96 taurus overheating

[redwilly]

Hi all,

I bought a 96' ford taurus about 6 months ago and about 5 months ago, the heat gauge in the dash went up to the red part and it has been doing it ever since but i did not experience any symptoms of the car overheating or anything, so i thought the gauge was broke, so i kept driving the car and everything was fine.

Until me and my friend decided to go on a road trip to seattle, we made it about 20 minutes on the highway and then the car overheated and had to get it towed home.

So my dad, friend and I looked at the car the next day and saw that there was NO antifreeze/coolant in the resovior. So we simply put some coolant in it and started it up and it worked fine (no overheating), so i drove the car around a little and when i was finished, i stopped and got out and it was leaking coolant all over te ground (a lot, maybe a quart or more). But i had to get home so i drove the car home anyway and the car started to get really weak, and i had to put the accelerator all the way down to even accelerate a little, i had to go like 20 mph all the way home.

So later that day we realized that there was a crack in the coolant resovior.

So far i have done the following:
-new thermostat
-new coolant resovior
-new coolant resovior cap
-i took the whole car apart and checked my water pump and it looked in great condition other than some rust on the inside of the neck.

i think i might have a blown head gasket? but im not sure.
if so, how hard is it to install a new head gasket myself?

any help would be great, thanks.

(the car is a V6 3.0 L Ford Taurus GL 96')

[brokenantimatter]

On the 12vavle it is fairly easy maybe a half days work for you. But I would more worried about the other damages that come when an OHV engine blows a head gasket.

[Huney1]

If you drove it for five months overheating it's a miracle it still runs at all. Good chance the rings and cumbustion chamber walls and bearings are scorched or "galled."

"But i had to get home so i drove the car home anyway and the car started to get really weak, and i had to put the accelerator all the way down to even accelerate a little, i had to go like 20 mph all the way home." WHEW! I wonder why the engine didn't melt and sieze up. When you were driving it home didn't you have a lot of blue smoke coming out the exaust pipe? No telling what went on in the engine but none of it was good and after enduring that kind of torture I wonder how much longer it's going to last. Change the oil and filter, cut the filter open and check for filings or pieces of metal in the filter material.

"i think i might have a blown head gasket? but im not sure." Overheating is the number one cause of blown head gaskets so there's a mighty good chance you blew both of yours. Some shops have a blown head gasket tester so ask around. Before I invested in new gaskets I'd have a good mechanic make an assessment of what other heat related damage has been done to the engine.

[Dave_s]

Assuming that you want to keep the car, your best investment in time and money may be to put in a junk yard engine. It may have more miles on it then yours does, but it has got to be in better shape.

[redwilly]

im not going to spend over a coupe hundred dollars to fix it, i hate the car...

but i think i will take it to a shop and see what damage was done..

my dad says i have scored cylinders or somthing..

[Huney1]

"im not going to spend over a coupe hundred dollars to fix it, i hate the car...
my dad says i have scored cylinders or somthing.."

If you do it yourself replacing the head gaskets will run over $200. because you'll need to have the heads plained so they're perfectly flat and any time you do mill the meads you shoudl do a valve job to. Dad is probably right. The oil that lubricates the piston rigns got so hot it carbonized and turned to a sort of grit and scratched heck out of the cylinder walls where the rings press on and ride up and down.

"any1 wanna buy a 96 ford taurus with a crappy engine?"
The engines might interchange on some models so go to a salvage yard and see what you can find. I'd look for one that been hit in the rear end or side becasue that way the engie would stand the least chance of getting a bad lick. You might find a relatively low mileage engine & tranny and get the whole works at a cheap price. Salvage yards have a sort of internet where they reach hundreds of junk yards when they send out requests for parts, engines and bodies and whatever. Won't hurt a darn thing to try and that way you'd have a good serviceable engine and tranny heck of a lot cheaper than buying a whole new car. One thing for sure, you'll never know until you try, so go for it.

[redwilly]

any1 wanna buy a 96 ford taurus with a crappy engine?