92 taurus overheating

[dj1111]

My son's Taurus was low on coolant a few weeks ago so he filled it. Today it was overheating and stalling so I took a look at it and it was almost out of coolant. Added a gallon and a half to the radiator and started it. The temperature went up pretty quickly to hot but not overheating. I then started to see steam coming from somewhere but it wasn't easy to find looking from the top of the engine. When I took a look under the car the steam/vapor was coming out of an exhaust leak near the cat converter. And I also noticed the same leak was spitting out disgusting brownish liquid. It was splattering all over the concrete below. The next thing I did was squeeze the upper radiator hose and it was pressure-less and not even warm. As I did this I noticed bubbles percolating in the coolant reservoir. I checked the temperature again and it was still in the high zone but not red and went back to look at the reservoir and it was bubbling like a pot of water on the stove. When I turned the engine off it continued to percolate for a few more seconds then stopped. When I opened the reservoir the coolant looked like brown coffee.

I'm thinking head gasket?

[TaurusKing]

yeah, bubbles in the overflow tank = no good. probably can smell the sweet antifreeze out of the tail pipe too. Head gasket most likely. 3.8 engine? Once in a while, 3.0 would go, not too often. 3.8 is troublemaker with gasket and motor mounts two sore points. Too bad it is a nice torquey motor, part of the reason the poorly designed mounts would rip, good luck.

[dj1111]

Yeah I should have mentioned. 3.0 V6. Around 120,000 miles if you wanna believe it. Oh well, he paid $400. for it 2 years ago and never put any money in it except oil changes. Thanks for the reply.

[infomatrix]

oh my goodness.....donts scare me....my car is a 96 3.0 v6....150,000 miles on it...its a pretty good car and you can tell its a little older when the tranny shifts....it slips some times...buts its a darn good car.....since its older im about to run steel seal on it to stop any cracks on the headgasket from happening , or from getting any bigger....i have heard miracles from this product....maybe you should give it one last shot with it...before anything else....would like to hear back if you actually try it....