not my car but the lady next door asked. has a 2001 mustang with a v6 3.8. it got hot, she shut it off, has oil and water mixed and 2 rear plugs( one on the left and one on the right) have the cyl full of water.
The Ford 3.8 V6 is notorious for blowing head gaskets. This usually leads to overheating which in turn warps the heads. We've got a Windstar at my shop with the exact same problem. Ford hasn't been able to hold this motor together right it as long as they've been making it. She's going to need head gaskets/ and maybe heads or to possibly swap out the entire motor with a different one- could almost be cheaper depending on the damage. Jay
I worked as a mechanic at a Ford dealer for a while, and did many 3.8 litre head gasket and cylinder head jobs while I was there. Although it is a fairly common thing to see a 3.8 equipped vehicle come in with head gasket issues, most of the time the problem is caused by improper cooling system service or low coolant levels. It rarely 'just happens' out of the blue. The 3.8 litre Ford engine has been around since the early 80s and it is a pretty good engine by design, However, it is still vulnerable to abuse, neglect and the ravages of time and mileage, just like any other engine. Nine times out of ten, a blown head gasket or cracked head on these motors is caused by some backyard mechanic failing to 'burp' all of the air out of the cooling system after a flush & fill, or some other cooling system service operation...or just the owner failing to check fluid levels and driving the vehicle with insufficient coolant in the system. This is especially true in FWD applications such as the Taurus, Windstar and some Lincolns...but it does come up on RWD vehicles, too. Aside from that, a faulty thermostat is the next most common reason for head gasket issues on 3.8 litre Ford cars and trucks. Depending on how hot the engine was allowed to get when the gasket blew, you may or may not have to repair or replace the cylinder head(s) as well as the gasket(s). This is not a big deal, since you need to pull the head(s) off to replace the gasket(s) anyway. It's standard procedure to clean the mating surfaces of both the block and the head prior to reassembly, and this is when you should also inspect both surfaces for evidence of cracking, and also check for warpage using a straight-edge tool. I've done many jobs where the gasket (or gaskets) blew but the heads were still reuseable. It pays to check them carefully. When putting the motor back together, take care to mind the details, such as torque specs and torque sequence, and use the correct gaskets in sealers in all appropriate locations. Install a new thermostat at this time, too...it's cheap insurance and I never did one of these jobs without a new stat...it just doesn't make sense to gamble with it! Once everything is put back together, fill the radiator with a 50/50 water-coolant mix until it appears full, and then start the engine WITH THE RADIATOR CAP OFF! Leave the cap off while the engine runs and works it's way up to normal operating temperature. You will see the coolant level go down, and it may also rise and fall some as the motor warms up. Keep filling it with fresh coolant until it is nearly full, allowing it to 'burp' excess air and coolant out as it warms up. Once the thermostat opens, allow it to run for a few minutes more to be sure that all of the trapped air has escaped from the system, then top off the coolant level and put the radiator cap on tight before shutting off the engine. (On FWD vehicles, it can be a little trickier to get all of the air out of the system. What I like to do is to raise the front of the vehicle with a floor jack until the radiator cap is obviously the highest point in the cooling system and do the filling/purging operation I outlined above. This helps the trapped air to escape much easier, especially from the rear cylinder head area and reduces the chance of trapping any air pockets in the cooling system...which would lead to doing the whole job over again REAL soon!!) The 3.8 Ford V6 is a pretty good engine...and easy to work on as well. Any halfway competent mechanic should be able to do a head gasket job or cylinder head replacement on one of these vehicles in an afternoon. RWD vehicles are even easier to service than the FWD ones, but neither one is too terribly difficult. The 3.8 makes a great motor in the standard Mustang, and they can live a good long time with common sense service and upkeep. Your neighbor's car should still have several good years left in it if she didn't overheat it too badly and it gets fixed the right way. Just like with any other car...you DO have to check your fluid levels regularly and do normal maintenence and repairs to keep them running right, though!!
The others have covered the head gasket issue really well, so I'll just say that it's not necessarily just because the 3.8 is a piece of shit. My wife daily drove a 96 Mustang for years, and we sold it to a friend who's been driving the hell out of it, and all it's ever asked for is a little routine maintenance. It just keeps on going, well past 150K.
the only 3.8 ford I worked on that had a coolant leak, had a bad intake gasket! I was all set to pull the heads to fix it, but never got that far
I don't recall if the 3.8 uses "torque to yield" head bolts (the type you need to replace whenever they're removed) like the Escort engines do, but I do remember that we were given new bolts along with the head gaskets, intake gaskets, thermostat and other parts when we did head gaskets on these vehicles. That may mean that they are torque-to-yield bolts...or it may just be like a lot of other jobs at a typical dealership...where certain parts and supplies are given to the mechanics and billed to all related jobs. At any rate, when they supplied me with new bolts, I used them on the job at hand. Check with your parts supplier or local dealer. They will be able to tell you if you need new head bolts or not for any given application.
yes you need new head bolts..throw the old ones out,and folow torque specs..i use felpro gskts and bolts ..good luck ..rooster
Starting in 1999 the 3.8 was redesigned/reconfigured slightly and the issue with head gaskets virtually went away. Her experience is a realitively uncommon event. Pre '99 3.8's had enough issues that Ford did a huge recall on head gaskets.
the intake gasket is made of plastic on later model 3.8s. the outer intake ports and the coolant port are separated by a common seal. when the plastic cracks coolant can and does leak directly into the intake port. when you tear it down it will be quite obvious.
See if you can replace the bolts with aftermarket ones. ARP bolts are a little more expensive, but are reusable.
I had a 96 T bird super coupe with lo miles.I bought it for the engine -a salvage car, and it ran ok I guess. I heard they- the earlier 3.8's had a problem on the right pass bank of the block. Something like the machine work decking the right sides was not perfect -causing that side head gaskets to lose seal early at about 60thous miles or so... I sold mine before I found out if it was true... I did a check on a S/C owners site and it was seemingly a common occourance they said....
We ran an '88 3.8 175,000 miles. No problems. Didn't even get it new, it had like 40,000 on it when we got it. I take it the 2001 is well out of warranty? I forget what was offered then. With water in the oil I'd want to not only change it, but if it's not ruined, change it 2 or 3 times in the first 100 miles or so it's run again.
choprods, just to clarify, 1995 was the last model year for the Super Coupe T-Bird (I happen to own one ). Most of the info given on this topic has been good. They definitely are torque-to-yield head bolts on the 3.8, and as mentioned the 99-up Mustangs had the split-port heads (dual intake runners) that had improved material and surfaces compared to the older 3.8 engines, and are less likely to cack the head or head gasket, but it can still happen obviously. For the record, my 95 SC has over 140,000 miles on it, and has never had the valve covers off. And this season I've been putting 19.5 psi of boost through it, with an upgraded Eaton blower. cheers Ed N.
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