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the easiest way to tell what you have, crawl under the car and look at the tranny pan. I believe the AX4N is 16?? bolt pan?? But its also stamped in the pan. I have an AX4N in my 96 if it makes a difference

I don't think that ford used the AX4S after like 98. I have a 97, and it's an AX4N.

AX4S was used at least until '99, according to my manual.

I thought the tranny pans were interchangable, and they often had ax4n stamped on them even though they were bolted to a different tranny.

I think you can check the VIN, or maybe even see if you can look down and try and read what's on the valve body cover.

I know that the pan covers are different, they have different part numbers for filter kits and different cover gaskets.

There are two different bolt patterns I believe. One for AXOD / AXOD-E / AX4S, and the other being for AX4N, 4F50N.

And you can't go from just what the pan says. My '93's pan said "AXOD metric" when it was really an AXOD-E. And I believe there are 4F50N's whose pans say "AX4N".

or u can look at ytour owners manuel and match it up with the eingne u have in the back of the book and that will tell u about the tranny

son of a biscut!! I guess that means i have the ax4s then. The lower pan says AXOD metric.

Which is the better transmission? the AX4N or the AX4S(AXOD)?

I don't know about the individual gears but I know the AX4N has a final drive of 3.99 and the AX4S has a final drive of *I think* 3.67 (Maybe not exactly, but pretty close to that). The duratec being a higher revving motor and a DOHC, has it's powerband slightly higher than the vulcan, and that's why it has the lower gear ratio on the differential where as the Vulcan is a torquey motor with lots of low-end power, and as such has a taller final drive to get the power to the ground.

-mobiuslogic

EDIT: As for which is "better" I have no idea. But the trannies are better matched Vulcan/AX4S and Duratec/AX4N given their powerbands. I would say the AX4S merely because they've been using it longer and as such have had more time to bang out the problems, even between the Gen 3 and Gen 4s.

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AX4N has a final drive of 3.99 and the AX4N has a final drive of *I think* 3.67[/b]

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ummm, rephrase.

u think i would be able to bolt up an ax4n to the vulcan and give it even more "oomph" off of the line? what would be involved with all of that jazz. good luck on that cal bro, i am in that same kinda torture right now.

Yes, it'll bolt up because there are some Vulcans with the AX4N. However, although you'll gain "oomph" off the line with the higher gear ratio, you'll lose I think more in the top end because the vulcan can not go as high as the duratec and tends to bog down in the top end. I would just stick with it. If anything, just swap the differential gears, but I don't know it that's possible. You'll keep the gear combinations of the AX4S with the differential of the AX4N, somewhat giving you the best of both, but I don't know if it's possible or worth it.

-mobiuslogic