiser Limited with 2.4L Engine VIN B with EGR will engines off of later model Pt Cruisers work if I am swapping the entire engine out....
AnswerHi Cornelius,
The '04 manual shows that the egr valve is no longer used with the 2.4L engine so it is likely that the '02 powertrain control module would notice that a replacement engine without the egr valve in use would be missing that part and as the result log a fault code and also would probably not be programmed to make the proper adjustment in the engine function needed when no egr was present. I don't have the '03 manual so don't know whether the egr was still in use at that point.
However, if you re-used the intake and exhaust manifolds from the original '02 engine on the head/block of a later year donor engine and thus maintained the use of the egr then I would believe that the powertrain control module would then be 'happy'.
It is not clear to me why the egr valve was allowed to be no longer needed but there must be some other means in the post-'02 engines to reduce the combustion chamber temps (which is what the egr accomplishes).
It would not be feasible to substitute a later model year pcm because the wiring plugs are different (the pcm in in '04 is called 'ngc'). It has four plugs and combines the pcm and tcm in a single unit.
I don't have the '03 manual, but if in that year the engine still had the egr valve then I see no reason to not substitute an '03 engine for your '02 as it sits.
That is how I would approach this question.
Sorry for the delay in responding but I just found your question in the 'pool' to which Kevin had referred it.
Please 'rate/nominate' my answer/me (see the PS below).
Roland
