95 Wont Start

95 Taurus 3.8L engine, auto trans, air conditioning.

My buddy was driving his 95 over a mountain pass when the temperature gauge went into the red and the engine quit. After it cooled it started and we could get it on a dolly to tow it home. We replaced the plugs and vacuum hose to the EGR valve. Drove it around the the block, it over heated when placed in park and now will not start. Engine turns over, acts like it wants to start, and it is getting fuel, plugs are wet. We put a CSK code reader on it and got 117 "Coolant temp sensor below minimum voltage", and 211 "Profile Ignition Pickup circuit failure."

We cant find the code definitions, and we're stumped as to which electrical component might be giving the ignition failure.

Please help. This guy is 350 miles from his home.

What did the plugs look like when you pulled them out? Were any exceptionally clean?

Do you have access to a cooling system pressure tester? Sounds like you could have a blown head gasket or cracked head. Overheating a 3.8L Ford is probably the worst thing you can do to it. If the system won't hold pressure, you need to figure out why. It may be going into a cylinder or leaking out a gasket or crack.

As for the codes, it is possibly that the coolant temp sensor being out of range may be causing the PCM to dump way too much fuel in and flooding it. You can check this out by cranking the engine for a bit, then hold the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor, or Wide Open Throttle (WOT). At WOT, the PCM will turn off the fuel injectors. If the engine is getting too much fuel, cranking for a short time to prime the system, then going WOT and trying to start again may get the engine started.

As for the Profile Ignition Pickup (PIP) signal, that may be indicating that you have a bad ignition module in the distributor. If ignition module is bad enough, it will prevent the engine from firing the coil at the right time, or not at all, hence the car won't start and the plugs will be wet with fuel (which it sounds like his are). Maybe when the engine overheated, steam got into the distributor and shorted out the ignition module.

If you do get the car running again, make sure the cooling fan is working. One way to test this is to turn on the A/C. The fan should come on. If it does not, then the fan motor may be bad. If it does, then you need to make sure it also comes on when the engine temp gets about half way up on the guage. This is controlled by the coolant temperature sensor, so that may be a contributing factor to the enging overtemp as well.

Also make sure the cooling system pressure cap is working properly.

-Rod

The original plugs had a green tint and had a fair bit of carbon on them. The new plugs that I had installed were not clean, some had oil on them and they all had been fuel soaked. The actual areas where the spark occurs however, were only wet. If I remember correctly, only one had any oil on it and it was not terribly bad. I had spoken with a ford tech at an auto parts store before posting my thread, that is where I learned that the head gasket could likely be cracked and the fact the old plugs had a green tint did confirm my worries that it was. But you are suggesting the ICM? Is there a way to test it before picking up one out of a junk yard or parts store?

Spinks0204 is my son. After the young men had driven the car around the block and it went into over heat while in park they popped the radiator cap with the resultant steam and spray, then immediately shut off the engine.

The new plugs were gapped to the recommended minimum, .052", to assure firing through any oil or coolant in the cylinders.

When starting the engine turns over, but sounds like the timing might be way off.

Spinks0204, do you remember which cylinders had plugs showing green?

If you can get ahold of a spark tester or old spark plug that is good, pull a wire and connect it to the tester or plug, ground it properly, and crank the engine. If you don't have good spark, then that is one issue that should be resolved before condemning the head gasket.

You may also want to do a compression test and/or cylinder leak down test before pulling the engine apart.

Your issue could be as simple as the ICM. Coolant in the cylinders will not necessarily cause the plugs to be green, usually it will cause the plugs to be abnormally clean. Yep, coolant or water does an excellent job of cleaning carbon from the cylinders. Coolant in one or two of the cylinders alone will not usually prevent the car from starting.

-Rod

Update on this car. On the advice of a Ford tech we removed the relay module at the driver's side front of the engine and simply connected the wire harness straight through. The car started and ran fine as long as we kept feeding gas to it, i.e. half to wide open throttle. It quit as soon as we let off the gas, and won't start again.:disappoin

Further symptoms. While running it blew huge white clouds of steam out the exhaust. The oil on the dipstick looks like a chocolate milkshake, and the dipstick shows overfull. I had to put nearly a gallon of water into the radiator to top it up before we started the car. The boys had topped it up when they were working on it as well. We also replaced the module at the center of the radiator support.

I suspect a seriously blown head gasket, if not more. Any other ideas?

Is it time for its last trip to the bone yard?

Head gasket, cracked head, or cracked block would be likely suspects with what you describe. Bummer.

-Rod

I would defintely list this as blown head gasket. The 3.8 Essex already has known head gasket problems.
Also it is typically cheaper to replace the engine with the essex (there are crap loads) than to have the problem fixed.

I have a 95 GL same engine, would not crank, found out the neg battery post was not making good contact, replaced it and it started, I let it run for like 10mins to make sure everything worked, ac was not blowing out the vents, then the compreessor sound like it was clicking on.off then motor died and will not crank, checked radiator this morning and was like empty. Could this be the same problem with the head gasket? Car did not smoke, or any steam from radiator.. I do not know much about this car, belongs to an elderly neighbor. Sorry to hijack your thread , Thanks,Gary