how difficult a job, what’s envolved ie. tools needed,what to replace ie. water pump tensioner,etc.
I believe your Mercury uses a Ford Vulcan engine, which has a chain, not a timing belt.
BTW, this is a great run forever engine.
The Mercury Villager is a re badged Nissan Quest minivan, and there for has a Nissan motor, The same engine as the Maxima. Someone can correct my if I am wrong, but Pretty sure it use a timing belt.
BTW according to wikipedia, Nissan’s VG30E engine was modified for minivan application to be a non interference engine.
OOPS, now that you mention it I think you are exactly right & it is a Nissan engine.
So the poster needs to go to any auto parts store, pick up a Haynes manual & read the procedure for changing the belt.
If you have enough clearance to work on the engine the job is NOT difficult. The only special tool you’ll need is a harmonic balancer puller to pull the bottom pulley.
I suggest you replace the tensioner and the water pump at the same time. The whole job should take no more then 3-4 hours depending on how easy it is to access the front of the engine.
Before you remove the timing belt align the timing marks. You’ll need a shop manual for the exact position. The nissan belts I used came with marks on them to align it easily with the two cam gears and crank gear. Less chance of screwing it up. The only tricky part is when you retighten the tensioner…make sure the marks are still aligned.
Take your time and double and tripple check everything.