How do I change the head gasket on my 3.8L

[tartersauce]

For the heck of it, remove your thermostat and run it with the coolant full. Theres a tiny return line going to the bottle you can remove and see if its running coolant out of it. Very small line from the back of the intake to the top of the bottle. If you get a steady flow of coolant, then the pump is working. Dont know if you have this on your year tho..
See if it does change your overheating problems with the thermostat out..

Ive owned a Pont Grand Am with a Quad engine before "Wifes car", And they love to blow head gaskets, and crack heads. So anyway, mine needed a head gasket. I removed the thermostat and she drove it another year with it out. LOL That is one of the hardest head gaskets to install..
Even the thermostat is back behide the engine, under the Exhaust mana.. The Water pump is ran of the timing chains facing backwards.. Really an Odd engine, and Really annoying to work on..
She ran it with a bad head gasket with the thermostat removed.. LOL Im a old school guy, And drove my 442 around which I sold.. She wouldnt drive a Boat around!!!! But needed a car... Kick my own butt for selling it, Really miss that car.

Yea i know, Why did I buy it? My old days when I worked at the Pont dealer.. You gotta drive what you work on right? HAHA

[tomj76]

Go after this step by step:

High Engine Temperature
1) Low Coolant
2) Low Coolant Flow
3) Low Radiator Air Flow

Be careful in that one item can cause others. For example, low coolant flow or low radiator air flow can lead to low coolant level.

Start your diagnosis by letting the engine cool, and topping off coolant in the radiator. After making sure it's full to the top and the reservoir is also full, run the engine for a few seconds, stop it, and top off the radiator level again to purge most of the remaining air. You might want to repeat this until it doesn't take any more coolant.

Make sure you are using 50/50 coolant/distilled water mixture. Check the coolant mixture with a specific gravity gauge.

Start the engine and watch it as it warms. Check for coolant flow by feeling the radiator inlet hose at the top of the engine. When the thermostat is hot enough to open, the hose will suddenly increase in temperature. If it doesn't before the engine overheats, then there is either air in the system (which there shouldn't be given our purge), or the thermostat is not opening. Make sure the hose also gets tight with pressure. If it doesn't then there is a leak in the cooling loop. Watch the reservoir level. If it increases dramatically (it will normally increase some as the coolant heats and expands) or overflows before the engine overheats, then you can suspect that air is being 'pumped' into the cooling loop, forcing out the coolant. If the level in the bottle goes down significantly, then the problem is coolant being sucked or drained from the cooling loop.


Check for dripping under the vehicle and inside the passenger area. Also, be aware of any steaming from hoses, hose joints or the radiator.


If the engine heats up normally, wait for the radiator fan to come on. If it fails to come on before the engine overheats, then you probably have an electrical problem in the fan circuit, or the fan itself has failed. If it does come on, check to see if the temperature falls. If it doesn't then the air flow is not removing heat from the coolant. Check for blockage of the airflow in the radiator fins. It is sometimes possible to feel the level of hot coolant in the radiator by placing your hand against the fins, if they are accessible. A low coolant level in the radiator is an indication of air/gas in the coolant loop.


Of course, be careful of hot surfaces and moving parts while doing this diagnosis.

Once you've run this evaluation, you'll have a good idea of why coolant is being lost.

[tartersauce]

invest in a Lazer pointed temp gauge With this tool, you can check your rad hoses, thermostat and other things very quickly. Flow of rad etc. Makes a nice addition to your tool box too..

[13hotrod]

i just changed a pair of the 3.8l gaskets in a cougar (i know it's not a windstar but it's the same motor)

and also put on new plugs wires cap rotor fuel filter and serp belt

got it all back together a few hours ago and it wont fire over

i left the valve covers off and had the rockers "finger tight" becuase the heads had to be milled due to warpage

rolled the engine over and finger tightened the rest of the rockers on the hell of the camshaft

conected all the sensors and tubing tried to crank over and you can hear it does have compression

checked for spark at the cap and at plug #6 all OK

i have fuel pressurized at the rail

verifired all connectors attached again still no fire while cranking

tried to start with starting fluid

no go

noticed the smell of starting fluid out the tail pipe but not the smell of fuel...

would there be something causeing the injectors to not fire over?

have not yet checked for voltage at the injector nor looked at the fuses

any information would be helpful

i left the garage tonight with the battery unhooked to reset the computer and charge the battery on 2amp (will unhook it later

-erik

[13hotrod]

figured it out today, timing was off
fixed that fired right up :doh: