I did what I said I would NEVER do!!!!

[dudelovesit]

I finally broke down and bought a mini-van. My wife is pregnant with our third child right now, and with enough prodding I finally bought her the Windstar. It's bad enough that I am now relegated to driving a mini van on all of our trips now, but I'm actually starting to like the thing.

There's just a few things I've been wondering about. Is there anything out there to make this thing get a few more ponies and stretch a few extra miles out of those precious gallons of gas. Don't get me wrong I think it's powerful enough to do what we need, but I don't think I could live with myself as a man that wasn't seeking more horsepower. My other cars, a '99 Taurus and a '94 Saab 900, got much better fuel mileage than the Windstar (27 and 32 respectively).

Just felt like I had to ask. Any help turning this mild mannered kid hauler into a not-so-mild mannered beefed up fuel sipping van would be great. I know it's rare to get more power and MPG but it's worth a shot to try.

[dudelovesit]

On another note, if anyone needs it I do have access to Mitchell On-Demand that I can print out, scan, and e-mail wiring schematics, R & R procedures, and TSB's if anyone needs it. I can go up to about 2002 or 3 before I start running out of info. Also, if you live close enough to NE Iowa, I have the NGS Ford factory scan tool that I believe is good up to 2000.

[road_rascal]

Which year Windstar did you buy? This forum is great for keeping our 'beasts' on the road.

[phil-l]

Yes, knowing the model year of your Windstar will help. There are several Windstar maintenance concerns that are very model-year dependent.

Regarding mileage: Sorry, minivans move too much air out of the way to do really well on mileage. I don't know what engine is in your '99 Taurus, but I doubt you'll see Windstar mileage anywhere near 27. On lightly-loaded trips with lots of good-weather highway miles, I've gotten 20-21 in my '00 LX 3.8. But I'm normally traveling with our 3 kids and their gear (and often a rooftop carrier - or sometimes a utility trailer), and highway mileage drops to 18-19 at best. Our typical around-town running (kid school stuff, grocery store, doctor's appts.) nets about 16-17 mpg.

The later Windstars do pretty well in the power department: The 200 my '00 is rated for is near the limit of what you'll find for an OEM-setup pushrod 3.8 with only 2 valves per cylinder. If you want to do better than that, take a look at what the V6 Mustang folks are doing. I've seen some interesting things on www.3.8mustang.com.

[dudelovesit]

I guess I should have known to add the year and engine. It's a 2000 SEL with the 3.8.

[phil-l]

Just saw your post on the 171/174 thread - sorry to hear you've got the isolator bolt issue to deal with so soon after buying the van.

I did the fix myself - and have been pleased with the results. Yeah, it's a Ford goof - but a reasonable one to deal with.

How many miles are on the van? Note that the DPFE (very easy to replace) is noted for failing at about the same mileage as the isolator bolts.

[dudelovesit]

It's got about 168,000. I talked to the guy at the dealership today. He was calling to see how I liked the vehicle, and I told him about the the codes and what the problem most likely was. He was really cool about it and wanted to help in way he could. Paying for parts, doing the labor there, whatever it took. He just wanted to make sure I was happy. I told him I would do the labor, but he could pay for the parts.

[road_rascal]

If you could get Ford to pay for all of the parts in the TSB that would be great. And doing the labor yourself means doing it right (hopefully ).

[dudelovesit]

Since it looks like I'm going to be doing this repair, is there anyway to weld the hole shut from the inside of the valve cover? I realize it is pretty thin metal, but I have access to a tig welder. That I can tell, the 3/16" hole is the only difference between that valve cover and the new replacement. I would really like to not replace that if I didn't have to. I think I saw it somewhere else on the site (actually I'm sure I did, but it's late), but how much are the parts going to run my the 171/174 repair?

[phil-l]

Yes, you can plug the hole to update the valve cover. Personally, I'd just use an appropriately-sized nut and bolt - and then use a center-punch to make sure it can't back out. But it you've got a welder, and are familiar with thin sheet-metal work, go for it. Note that there's one other difference in the valve cover: A small slot in the baffle; easy to do with tin snips.

I got the parts through my local Ford dealer, and paid somewhere aboud $150 for the isolator bolts, new port seals, the gasket between the UIM halves and a few other things, including the redesigned valve cover. In retrospect, I should have just modified my valve cover and saved that expense.

Wow - 168K miles (or is it km?)! Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few things to take care of. I'm impressed the dealer expressed interest in the problem on a vehicle with that many miles on it.

[dudelovesit]

It most definately is 168K miles. I took a looksy in the valve cover today and found that the valve cover does in fact still have the hole in it. I'm going to say it's safe to assume that the repair hasn't been done to this van.

On another note, I stopped into my local Ford dealer today to ask about parts and get another key fob and key cut, and the sales person that I was dealing with there was in the shop at the time. Apparently he is upset that I didn't buy the van from him. This kind of really sucks because I teach high school autos and we compete in the Ford/AAA Auto Skills contest every year and he has always been the one that got me a car for my students to practice on. I sure hope he's not mad anymore when competition time comes around. It's not that I don't appreciate what he does for me every year, but it came down to a matter of dollars and cents. I could get this van $3k cheaper than any he had, and I'm on a tight budget with a 3rd kid on the way. What will be, will be I guess. Thanks for all the help folks it's really helping me out.

[rodeo02]

I wouldn't sweat the valve cover thing. Leave it as is unless you need to pull it for a gasket leak. You'll get just as much oil carry-over with the 'improved' design as the old. 168Kmi!?!? You may want to get yourself a spare AX4S transaxle.

Joel

[12Ounce]

I agree with the above post ... don't sweat the valve cover ... it doesn't do that much for you.

Congratulations on the growing brood!

[phil-l]

Yeah, we got our Windstar because the third kid forced us out of vehicles with only two rows of seats.

How do you like working with the Ford/AAA Auto Skills contest? That sounds interesting - and a great opportunity to share some valuable knowledge.

At 168K miles, I'd expect some to see some more repairs. Were you able to get maintenance records with the van? I'd be curious to see what transaxle service/repair work that the van has seen. Mine is great at 86K miles - but I'm extra careful about fluid (frequent changes) and I added an auxiliary cooler (mostly for popup camper towing).

Personally, I'd plug the hole in the valve cover plate if you're going to have it off to change the isolator bolts anyway. It's not that big of a deal, but some people have reported clogged EGR ports (I'm not a good example; mine had almost no deposits at 70K). Based on what I've learned here, and my own experience, I'd be shocked that the van got to 168K miles without lots of CEL codes - and the original black isolator bolts.

[dudelovesit]

I got a carfax report before I got the van and it looks like for the first 117K miles it was serviced very frequently, but after that there isn't anything on record about. There are several "vehicle serviced" entries which I haven't figured out what all of that means yet. The are also a few "lubed, oil and filter", "engine serviced", "fuel system serviced", "suspensions system serviced", "electrical system serviced", and "brakes serviced". Some entries elaborated more on the subject, but for the most part they were very brief. It says nothing about transmission service of any kind. This kind of makes me nervous, but I talked with some of the guys that I know that work out at the local dealership here and they didn't seem to think I had a whole to worry about with the trans.

As for how I like the Ford/AAA contest? I love it! It gives my students a way to get through college for one thing with all the scholarships they can win. Two years ago we won state and they received full ride scholarships to Ohio Technical College, and many other scholarships to other big name auto tech schools. All told usually when we've won state my students have won around $35K in scholarships to lots of different colleges all over the country. We've been pretty fortunate the last two years to have won the state contest and got all expense paid trips to nationals. Last year national were held in Dearborn and we got tours of their truck plant and the Henry Ford museum (which I would highly recommend everyone go to if they ever get the chance).

When you guys have done this TSB repair have any of you ever gone ahead and changed the lower intake manifold gaskets. One of the techs I talked to recommended this since sometimes they tend to leak, and since I'm gonna be all the way down there I might as well change them anyway as an ounce of prevention. Any advice? Also, I got prices on the parts I thought I would need, and apparently this has become such a big problem that Ford is now packaging all the bolts in a set instead separately. For all eight bolts I was charged $60.83 (7.60 each), and 14.98 (2.50 each) for the port seals. The lower intake gaskets were 20.12 (10.06 each). My vacuum line is still in good condition ( at least it was very hard to remove it fit so tight), and I think I'm gonna pass on the valve and just do the mod.

Once again thanks for all the help.