help 96 windstar, oil in collant & heater

96 windstar lx, 3.8, have oil in radiator. I have read that it may be a head gasket, and also read that it may be the intake gasket? How do I find out if either or which one is bad? If it is a head gasket how do I detect where the leak is occuring. I suspect a vacum problem as I have the heat and air conditioning blowing thru the defrost vents only. Had set codes for EGR problems also but do not remember the code numbers. I did the egr port hole clean out awhile back but still get the codes. Any help is much appreciated!

Hello

Welcome to AF!!

Oil in the water=bad. I'd do a compression test. When you pull the plugs, check for antifreeze on them. Do you have any white smoke coming out the the exhaust while you're driving? How does the engine idle? Rough? Loping?

You deffently have a gasket failure. You have to remove the intake to get to the headgaskets. You may as well start there. If you don't see any failure there, the next item would be the headgaskets. If you buy gaskets, I'd goto Ford. When I replaced the HGs on my 95, they looked just like the ones that failed....I would hope that Ford has a better gasket.

Regards

Dan

I have a '96 3/8L 125k and had the head gasket replaced about a year ago. The head gasket is an inherent problem with the Windstar. First Ford replaced them and later stopped doing it when they became to many. I had to swallow the cost. Do get the head gasket from Ford for the gasket design was improved. My mechanic showed me the old and the new.

I had my timming chain also replaced at the same time since he already had engine apart. It cost an additional $140 just for the part.

Lb

What was the condition of the chain at aprox 120,000 miles? Was there any slack, if so, how much? The reason I'm asking is that I have a 95 with 207,000+ and a 98 with 125,000 on it and am wondering the condition of the chains.

Thanks
Dan

The chain was still good and may have easliy lasted another 100k, but hard to tell. There was a hard plastic tensioner that pushes the chain to keep it in place that was worn. You could see about 1/8" indentention wear to the material where the chain runs a track. I'm not sure if the tolerance or wear was within limits. Come to think of it, I'm sure there was some sort of mechanism, perhaps a spring that pushes the hard plastic material that may also have been replaced but I did not asked or saw it. All my mechanic showed me was the chain and the hard plastic tensioner. The water pump was also replaced on the same time.