You can use a Taurus/sable engine, but the head gaskets are different and need to be changed to ranger ones. I'm not sure if it is a direct swap between an older one with a distributor or not. I would imagine it is though as long as you just use the long block and swap everything over.

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1999 GMC Sierra SLE
ECSB 2wd, 4.8L, 4l60e, 3.42, 50k miles

2002 Ranger Edge
RCSB 2wd, 3.0L, 5 speed, 4.10 , 140k miles